Peter Boyle
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| Peter Boyle | |
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| Born | October 18, 1935 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
Peter Boyle (born October 18, 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an Emmy Award-winning American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond and his film roles in Young Frankenstein (1974) and Taxi Driver (1976).
A native Philadelphian of Irish descent, Boyle has won praise for playing both comic and dramatic roles. He served in the Army, but his military career was shortened by a nervous breakdown. Boyle was also a member of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, or De La Salle Brothers, a Catholic teaching order, and taught drama at their school in Pittsburgh before turning to acting. He graduated from La Salle University in Philadelphia in 1957. He was briefly part of The Second City Chicago ensemble, and he studied acting with famed acting coach Uta Hagen. He had a brief scene in the critically acclaimed 1969 film Medium Cool.
[edit] Rise to fame
His first starring role was as the title character in the movie Joe which was released in 1970, in which Boyle played a hardhat bigot to wide acclaim. The film's release was surrounded by controversy over its violence and language. Ironically, it was during this time that Boyle became close friends with the actress Jane Fonda, and with her he participated in many protests against the Vietnam War. After seeing people cheer at his role in Joe, Boyle refused the lead role in The French Connection (1971) as well as other movie and TV roles that, he believed, glamorized violence.
Boyle had another hit role as Frankenstein's monster in the comedy Young Frankenstein in 1974, directed by Mel Brooks. Boyle gave an acclaimed dramatic performance in the 1977 television film Tail Gunner Joe, in which he played Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led the Communist witch hunts in the 1950s.
Boyle is known for his supporting roles and appears more often as a character actor than a leading man. Some of his better known roles include appearances in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver opposite Robert De Niro, in which he played fellow cab driver "The Wizard". The Dream Team, The Shadow starring Alec Baldwin, Monster's Ball starring Billy Bob Thornton and The Candidate starring Robert Redford. He can also be seen as a tough police officer in Malcolm X. He also makes an appearance in Porky's Revenge as the drawbridge operator. He starred opposite Sean Connery as a corrupt mining facility boss in Outland.
He won an Emmy award in 1996 for a Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for a guest appearance on The X-Files. The episode, "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," is a season-three episode of the cult TV show, in which he played an insurance salesman who can see into the future.
In the 1970s when he hosted Saturday Night Live' (1975) he had the opportunity to demonstrate his fine singing voice.
Boyle is probably best known to audiences today for his role as the deadpan, cranky Frank Barone in the popular CBS television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which aired from 1996 until 2005. The show was shot in Los Angeles, to which Boyle commuted from his New York City home. He was repeatedly nominated for an Emmy for this role, but never won (beaten out multiple times in the Supporting Actor category by his costar Brad Garrett), though all of the other actors on the show—Garrett, Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, and his TV wife Doris Roberts—won at least one Emmy each for their performances.
[edit] Trivia
- Boyle was friendly with John Lennon, who was the best man at Boyle's 1977 wedding to Lorraine Alterman, with whom he has two daughters, Lucy and Amy. Boyle met Lennon through his wife, a reporter for Rolling Stone who was friends with Yoko Ono. [1]
- Boyle suffered a stroke in 1990 and was unable to talk for 6 months, and in 1999, he suffered from a heart attack while on the set of Everybody Loves Raymond.
- Boyle had a role in all three of The Santa Clause films. In The Santa Clause, he plays Scott Calvin's boss. In The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause he plays Father Time.
- He also appeared in Roger Waters's unreleased "Three Wishes" music video in 1993.
- Boyle made guest appearances on two episodes of Mind of Mencia, in which he reads hate mail and, on occasion, has told Carlos Mencia how he feels about him.
- Starting in late 2005, Boyle and former TV wife Doris Roberts appeared in several TV ads for the 75th anniversary of Alka-Seltzer, reprising the famous line, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing."
