# Philip Bosco

Philip Michael Bosco (September 26, 1930 – December 3, 2018) was an American actor. He was known for his Tony Award-winning performance as Saunders in the 1989 Broadway production of Lend Me a Tenor, and for his starring role in the 2007 film The Savages. Bosco won a Daytime Emmy Award in 1988.

## Early life

Philip Michael Bosco was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on September 26, 1930, to Margaret Raymond (née Thek), a policewoman, and Philip Lupo Bosco, a carnival worker. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of German descent. Bosco attended St. Peter's Preparatory School in Jersey City, and later studied drama at Catholic University of America, where he had notable success in the title role of William Shakespeare's Richard III.

## Career

Bosco began his career in Broadway theatre and earned a Tony Award nomination for his debut in The Rape of the Belt in 1960. Bosco spent the next three decades supporting major stars in classic revivals like Cyrano de Bergerac, King Lear, and Twelfth Night.
Bosco appeared in revivals of plays by George Bernard Shaw, including Man and Superman, Saint Joan, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Major Barbara, Heartbreak House (opposite Rex Harrison), and You Never Can Tell, winning Tony nominations for the last three. Bosco also appeared with Shirley Knight in the Roundabout Theatre Company revival of Come Back, Little Sheba.
Following his Tony-winning performance in the farce Lend Me a Tenor in 1990, Bosco appeared on Broadway in An Inspector Calls (1994), The Heiress (1995), Twelfth Night (1998), Copenhagen (2000), and Twelve Angry Men (2004).
Bosco played Grandpa Potts in the 2005 Broadway production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and played the aged Captain Shotover in a Broadway revival of Heartbreak House in 2006. He retired from the stage in 2009 after appearing in the City Center Encores production of Finian's Rainbow, although Bosco lent his voice to Douglas Carter Beane's 2010 play Mr. and Mrs. Fitch.
Bosco appeared regularly in the Law & Order television franchise, in roles ranging from judges to lawyers to villains. His motion picture credits include Trading Places, Working Girl, Children of a Lesser God, Suspect, Walls of Glass, Straight Talk, Nobody's Fool, Wonder Boys, The Money Pit, Three Men and a Baby, Milk Money, Quick Change, Angie, The First Wives Club, and The Savages.
Bosco narrated Ric Burns' 1991 documentary film Coney Island, and voiced a number of characters for Ken Burns' documentaries for PBS. He portrayed Vincenzo the butler in the 1995 comedy It Takes Two; and Walter Wallace, father of the bride-to-be, in the 1997 romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding, co-starring Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Dermot Mulroney.
In 1988, Bosco won a Daytime Emmy Award for his appearance in the ABC Afterschool Special "Read Between The Lines". He was a series regular on the FX original series Damages. Bosco narrated Desert Giant: The World of the Saguaro Cactus by Barbara Bash on the PBS series Reading Rainbow in its sixty-second episode on March 27, 1990.
Bosco was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1998.

## Personal life

Bosco married a fellow Catholic University student, Nancy Ann Dunkle, on January 2, 1957. They had seven children and 15 grandchildren. Bosco and his wife resided in Haworth, New Jersey.
On December 3, 2018, Bosco died at his home of complications from dementia at age 88.

## Filmography and stage work
### Film

| Year | Title | Role |
| 1968 | A Lovely Way to Die | Fuller |
| 1983 | Trading Places | Doctor |
| 1984 | The Pope of Greenwich Village | Paulie's Father |
| 1985 | Heaven Help Us | Brother Paul |
| 1985 | Walls of Glass | James Flanagan |
| 1986 | The Money Pit | Curly |
| 1986 | Children of a Lesser God | Dr. Curtis Franklin |
| 1987 | Suspect | Paul Gray |
| 1987 | Three Men and a Baby | Detective Melkowitz |
| 1988 | Another Woman | Sam |
| 1988 | Working Girl | Oren Trask |
| 1989 | The Luckiest Man in the World | Sam Posner |
| 1989 | The Dream Team | O'Malley |
| 1990 | Blue Steel | Frank Turner |
| 1990 | Quick Change | Bus Driver |
| 1991 | True Colors | Sen. Frank Steubens |
| 1991 | F/X2 | Ray Silak |
| 1991 | Shadows and Fog | Mr. Paulsen |
| 1992 | Straight Talk | Gene Perlman |
| 1994 | Angie | Frank |
| 1994 | Milk Money | Jerry the Pope |
| 1994 | Safe Passage | Mort |
| 1994 | Nobody's Fool | Judge Flatt |
| 1995 | It Takes Two | Vincenzo |
| 1996 | The First Wives Club | Uncle Carmine Morelli |
| 1996 | Surprise! | Cabby |
| 1997 | My Best Friend's Wedding | Walter Wallace |
| 1997 | Deconstructing Harry | Professor Clark |
| 1997 | Critical Care | Dr. Hofstader |
| 2000 | Wonder Boys | Emily's Father |
| 2000 | Shaft | Walter Wade, Sr. |
| 2000 | Brooklyn Sonnet | Uncle Chicky |
| 2001 | Kate & Leopold | Otis |
| 2002 | Abandon | Professor Jergensen |
| 2005 | Hitch | Mr. O'Brian |
| 2006 | Freedomland | Priest |
| 2007 | The Savages | Lenny Savage |

