Robert Prosky

Robert Prosky, born Robert Joseph Porzuczek on December 13, 1930, in the Manayunk neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television. The son of Helen (Kuhn) and Joseph Porzuczek, a grocer and butcher, he grew up in a working-class household. After his father died unexpectedly, Prosky received a hardship discharge from the U.S. Air Force, where he had been serving during the Korean War, in order to help manage the family store. He later studied at the American Theatre Wing and graduated from Temple University. His early stage work included performances at Old Academy Players, a small theater in the East Falls section of Philadelphia.

Before establishing himself on Broadway, Prosky built an extensive regional theater career at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., accumulating more than 100 stage credits at that institution alone. Among his most notable roles there was Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman. He also served as a board member of Cape May Stage in Cape May, New Jersey. His Broadway career ran from 1972 to 2006 and included productions such as Glengarry Glen Ross, A Walk in the Woods, Twelve Angry Men, and Democracy. He played Shelly Levene in the 1984 Chicago and Broadway production of David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize-winning Glengarry Glen Ross, a role for which he received the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Work that same year. Over the course of his stage career, Prosky received or was nominated for two Tony Awards, two Helen Hayes Awards, and the American Express Tribute to an American Actor, in addition to the Drama Desk recognition.

Prosky became a prominent supporting film actor during the 1980s. His screen credits included Thief (1981), Christine (1983), in which he played Will Darnell, the owner of the auto repair shop central to the Stephen King adaptation, The Natural (1984), and Broadcast News (1987). He continued working steadily in film through subsequent decades, appearing in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990), Hoffa (1992), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Last Action Hero (1993), Rudy (1993), Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Dead Man Walking (1995), and Mad City (1997), among other productions.

On television, Prosky was best known for his recurring role as Sgt. Stan Jablonski on the police drama Hill Street Blues. He was considered for the role of Martin Crane in Frasier and later made a guest appearance in that series as a reclusive writer. He had been offered the role of Coach Ernie Pantusso on Cheers but declined it, though he subsequently appeared on the show as Rebecca Howe's father. He also portrayed Jake "the Snake" Connolly in a two-part 1991 episode of Coach and was a regular on the television series Danny. He received an Emmy nomination over the course of his television career.

In 1960, Prosky married Ida Hove, with whom he had three sons: Stefan, John, and Andrew, the latter two of whom also became actors. Beyond performing, he gave lectures on his career at universities, film festivals, theater benefits, business groups, and on cruises. Prosky died on December 8, 2008, five days before his 78th birthday, from complications of heart surgery at Washington Hospital Center. He was living in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., at the time of his death.