David Cryer

Donald David Cryer Jr. was born on March 8, 1936, in Evanston, Illinois, to Pauline (née Spitler) Cryer and Donald Walter Cryer, a Methodist minister in the West Ohio Conference who was attending Garrett Biblical Institute at Northwestern University at the time of his son's birth. Cryer grew up in Toledo, Carey, Westerville, and Findlay, Ohio, where his father served various congregations, and he graduated from Findlay High School in 1954. He has three siblings: Jonathan Douglas, a retired professor of statistics and actuarial science at the University of Iowa; Daniel Walter Cryer, a former Newsday critic, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and author of a biography of theologian Forrest Church; and Mary Kathleen, a teacher. His mother Pauline died in 1952, and his father subsequently married Mary Garrison in 1955, adding step-siblings William, Katherine, and Rebecca Garrison.

Cryer graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, in 1958 with a B.A. in history. His undergraduate honors included the Walker Cup, awarded to the senior judged to have contributed most to DePauw; the Gold Key, given to juniors for leadership and scholarship; and the Lewis Sermon Award for an original sermon. At DePauw he was president of the Student Senate, pledge trainer at Sigma Chi, and deeply involved in music, playing trombone in the orchestra and in Ray North's dance band, and singing in the Lost Chords quartet, the University Choir, the Collegians, Opera Workshop, the SDX Revue, and the Monon Revue. Upon graduation he accepted a Rockefeller Fellowship to study for the ministry at Yale Divinity School and was subsequently enrolled at Harvard Law School for the fall of 1959, but a summer production of Oklahoma!, in which he played Curly at the Polka Dot Playhouse in Bridgeport, Connecticut, redirected him toward theater. He enrolled at Boston University and earned an MFA in directing in 1961. That same year he served in the U.S. Army at Fort Dix, New Jersey, as a private, then entered the Army Reserves in 1962 for six years.

Cryer's Broadway career spanned from 1963 to 1992 and encompassed 13 productions. His credits include The Red Shadow in The Desert Song, Jude Scribner in Come Summer, Rutledge in 1776, Juan Peron in Evita, Firmin in The Phantom of the Opera, Ari in Ari, Molokov in Chess, and roles in The Devil's Disciple and Lend Me a Tenor, among others. When he opened in Come Summer in 1969, Clive Barnes of The New York Times wrote that Cryer looked like Rudolph Nureyev and sounded like Franco Corelli. That same year he received the Theatre World Award. His portrayal of Juan Peron in Evita drew praise from Frank Rich of the Times, who called it first-rate, and from John Corry, also of the Times, who described it as perfect. The 1992 Paper Mill Playhouse production of Chess, in which he played Molokov, marked one of his final Broadway-area appearances.

Among his most sustained roles, Cryer played Firmin in The Phantom of the Opera for nearly 19 years on the road and on Broadway. He has also performed more productions of Leonard Bernstein's Mass, in the role of the Celebrant, than any other actor, including performances at the Metropolitan Opera and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and has played Juan Peron in Evita more times than any other actor. On tour he appeared opposite Anna Maria Alberghetti in West Side Story, Giorgio Tozzi and Ricardo Montalbán in The King and I, Dyan Cannon in I Do! I Do!, Debby Boone in The Sound of Music, and Judy Kaye in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. He has served as a guest soloist with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on two occasions.

Off Broadway, Cryer performed leading roles in The Fantasticks, The Streets of New York, Mademoiselle Colombe, Now Is the Time for All Good Men, and The Making of Americans. He and Albert Poland produced the national tour of The Fantasticks and the New York production of the Gretchen Cryer and Nancy Ford musical Now Is the Time for All Good Men. In 1983, Cryer joined the Mirror Repertory Company for their first repertory season, performing in Paradise Lost, Rain, Inheritors, and The Hasty Heart. He was among the founders of that organization, New York's Mirror Repertory Theatre, which launched with Geraldine Page as its star. In 1966, Cryer had also been one of the founders of the American Conservatory Theater, which began in Pittsburgh before relocating to San Francisco.

His film credits include Wagner in Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Lt. Curtis in American Gigolo (1980), and a role in the Life Lessons segment of New York Stories (1989). DePauw University recognized his career with an Alumni Citation in 1998, an Alumni Achievement Award in 2006, and an honorary Doctor of Arts degree in 2009.

Cryer and his first wife, songwriter Gretchen Cryer, are the parents of actor Jon Cryer and Robin Cryer Hyland. With his second wife, dancer and actress Britt Swanson, he has four additional children: Rachel, Daniel, Carolyn, and Bill.