Obituaries

Chinese Coffee Author Ira Lewis Dies at 82

The actor and playwright made his Broadway debut in Arthur Miller’s ”Incident at Vichy”.

New York City
Broadway performer and playwright Ira Lewis has died at 82.
Broadway performer and playwright Ira Lewis has died at 82.

Actor and playwright Ira Lewis died on April 4 in Edison, New Jersey. According to The New York Times, the cause was complications following open-heart surgery. He was 82.

Lewis was born in Newark, New Jersey, on August 27, 1933. He made his Broadway acting debut in 1964 in Arthur Miller's Incident at Vichy, returning in 1972 for a production of Arthur Miller's The Creation of the World and Other Business.

He is best known as the author of Chinese Coffee, a one-act play about a down-and-out novelist and photographer. The play came to Broadway's Circle in the Square Theatre in 1992, starring Charles Cioffi and Al Pacino. Pacino went on to helm the 2000 film adaptation, starring himself and Jerry Orbach.

Lewis' other works include The Sponsor (produced off-Broadway at the Theatre at St. Clement's in 1977), Every Place Is Newark, Pearlfield, and Gross Points. He is survived by two brothers, Marvin and Seymour.