Leonard Frey - Biography

Leonard Frey (September 4, 1938 – August 24, 1988) was an American actor.

Biography

Frey was born in Brooklyn, New York. After college, where he studied art with designs on being a painter, he studied acting at New York City's prestigious Neighborhood Playhouse under famed acting coach Sanford Meisner, and pursued a career in theater instead. In 1968, he received critical acclaim for his performance as a bitter, pockmarked gay man who dreads his birthday in off-Broadway's The Boys in the Band. This landmark play introduced mainstream audiences to the culture of gay men who supported each other, providing friendship, family and, when necessary, reality checks.

Frey, along with the rest of the original cast, appeared in the 1970 film version, directed by William Friedkin.

Frey was nominated for a 1975 Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in The National Health. Other stage credits include revivals of The Time of Your Life (1969), Beggar on Horseback (1970), Twelfth Night (1972) and The Man Who Came to Dinner (1980). Frey earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Motel the tailor in the film Fiddler on the Roof. (He had appeared in the original Broadway production as Mendel, the rabbi's son.) He played Clare Quilty in the Alan Jay Lerner musical Lolita, My Love which closed before reaching Broadway in 1974.

Frey's television credits included appearances on Hallmark Hall of Fame, Medical Center, Mission Impossible, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Eight is Enough, Quincy, M.E., Hart to Hart, Barney Miller, Moonlighting, and Murder, She Wrote, as well as a co-starring role as the villainous Parker Tillman on the short-lived ABC western comedy Best of the West.

Frey died of an AIDS-related illness in New York in 1988. He was cremated. His final role was Walter Witherspoon in the ABC television movie Bride of Boogedy.

External links