American actor (1935-2006). He was born in
Philadelphia. While he was once a
monk in the
Christian Brothers order, he soon decided to become an actor. He moved to
New York City, where he did some
off-Broadway plays, did a tour of "
The Odd Couple", and performed with
Chicago's
Second City troupe.
The imposingly-
tall but
sad-eyed actor's first
movies included "
The Virgin President", "
Medium Cool", "
Diary of a Mad Housewife", and "
Joe", in which he played a violent, manipulative bigot. His
performance was widely acclaimed and led to more
films, including "
The Candidate", "
The Friends of Eddie Coyle", "
Kid Blue", and "
Steelyard Blues". He got a lot of
attention after starring as the
monster in "
Young Frankenstein", then followed up by appearing in "
Taxi Driver", "
The Brink's Job", "
Where the Buffalo Roam", "
Outland", and "
Hammett".
Boyle met his future wife,
Loraine Alterman, when she was a reporter for "
Rolling Stone" -- at the time, he was wearing his makeup for "Young Frankenstein." Alterman was friends with
Yoko Ono, and through her, Boyle met and became friends with
John Lennon. In fact, when Boyle and Alterman got married in 1977, Lennon was the
best man.
Boyle went through a dry period for a while, showing up in clunkers like "
Yellowbeard", "
Johnny Dangerously", "
Turk 182!", and "
Red Heat", but in recent years, his
fortunes went on an upswing, with roles in "
The Dream Team", "
Honeymoon in Vegas", and a cameo in "
Malcolm X". He suffered a
stroke in 1990, leaving him unable to speak for about six months, and he had a
heart attack in 1999.
Even more recently, appearances on
TV shows garnered Boyle a lot of
positive attention. He had a recurring role as the father, Frank Barone, on "
Everybody Loves Raymond", and he had a notable guest-starring role as a reluctant
psychic in the "
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" episode of "
The X-Files".
Much research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)