James Patterson (June 29, 1932August 19, 1972) was an American actor who won a

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

for his role in the 1968

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

play '' The Birthday Party''.

Early life and education

Patterson was born in

Derry, Pennsylvania :''There are also four Derry Township, Pennsylvania (disambiguation), Derry Townships in Pennsylvania.'' Derry is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Westmoreland County in Pennsylvania, east of Pittsburgh. Th ...

. For a time he was a painter, but he later studied acting at the

Carnegie Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

with

Herbert Berghof Herbert Berghof (September 13, 1909 – November 5, 1990) was an American actor, director and acting teacher.Kennedy, Dennis. ''The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance'', Oxford Univ. Press (2010) p. 61 Early life Berghof was born in ...

. He met his future wife, actress

Rochelle Oliver Rochelle Oliver (April 15, 1937 – April 13, 2024) was an American acting coach and actress. Early life and career Oliver studied acting with Uta Hagen. Her stage appearances include ''The Brothers Karamazov'', ''The Cave Dwellers'', '' The D ...

, while working on an off-Broadway production of ''

The Brothers Karamazov ''The Brothers Karamazov'' ( rus, Братья Карамазовы, Brat'ya Karamazovy, ˈbratʲjə kərɐˈmazəvɨ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly ...

''. They married in 1959 and by 1960 were living together in a small apartment on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...

Career

Patterson was both a stage and screen actor. His career started on a

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

radio show, 'Starlets on Parade', as a boy soprano. For his stage work, he won both Tony and Obie awards. On screen, he appeared in

Robert Rossen Robert Rossen (March 16, 1908 – February 18, 1966) was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer whose film career spanned almost three decades. His 1949 film '' All the King's Men'' won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor and B ...

's 1964 film ''Lilith'' and then made numerous guest appearances on television, including a 1968 appearance as Dave Barca in ''

Hawaii Five-O Hawaii Five-O or Hawaii Five-0 may refer to: * ''Hawaii Five-0'' (2010 TV series), an American action police procedural television series * ''Hawaii Five-O'' (1968 TV series), an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productio ...

'' (episode: 'The Ways of Love'). In 1970, Patterson was in the horror-slasher film ''

Silent Night, Bloody Night ''Silent Night, Bloody Night'' is a 1972 American slasher film directed by Theodore Gershuny and starring Patrick O'Neal, Mary Woronov, James Patterson, Astrid Heeren, and John Carradine. The plot follows a series of murders that occur in a sma ...

'', playing Jeffrey Butler, a man trying to sell a house with a terrible history. The film was not released until after his death.

Death

In 1972, Patterson died of cancer, aged 40, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

.Notice of death of actor James Patterson
news.google.com; accessed April 19, 2016. He was survived by his wife Rochelle and son John.

Filmography

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, James 1932 births 1972 deaths 20th-century American male actors American male film actors American male stage actors Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Male actors from Pennsylvania People from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania Tony Award winners