Peter Coffield

Peter Tenny Coffield (July 17, 1945 – November 19, 1983) was an American actor who worked across theater, television, and film. Born in Wilmette, Illinois, he grew up in an Irish-Catholic household as the youngest of five children. His father, James L. Coffield, had been widowed in 1935 and remarried Mary White in 1939; the children from both marriages were raised together as a single family. Coffield's father died in 1960, and his mother lived until 2001, passing away in Tasmania, Australia, at the age of 94. Coffield graduated from New Trier High School in 1963 and went on to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, earning a B.S. in Oral Interpretation in 1967. He subsequently earned a master's degree from the University of Michigan.

Coffield's Broadway career spanned from 1969 to 1980 and encompassed a range of classical and contemporary productions. His stage credits included Hamlet in 1969, Abelard and Heloise in 1971, The Merchant of Venice in 1973, Vivat! Vivat Regina!, Tartuffe in 1977, and The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1980. His performance in Abelard and Heloise drew notice from New York Times theater critic Walter Kerr, who wrote of Coffield's portrayal of a homosexual student: "Making a mask of his broad, handsome face, Mr. Coffield went about his chores deftly, confidently, with clear and virile purpose. Saying little, he seemed to think a great deal: thought can be a scene-thief, it turns out." Beyond Broadway, Coffield appeared in Misalliance at the Roundabout Theater, A. R. Gurney's Middle Ages at the Hartman Theater in Stamford, Connecticut, and S. N. Behrman's No Time for Comedy at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey. He also performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and at the Old Globe Shakespeare Festival Theater in San Diego.

On television, Coffield guest starred on numerous series throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, Eight Is Enough, Wide World Mystery, Family, Barnaby Jones, and Love, Sidney. His television movie credits included Washington: Behind Closed Doors and The Man Without a Country. In 1974, he received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Best Actor in Daytime Drama for his work in CBS Daytime 90: Legacy of Fear. His film work included Cry Rape!, Times Square (1980), and Neil Simon's Only When I Laugh.

Coffield's longtime life partner was James Tripp, also an actor, who served as Head of Acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York. Coffield died of an illness on November 19, 1983, at the age of 38.