### Stage

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2009 | Finian's Rainbow | Senator Billboard Rawkins | Encores! |
| 2007 | Follies | Dmitri Weissman | Encores! |
| 2006 | Heartbreak House | Captain Shotover | American Airlines Theatre |
| 2006 | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | Grandpa Potts | Hilton Theatre |
| 2004 | Twelve Angry Men | Juror No. 3 | American Airlines Theatre Tony Award nomination Drama Desk Award nomination |
| 2002 | Carousel | Starkeeper | Carnegie Hall |
| 2001 | Bloomer Girl | Horatio Applegate | Encores! |
| 2000 | Copenhagen | Niels Bohr | Royale Theatre |
| 1999 | Ancestral Voices | Eddie's grandfather | Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre |
| 1998 | Twelfth Night | Malvolio | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1998 | Strike Up the Band | Horace J. Fletcher | Encores! |
| 1995 | Moon Over Buffalo | George Hay | Martin Beck Theatre Tony Award nomination |
| 1995 | The Heiress | Dr. Austin Sloper | Cort Theatre Drama Desk Award nomination |
| 1994 | An Inspector Calls | Arthur Birling | Royale Theatre |
| 1994 | Fiorello! | Ben Marino | Encores! |
| 1990 | The Miser | Harpagon | Circle in the Square Theatre |
| 1989 | Lend Me a Tenor | Saunders | Royale Theatre Tony Award Drama Desk Award |
| 1988 | The Devil's Disciple | General Burgoyne | Circle in the Square Theatre |
| 1986 | You Never Can Tell | Waiter | Circle in the Square Theatre Tony Award nomination |
| 1985 | The Loves of Anatol | Max | Circle in the Square Theatre |
| 1984 | Come Back, Little Sheba | Doc | Roundabout Theatre Company |
| 1983 | Ah, Wilderness! | Nat Miller | Haft Theater |
| 1983 | Heartbreak House | Alfred "Boss" Mangan | Circle in the Square Theatre Tony Award nomination |
| 1983 | The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial | Lt. Com. Philip Francis Queeg | Circle in the Square Theatre |
| 1982 | Eminent Domain | Holmes Bradford | Circle in the Square Theatre |
| 1980 | The Bacchae | Cadmus | Circle in the Square Theatre |
| 1980 | Major Barbara | Andrew Undershaft | Circle in the Square Theatre Drama Desk Award nomination |
| 1979 | Whose Life Is It Anyway? | Dr. Michael Emerson | Trafalgar Theatre (New York) |
| 1978 | Man and Superman | Mendoza | Circle in the Square Theatre |
| 1978 | Stages | Frank Faye, New Member, Jesse Thibault | Belasco Theatre |
| 1977 | Saint Joan | Richard de Beauchamp | Circle in the Square Theatre |
| 1977 | The Threepenny Opera | Mack the Knife | New York Shakespeare Festival and Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1976 | Henry V | Pistol | New York Shakespeare Festival |
| 1976 | Mrs. Warren's Profession | Sir George Crofts | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1973 | A Streetcar Named Desire | Harold Mitchell | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1973 | The Merchant of Venice | Gratiano | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1973 | The Plough and the Stars | Corporal Stoddart | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1972 | Enemies | Mikhail Skrobotov | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1972 | The Crucible | Reverend John Hale | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1972 | Twelfth Night | Antonio | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1972 | Narrow Road to the Deep North | Prime Minister | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1971 | Antigone | Creon | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1971 | An Enemy of the People | Peter Stockmann | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1971 | Playboy of the Western World | Jimmy Farrell | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1970 | The Good Woman of Setzuan | First God | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1970 | Operation Sidewinder | Captain Bovine | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1970 | Camino Real | Baron de Charlus | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1969 | The Time of Your Life | Nick | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1969 | The Miser | Anselme | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1969 | In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer | Curtis Moffat, Jr. | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1968 | King Lear | Earl of Kent | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1968 | Cyrano de Bergerac | Le Comte de Guiche | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1968 | Tiger at the Gates | Hector | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1968 | Saint Joan | Dunois | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1967 | Galileo | performer | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1967 | The East Wind | performer | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1967 | The Alchemist | performer | Vivian Beaumont Theater |
