Robert LuPone

Robert Francis LuPone (July 29, 1946 – August 27, 2022) was an American actor, director, and artistic director who worked across stage, film, and television. Born in Brooklyn on July 29, 1946, he was raised in Northport, New York on Long Island. His father, Orlando Joseph LuPone, was a school administrator and English teacher at Walt Whitman High School in Huntington, Long Island, while his mother, Angela Louise (Patti), served as a library administrator at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University. His father's family came from Abruzzo and his mother's side was Sicilian. A notable ancestral connection on his mother's side was 19th-century Spanish-born Italian opera singer Adelina Patti, his great-great aunt. He was the brother of actress and singer Patti LuPone.

LuPone trained as a dancer and graduated from the Juilliard School in 1968, where he studied with Antony Tudor, José Limón, and Martha Graham. He also pursued theatrical training at HB Studio under Uta Hagen. His Broadway debut came the same year he graduated from Juilliard, when he appeared as a dancer in Noël Coward's Sweet Potato. He performed in three additional Broadway productions in that same capacity before auditioning for A Chorus Line in 1976, persuading director Michael Bennett to cast him as Zach, the director figure at the center of the show. The role earned LuPone a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical and a Theatre World Special Award in 1976. It also marked his final Broadway dancing role.

His subsequent Broadway appearances spanned more than two decades and included Saint Joan (1977), The Magic Show (1974), Late Nite Comic (1987), Zoya's Apartment, A View from the Bridge (1997), True West (2000), and A Thousand Clowns (2001). Off Broadway, his credits included Twelfth Night (1980), Black Angel (1982), and Lennon (1982), and he also performed in regional theater throughout his career.

In 1986, LuPone and his former student Bernie Telsey co-founded the Manhattan Class Company, which later became MCC Theater. As its artistic director, LuPone oversaw productions of Frozen (2004), Reasons to Be Pretty (2008), and Hand to God (2014), each of which received a Tony Award nomination for Best Play and subsequently transferred to Broadway. He also directed the MFA Drama Program at The New School for Drama in New York City until the spring of 2011.

On television, LuPone appeared in five episodes of The Sopranos between 1999 and 2007, playing Dr. Bruce Cusamano, the next-door neighbor of the Soprano family. He appeared in two episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent between 2003 and 2009 as Nelson Broome, and in one episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 2004. Earlier television work included recurring appearances on All My Children in the 1980s and Guiding Light in the 1990s. He also appeared in the pilot episodes of the NBC musical series Smash and Showtime's drama Billions.

LuPone was married to Virginia Robinson until his death and together they had one son. At the time of his death he was a resident of Athens, New York. He died on August 27, 2022, at a hospice facility in Albany, New York, at the age of 76, following a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.