Tony-Winning Actor Fritz Weaver Has Died
(© Joseph Marzullo)
Fritz Weaver, a Broadway regular and Tony winner for 1970's Child's Play, died Saturday at his home in Manhattan at the age of 90.
Weaver was born January 19, 1926 in Pittsburgh, PA. He didn't begin acting until the early 1950s, after serving in a Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector during World War II. In 1955, Weaver made his Broadway debut starring in Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden. His first television acting role came shortly afterward with an appearance on The United States Steel Hour.
Weaver's Broadway career continued with at least one production per year through 1965, followed by a five-year hiatus. When he returned to the Great White Way in 1970, it was to take on his Tony-winning starring role as Jerome Malley in Robert Marasco's Child's Play. The actor's later Broadway career included the 1979 revival of The Price, 1983's Angels Fall, the 1989 original production of Love Letters, and 1999's Ring Round the Moon, his final appearance.
Simultaneously, Weaver enjoyed a busy television career, which included recurring appearances on Studio One in Hollywood (1957), Rawhide (1964), and Mission: Impossible (1966-1971). He became well known to TV audiences in the late '70s for appearing on the miniseries Holocaust (1978) as Dr. Josef Weiss, a role for which he received an Emmy Award nomination. Later, he appeared on several episodes of Murder, She Wrote (1985-1987) and Law & Order (1991-2005), among many other programs. His final onscreen appearance was in this year's film The Congressman.
Following a divorce from his first wife, Sylvia Short, Weaver married actress Rochelle Oliver in 1997. Oliver survives him, as do his daughter, Lydia, and his son, Anthony.
