Tony Lo Bianco, renowned for roles in ‘The French Connection’ and ‘The Honeymoon Killers,’ passes away at 87. Celebrated stage actor and Obie Award winner.
Tony Lo Bianco, an acclaimed actor known for his memorable roles in “The French Connection” and “The Honeymoon Killers,” passed away on Tuesday at his home in Poolesville, Md. He was 87. His wife, Alyse Lo Bianco, confirmed the cause was prostate cancer.
Lo Bianco left a lasting impression in “The Honeymoon Killers” (1970), a low-budget black-and-white film based on a true story that became a cult classic. He portrayed Raymond Fernandez, a con man who, with a heavy Spanish accent and distinctive sideburns, married and murdered lonely women for their money, posing his real lover (Shirley Stoler) as his sister. The Guardian called the film the first “super-realist depiction of the banality of evil.”
United Press International once described Lo Bianco as “a natural-born heavy” due to his dark hair, bushy eyebrows, and sharp features. In “The French Connection” (1971), he played the sharply dressed owner of Sal and Angie’s diner, involved in international drug trade. In “The Seven-Ups” (1973), he appeared as a mortician at a Mafia-favored funeral home.
Despite his film success, Lo Bianco’s heart was in the theater. He won an Obie Award in 1975 for “Yanks 3, Detroit 0, Top of the Seventh,” playing Duke Bronkowski, an aging baseball player trying to pitch a perfect game in his 14th season. In 1983, he triumphed on Broadway in Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge,” portraying a Brooklyn longshoreman obsessed with his 17-year-old niece, a performance that earned him a Tony Award nomination for best actor in a play. Frank Rich of The New York Times praised his “tumultuous star performance,” describing Lo Bianco as “such a dynamic and enveloping force” that he made the theater shake.
Lo Bianco’s success in “A View From the Bridge” was partly due to his prior experience with the role, which he had played in summer stock in the 1960s. Reflecting on the play’s reception, he modestly stated, “I knew 20 years ago this would happen. It doesn’t surprise me at all. I knew the power of this play.”
Born Anthony LoBianco in Brooklyn on Oct. 19, 1936, to Carmelo, a taxi driver, and Sally (Blando) LoBianco, both first-generation Italian Americans, he attended a vocational high school where a speech and drama teacher encouraged him to pursue acting.
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