Henry Stram

Henry Stram, born September 10, 1954, is an American actor and singer. He is the son of NFL coach Hank Stram, and grew up in Kansas City during the years his father coached the Kansas City Chiefs. Before relocating to New York City in 1973, Stram performed with The Barn Players. He went on to study acting at the Juilliard School, where he also frequented Cafe La Fortuna, a cafe that opened in 1976 and was known for its garden, opera music, and Italian desserts.

Stram's Broadway career spans from 1997 to 2018. He made his Broadway debut in Titanic in 1997, playing 3rd Class Passenger, Frank Carlson, and George Widener. Subsequent Broadway appearances include The Crucible in 2002 as Ezekiel Cheever, Inherit the Wind in 2007 as Mr. Goodfellow, The Elephant Man in 2014 as Carr Gomm and Conductor, Junk: The Golden Age of Debt in 2017 as Maximilien Cizik, and Network in 2018 as the Continuity Announcer.

Off-Broadway, Stram built an extensive body of work beginning in 1978 with Mother Courage and Her Children and King Lear in repertoire at The American Place Theatre, where he played a Soldier and stretcher bearer. His subsequent off-Broadway credits include The Cradle Will Rock at the American Place Theatre and Douglas Fairbanks Theatre in 1983, The Making of Americans with Music-Theatre Group in 1985, and A Bright Room Called Day at the Joseph Papp Public Theater in 1991. He appeared in multiple Shakespeare in the Park productions at the Delacorte Theater, including All's Well That Ends Well in 1993 as Lafeau, Troilus and Cressida in 1995 as Priam, Menelaus, and Servant, and The Winter's Tale in 2000 as Camillo. Additional off-Broadway credits include The Grey Zone at MCC Theater in 1996 as Josef Mengele, Fly by Night at Playwrights Horizons in 2014 as the Narrator, and The School for Scandal at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in 2016 as Sir Oliver Surface.

In 2009, Stram appeared at New York Theatre Workshop in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, a stage adaptation by Rebecca Gilman of the Carson McCullers novel, playing the deaf character John Singer. His casting drew public criticism, with a member of the board of the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts stating that a hearing actor playing a deaf character was tantamount to putting a white actor in blackface. The National Association of the Deaf, Deaf West Theater, and others called on director Doug Hughes and New York Theatre Workshop to replace Stram with a deaf actor. Stram had previously played the same role in the show's 2005 premiere in Atlanta.

In 2012, Stram participated in Shinsai, a benefit concert supporting victims of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, alongside Patti LuPone, Richard Thomas, Mary Beth Hurt, Jay O. Sanders, Jennifer Lim, and Angela Lin. That same year, he was part of the cast of Rebecca, a production that closed after it was discovered that one of its investors did not exist, leading to a criminal investigation. Producer Ben Sprecher had hoped to mount the show in 2013.

Stram's regional theater work includes productions at the Long Wharf Theatre, Arena Stage, McCarter Theatre, and Trinity Repertory Company, among others. Notable regional credits include Cyrano de Bergerac at Long Wharf in 1980, The Cherry Orchard at Arena Stage in 1988 as Trofimov, The Birthday Party at McCarter Theatre in 2006 as Stanley, and the original national tour of Spring Awakening in 2008 as Adult Man.

His film work includes roles in Requiem for a Dream in 2000 as an ECT Technician, The Grey Zone in 2001 as SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Mengele, and The Greatest Showman in 2017 as a Ticket Taker. On television, Stram has appeared in multiple episodes of Law and Order across several years, as well as Boardwalk Empire, Smash, The Americans, The Good Fight, The Blacklist, and The Gilded Age, among other series.

Stram has been with actor Martin Moran since the two met in February 1985 while rehearsing The Making of Americans together. In a 2006 interview, Moran recalled that Stram had already worked with Richard Foreman and at the Guthrie Theater and had graduated from Juilliard at the time of their meeting.