“The French Connection” star dies at 87

The actor Tony Lo Bianco, best known for the film “French Connection”, has died. He was 87 years old.

His representative confirmed on Wednesday that he died of prostate cancer.

“Tony Lo Bianco passed away last night at his horse farm in Maryland following his battle with prostate cancer,” the spokesman said in a statement to Fox News.

“His wife Alyse was at his side,” the spokesman added.

Lo Bianco was born and raised in Brooklyn. His high school drama teacher, Patricia Jacobsen, inspired him to become an actor.

“For me, everything is a lesson,” he said in an interview with La Nostra Voce last year. “Ms. Jacobson taught me to be mindful on stage. How to sit, how to move, how to engage the audience.”

After his time as a Golden Gloves boxer, Lo Bianco began his career in the performing arts as an understudy in the Broadway production of Incident at Vichy in 1964.

He made his film debut in 1965 in “The Sex Perils of Paulette” and his television debut in 1966 in an episode of “Get Smart”.

Lo Bianco’s most famous film role was that of gangster Sal Boca in William Friedkin’s 1971 neo-noir action film The French Connection. The film also starred Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey and Roy Scheider, and won five Oscars, including Best Picture.

Other films in which Lo Bianco appeared include “The Honeymoon Killers,” “The Seven-Ups,” “The Juror,” “Nixon,” and “Kill the Irishman.”

Lo Bianco looked back on his role in “The Honeymoon Killers” last year, saying, “They wanted to cast a guy with a Spanish accent. I’m Italian-American, but I adopted a Spanish accent and got the part. Everyone thought it was real until one day on set they heard my real voice. They couldn’t believe it.”

His last film was Ray Romano’s 2022 comedy-drama “Somewhere in Queens.”

Lo Bianco also appeared in the television series “The Twilight Zone,” “Murder, She Wrote,” and “Law & Order.”

His last television role was in an episode of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” in 2007.

He was also active in theater, winning a New York Emmy Award in 1984 for his performance in the stage production of “Hizzoner!” He then appeared in several off-Broadway shows, including “LaGuardia” and “The Little Flower.”

Lo Bianco was married three times.

In his first marriage, he was married to Dora Landey from 1964 to 1984. Together they had three daughters. Lo Bianco was then married to Elizabeth Fitzpatrick from 2002 to 2008. He married his third wife, Alyse Best Muldoon, in 2015.