Larry Bryggman

Larry Bryggman, born Arvid Laurence Bryggman on December 21, 1938, in Concord, California, is an American actor whose career has spanned stage, television, and film for more than six decades. Raised in Oakland, he is of Swedish descent. His father worked for a neon sign company and his mother taught piano. Bryggman studied piano, drums, bassoon, and other woodwinds, and also learned the accordion at his father's request. He graduated from Piedmont High School and earned a bachelor's degree from the City College of San Francisco.

Bryggman relocated to New York in 1959. In the early 1960s, he toured in a production of Death of a Salesman alongside Mildred Dunnock and Albert Dekker, and made his off-Broadway debut in 1962 in A Summer Ghost. He subsequently spent five years as a principal member of the Theater Company of Boston, where he appeared in Live Like Pigs, playing a police sergeant, and in Waiting for Godot as Pozzo. In 1969, he debuted at the New York Shakespeare Festival in Mod Donna, toured in the musical Irma La Douce opposite Elke Sommer, and joined the cast of the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns as Dr. John Dixon, first airing on July 18 of that year. Originally contracted for only three episodes, Bryggman remained with the series from 1969 to 2004 and returned again in 2010. The character began as a villain who blackmailed and assaulted his wife before eventually becoming a respected physician in the fictional town of Oakdale. Bryggman won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his work on the show in both 1984 and 1987, and received six additional nominations in that category.

His Broadway career began in earnest in the early 1970s. He appeared in The Lincoln Mask in 1972, and in 1974 took on multiple roles in Ulysses in Nighttown, directed by Burgess Meredith and featuring Zero Mostel. He played Dr. Sheldon Henning in Checking Out, which ran at the Longacre Theatre from September 14 to September 25, 1976. The following year, he portrayed Kress in a Broadway revival of The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel opposite Al Pacino, which ran at the Longacre from April 24 to September 3, 1977. In 1979, he reunited with Pacino in a Broadway revival of Richard III, playing Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby, at the Cort Theatre from June 10 to July 15. That same year, Bryggman appeared alongside Pacino a third time in the film ...And Justice for All, playing Warren Fresnell.

Off-Broadway and regional work remained central to his career throughout the 1980s. In February 1977, he played Frank Schaeffer in Marco Polo Sings a Solo at The Public Theater with Madeline Kahn. He appeared in Coriolanus at The Public Theater in 1988 alongside Christopher Walken, and played Banquo in a 1990 Public Theater production of Macbeth. In 1993, he received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Work in recognition of his theatrical output.

Bryggman's Broadway work continued to earn recognition through the 1990s and into the 2000s. He played Dr. Boyle in the original Broadway production of Prelude to a Kiss opposite Mary-Louise Parker, which ran at the Hayes Theater from April 29 to May 19, 1990. He was cast as Howard Bevans in the original Broadway production of Picnic, co-starring with Ashley Judd and Kyle Chandler, which ran at Criterion Center Stage Right from March 30 to May 29, 1994. That performance earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He later played Robert in the original Broadway production of Proof, again opposite Mary-Louise Parker, a role that brought him a second Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play in 2001. Additional Broadway credits include King Richard II and Harvey, the latter in 2012, marking his final Broadway appearance to date. His first Broadway credit dates to 1974, giving him a stage career on Broadway spanning nearly four decades.

Beyond the stage, Bryggman appeared in the films Hanky Panky (1982), directed by Sidney Poitier and co-starring Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner, where he played Stacy; Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), in which he portrayed Arthur Cobb alongside Bruce Willis; and Spy Game (2001). He also appeared in Al Pacino's film Looking for Richard. On television, he had roles in the films Strike Force (1975) and the short The Witches of Salem: The Horror and the Hope (1972), as well as a brief appearance on Love Is a Many Splendored Thing. In addition to his two Daytime Emmy wins, Bryggman has received two Obie Awards over the course of his career.