Robert LuPone, who as an actor earned a Tony Award nomination in the original run of"A Chorus Line" and played Tony Soprano's family physician, and also helped found and lead the influential off-Broadway theater companyLuPone, brother of Broadway icon Patti LuPone, died Saturday following a three-year battle with pancreatic cancer, according to Matt Ross Public Relations.
LuPone's first professional job was in 1966, in the ensemble of the Westbury Music Fair's production of"The Pajama Game" starring Liza Minnelli. He made his Broadway debut in the 1968 production of Noel Coward's"Sweet Potato" and later appeared in"Minnie's Boys,""The Rothschilds" and"The Magic Show."
He was teaching an acting class at New York University when one of his students was Bernie Telsey. Together they would help form Manhattan Class Company in 1986 — known today as MCC Theater. While serving as co-artistic director of MCC, LuPone also worked as an actor, appearing in"A View from the Bridge,""True West" and"A Thousand Clowns," all on Broadway. He was in the Chicago premiere of Sam Shepard's"The Tooth of Crime" and on TV was in"Sex and the City,""Guiding Light," and"All My Children," for which he received a Daytime Emmy nomination.
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