Peter Scolari

Peter Thomas Scolari, born September 12, 1955, in New Rochelle, New York, was an American actor whose career spanned television, film, and stage over four decades. He died on October 22, 2021. Raised in Scarsdale, New York, alongside an older sister and two younger brothers, Scolari was the son of Arthur Scolari, a lawyer of Italian descent who had previously played semi-professional baseball, and Barbara Scolari, a former singer who later worked with the Alcohol Rehabilitation arm of the Tidewater Psychiatric Institute in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Scolari began performing in plays at Edgemont High School in Scarsdale, where he also did animation voice work at age thirteen and participated in football, baseball, and track. At sixteen, he played Finch in a high school production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, an experience that led him to pursue acting professionally.

In 1972, Scolari enrolled at Occidental College in Los Angeles as a theater arts major, but left the following year and returned to New York after his father died. Back in New York, he joined the Colonnades Theatre Lab, a Manhattan repertory company where he worked alongside actors including Danny DeVito, Rhea Perlman, Jeff Goldblum, and Michael O'Keefe. During this period he also pursued a degree in comparative literature at City College of New York, appeared in multiple off-Broadway productions, studied mime, learned to juggle from Finnish actor Paavo Tammim, and learned to ride a unicycle. A 1974 production of Reflections in which he appeared received a favorable review from The New York Times. He returned to Los Angeles in 1979.

Scolari's first credited film role came in 1978, and he was signed to an NBC pilot in 1979 that was not picked up. His breakthrough arrived in 1980 when he was cast opposite Tom Hanks in the ABC sitcom Bosom Buddies, in which the two played advertising copywriters who disguise themselves as women to live in an affordable women's-only residence called the Susan B. Anthony Hotel. Scolari played Henry Desmond, whose female pseudonym was Hildegard. The series ran for two seasons and 37 episodes before cancellation. In 1984, Scolari joined the cast of the CBS sitcom Newhart as Michael Harris, a preppily dressed local television producer. The character began as a recurring role in the show's second season and proved popular enough that executive producer Barry Kemp signed Scolari as a series regular before a third season had been confirmed. Scolari remained with Newhart through its conclusion in 1990, and his performance earned him three consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, from 1987 to 1989.

From 1997 to 2000, Scolari starred as inventor Wayne Szalinski in the Disney sitcom Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, a role originated in film by Rick Moranis. During that same period he played astronaut Pete Conrad in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, which was co-produced by Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, and Brian Grazer. He reunited with Hanks again in the 1996 film That Thing You Do!, directed by Hanks, in which Scolari played Troy Chesterfield, the host of a variety show. Scolari and Hanks also provided voices for the 2004 animated film The Polar Express. Beginning in 2012, Scolari played Tad Horvath, the father of Lena Dunham's character, in the HBO series Girls, a role he held through 2017. That performance earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2016. He later appeared as the corrupt police commissioner Gillian B. Loeb in the Fox series Gotham in 2015, and as Bishop Thomas Marx in the supernatural series Evil from 2019 to 2021.

Scolari's Broadway career extended from 1994 to 2014. He appeared in a replacement role in the musical Hairspray in 2003, playing Wilbur Turnblad, and in a replacement role in Wicked in 2016. In 2012, he appeared on Broadway in Eric Simonson's Magic/Bird, playing multiple figures including Pat Riley, Red Auerbach, Jerry Buss, and Bob Woolf. The following year he appeared in Nora Ephron's Lucky Guy, which reunited him with Tom Hanks. In 2014, Scolari starred in Bronx Bombers, portraying Yogi Berra. He also appeared in Larry Gelbart's Sly Fox on Broadway in 2004. In addition to his Broadway work, Scolari appeared in a number of off-Broadway productions, including Old Man Joseph and His Family, The Exonerated, In the Wings, It Must Be Him, and White's Lies.