Julie Bovasso

Julie Bovasso (August 1, 1930 – September 14, 1991) was an American actress, playwright, and director who worked across stage, screen, and television. Born Julia Anne Bovasso in Brooklyn, New York, she grew up in the Bensonhurst neighborhood as the daughter of Angela Mary (née Padovani) and Bernard Michael Bovasso, a teamster. Of Albanian-Italian-American heritage, she received her education at the High School of Music & Art in Manhattan.

Bovasso's theatrical career began in the 1950s, when she founded the experimental Tempo Playhouse at 4 St. Marks Place in Manhattan. Through that venue, she introduced American professional theater audiences to works of the Theater of the Absurd, staging plays by Jean Genet, Eugene Ionesco, and Michel de Ghelderode. Her performance in Genet's The Maids earned her the first Best Actress Obie Award in 1956, presented to her by Shelley Winters. She also performed with The Living Theater during this period.

Her Broadway career spanned from 1957 to 1970 and included appearances in Gloria and Esperanza, Minor Miracle, and the drama Monique. From 1968 to 1975, Bovasso directed numerous original works at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, with which she maintained a longstanding relationship. Productions she directed there included Gloria and Esperanza, Schubert's Last Serenade, The Moondreamers, Standard Safety, and The Nothing Kid. Her playwriting credits include the four-hour work Gloria and Esperanza. In 1972, she received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance.

On screen, Bovasso is perhaps best known for playing Florence Manero, the mother of John Travolta's character Tony Manero, in Saturday Night Fever (1977). She reprised that role in the 1983 sequel Staying Alive. Prior to Saturday Night Fever, she appeared in Otto Preminger's 1970 film Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon. Her film work in the 1980s included Willie & Phil (1980), The Verdict (1982), Daniel (1983), Off Beat (1986), Wise Guys (1986), and Moonstruck (1987). She coached both Cher and Olympia Dukakis on their Brooklyn accents for Moonstruck, as noted in the film's DVD commentary. In the 1990s, she appeared in Betsy's Wedding and My Blue Heaven, both released in 1990. Earlier in her career, she played Rose Corelli Fraser on the soap opera From These Roots before being dismissed from the show following a disagreement with producers.

Bovasso was also an acting coach whose private New York workshops regularly included prominent performers. She was married to painter George Earl Ortman for thirty years until her death. Bovasso died of cancer in New York City on September 14, 1991, at the age of 61.