Posted: 4/26/07 at 9:46am
Anne Pitoniak, who began her stage career in late middle age, but received a Tony nomination for her Broadway debut, in “ ’night, Mother,” and had an enduring career playing strong-willed older women, died on Sunday at home in Manhattan. She was 85.
The cause was complications of cancer, said her son, Christian Milord.
Other than a few roles in summer stock theater right out of college, Ms. Pitoniak spent most of her acting life in television and radio commercials. But in 1975, when she was in her mid-50s, her marriage having ended in divorce and her two children grown, she decided to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. Two years later she became a resident actor at the Actors Theater of Louisville in Kentucky, where her first role was in Marsha Norman’s first play, “Getting Out.”
Ms. Pitoniak quickly developed a following at the Actors Theater, the host theater of the Humana Festival of New American Plays. Among the plays she appeared in were John Pielmeier’s “Agnes of God” and Jane Martin’s “Talking With,” which was moved to Off Broadway by the Manhattan Theater Club.
“ ’night, Mother” was the third of Ms. Norman’s plays in which Ms. Pitoniak starred. She portrayed a fiercely desperate mother whose daughter, played by Kathy Bates, suddenly announces suicidal intentions, a performance described as “harrowing” by Frank Rich in The New York Times. The play went to the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., then to Broadway, where it opened in 1983.
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Anne Pitoniak, 85, Actress Who Played Strong Older Women, Dies
-Kad
"I have also met him in person, and I find him to be quite funny actually. Arrogant and often misinformed, but still funny."
-bjh2114 (on Michael Riedel)
Updated On: 4/26/07 at 09:46 AM
