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Cliff Gorman

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Cliff Gorman
Born(1936-10-13)October 13, 1936
DiedSeptember 5, 2002(2002-09-05) (aged 65)
EducationThe High School of Music & Art
OccupationActor
Years active1968–2002
SpouseGayle Gorman (1963-2002)

Cliff Gorman (October 13, 1936 – September 5, 2002) was an American stage and screen actor.[1] He won an Obie award in 1968 for the stage presentation of The Boys in the Band,[1] and went on to reprise his role in the 1970 film version.[2]

Life and career

Gorman was born in Queens, New York, the son of Ethel (née Kaplan) and Samuel Gorman.[3] He was raised Jewish.[4] Gorman attended The High School of Music & Art in Manhattan.[1]

Gorman won a Tony Award in 1972 for playing Lenny Bruce in the play Lenny.[1] Although the film version, directed by Bob Fosse, featured Dustin Hoffman, Gorman was recruited to portray a Dustin Hoffman-like character portraying Lenny Bruce, in a side-story in Fosse's autobiographical film All That Jazz (1979).[5]

He played Joseph Goebbels in the 1981 TV movie The Bunker, and co-starred as Lt. Andrews in the film Angel (1984). He also had roles in movies like Cops and Robbers (1973), Rosebud (1975), Brinks: The Great Robbery (1976), An Unmarried Woman (1978) with Jill Clayburgh, Night of the Juggler (1980), Hoffa (1992) with Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito, and Night and the City (1992) with Robert De Niro. His TV work included performances in series like Law and Order, Murder, She Wrote and the 1970s drama Police Story, written by former LAPD Detective Sergeant Joseph Wambaugh.

Gorman and his wife cared for his fellow The Boys in the Band performer Robert La Tourneaux in the last few months of his battle against AIDS, until La Tourneaux's death on June 3, 1986.[citation needed]

Gorman died of leukemia in 2002, aged 65, although his final film, Kill the Poor, was not released until 2006. He was survived by his wife, Gayle Gorman.

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Cliff Gorman, 65, Portrayer Of Lenny Bruce on Broadway". The New York Times. September 13, 2002.
  2. ^ Canby, Vincent (18 March 1970). "The Boys in the Band (1970)". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-13.
  3. ^ "Cliff Gorman". Filmreference.com.
  4. ^ Flatley, Guy (June 6, 1971). ". . . But Cliff Is a Cool 'Lenny'; Cliff Gorman Is a Cool 'Lenny'". The New York Times. p. D1.
  5. ^ Canby, Vincent (December 20, 1979). "All That Jazz (1979) The Screen: Roy Scheider Stars in 'All That Jazz':Peter Pan Syndrome". The New York Times.