| 1966 | Richard III | performer | New York Shakespeare Festival |
| 1961 | A Man for All Seasons | understudy (The Duke of Norfolk, Attendant to Signor Chapuys, King Henry VIII) | ANTA Playhouse |
| 1961 | Donnybrook! | Will Danaher | 46th Street Theatre |
| 1960 | Rape of the Belt | Heracles | Martin Beck Theatre Tony Award nomination |
| 1958 | Auntie Mame | Brian O'Bannion | Bus/Truck Tour |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1953 | You Are There | Sam Houston | 2 episodes |
| 1961 | DuPont Show of the Month | Duke Michael | Episode: "The Prisoner of Zenda" |
| 1961 | Armstrong Circle Theatre | Roy Thornton | Episode: "Medicine Man" |
| 1961 | Sunday Showcase | General Gordon | Episode: "Our American Heritage: Gentleman's Decision" |
| 1961 | Our American Heritage | General Gordon | Episode: "Gentleman's Decision" |
| 1963–1965 | The Doctors and the Nurses | Ralph Maley / Hap Spencer / Parnell Sullivan | 3 episodes |
| 1965 | The Defenders | Dr. Manfredi | Episode: "Whipping Boy" |
| 1965 | For the People | Detective Willard | 2 episodes |
| 1965 | The Trials of O'Brien | Theo | Episode: "Charlie's Got All the Luck" |
| 1966 | Hawk | Nick Ingland | Episode: "Game with a Dead End" |
| 1966 | NET Playhouse | Peter Stockmann | Episode: "An Enemy of the People" |
| 1968 | N.Y.P.D. | | Episode: "What's a Nice Girl Like You..." |
| 1971 | Great Performances | Father Coyne | Episode: "Hogan's Goat" |
| 1978 | Ryan's Hope | Dr. Gillette | Episode #1.789 |
| 1979 | Guiding Light | Clarence Baily | Unknown episodes |
| 1981 | Nurse | Dr. Harry Wallenberg | Episode: "Equal Opportunity" |
| 1985 | American Playhouse | Gaetano Altobelli | Episode: "Some Men Need Help" |
| 1986 | Liberty | Boss William Tweed | Television film |
| 1986 | Rage of Angels: The Story Continues | Thomas Colfax | Television film |
| 1986–1989 | The Equalizer | Oscar / Brian | 2 episodes |
| 1987 | ABC Afterschool Special | Grandfather | Episode: "Read Between the Lines" |
| 1987 | Leg Work | Dawson | Episode: "All This and a Gold Card Too" |
| 1987 | Echoes in the Darkness | Judge Garb | Television film |
| 1988 | Spenser: For Hire | David McVane | Episode: "Substantial Justice" |
| 1988 | Internal Affairs | John Wycoff | Television film |
| 1989 | Murder in Black and White | Wycoff | Television film |
| 1990 | The Civil War | Horace Greeley | Voice, 9 episodes |
| 1990 | Against the Law | Judge Webb | Episode: "Contempt" |
| 1990–1999 | Law & Order | Gordon Schell / Lee Jerrold / Mr. Dobbs | 5 episodes |
| 1990–2010 | American Experience | Narrator / various voices | 3 episodes |
| 1991 | The Return of Eliot Ness | Art Malto | Television film |
| 1992 | Lincoln | Frederick Seward | Voice-, Television film |
| 1993 | Tribeca | Harry Arsharsky | 7 episodes |
| 1994 | Against the Wall | Oswald | Television film |
| 1994 | The Forget-Me-Not Murders | Chief | Television film |
| 1994 | Janek: The Silent Betrayal | Chief Wycoff | Television film |
| 1995 | Young at Heart | Patsy | Television film |
| 1997 | Early Edition | Killabrew | Episode: "Bat Masterson" |
| 1997 | Remember WENN | Palermo Racine | Episode: "A Star in Stripes Forever" |
| 1997 | Liberty! The American Revolution | Benjamin Franklin | 5 episodes |
| 1998 | Cosby | | Episode: "Enter Lucas" |
| 1998 | Soul Man | Snake Eye | Episode: "Raising Heck" |
| 1998 | Carriers | Col. John O. Bailey | Television film |
| 1998 | Twelfth Night, or What You Will | Malvolio | Television film |
| 1998 | Spin City | Randall Winston, Sr. | Episode: "Gobble the Wonder Turkey Saves the Day" |
| 1999 | Bonanno: A Godfather's Story | Steve Maggadino Sr. | Television film |
| 2000 | All My Children | Lyle Wedgewood | 1 episode |
| 2000 | Cupid & Cate | Dominic DeAngelo | Television film |
| 2001 | No Ordinary Baby | Dr. Ed Walden | Television film |
| 2001–2004 | Ed | Alan Stevens | 2 episodes |
| 2002 | Cyberchase | Zeus | Voice, Episode: "Zeus on the Loose" |
| 2002 | Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Prof. Winthrop | Episode: "Anti-Thesis" |
| 2002–2006 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Judge Joseph P. Terhune / Davis Langley | 6 episodes |
| 2003 | Freedom: A History of Us | | Voice, 7 episodes |
| 2007–2009 | Damages | Hollis Nye | 12 episodes |