Actor Tony Lo Bianco, best known for the movie “The French Connection,” has died. He was 87.
His representative confirmed on Wednesday that he died of prostate cancer.
“Tony Lo Bianco passed away last night at his horse farm in Maryland after a battle with prostate cancer,” the rep’s statement to Fox News read.
“His wife, Alyse, was by his side,” the rep added.
Lo Bianco was born and raised in Brooklyn. He was inspired to become an actor by his high school drama teacher, Patricia Jacobsen.
“To me, everything is a lesson,” he said in an interview with La Nostra Voce last year. “Ms. Jacobson taught me awareness on stage. How to sit, how to move, how to pull the audience in.”
After he was a Golden Gloves boxer, Lo Bianco started his career in performing arts as an understudy in the 1964 Broadway production of “Incident at Vichy.”
He made his film debut in 1965’s “The Sex Perils of Paulette” and his TV debut in an episode of “Get Smart” in 1966.
Lo Bianco’s most famous movie role was as mobster Sal Boca in William Friedkin’s 1971 ne-noir action film “The French Connection.” The film also starred Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, and Roy Schneider, and won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Other movies Lo Bianco starred in include “The Honeymoon Killers,” “The Seven-Ups,” “The Juror,” “Nixon” and “Kill the Irishman.”
Lo Bianco looked back on his role in “The Honeymoon Killers” last year, saying, “They wanted to cast a guy with a Spanish accent. I’m Italian American, but I took on a Spanish accent and landed the role. Everybody thought it was genuine, then they heard my real voice one day on set, they couldn’t believe it.”
His final movie was Ray Romano’s 2022 comedy drama “Somewhere in Queens.”
Lo Bianco also appeared in TV shows like “The Twilight Zone,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Law & Order.”
His final TV role was in an episode of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” in 2007.
He was also active in theater and won a New York Emmy Award for his performance in the 1984 stage production of ‘Hizzoner!’ He went on to perform in several off-Broadway shows including “LaGuardia” and “The Little Flower.”
Lo Bianco was married three times.
His first marriage was to Dora Landey from 1964 to 1984. They had three daughters together. Then, Lo Bianco was married to Elizabeth Fitzpatrick from 2002 to 2008. He married his third wife, Alyse Best Muldoon, in 2015.
