Remembering Peter Boyle

Character actor Peter Boyle died Tuesday, December 12^th, from heart disease at the age of 71. Perhaps best known as the curmudgeonly father to Ray Romano on the hit sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, Boyle carved out an impressive list of film credits in a career that spanned nearly 40 years.

Before taking up acting, Boyle was a monk for three years in the Christian Brothers order. He would later say, "It was like living in the Middle Ages." He first caught the eye of the public in 1970 with a low budget film called "Joe." As a bigoted hardhat, Boyle demonstrated a violent power that catapulted the film to sleeper status and made him an actor in demand. Having started out in comedy at Chicago's Second City, Boyle took the movie to demonstrate his acting range but soon found that everything he was being offered were roles that glamorized violence. Boyle refused to get typecast and even turned down the role of Popeye Doyle in "The French Connection," a role that would win Gene Hackman the Academy Award.

Content at taking supporting roles with a little more substance, Boyle took parts in such films as "The Candidate" as Robert Redford's campaign manager, and in lesser known films such as "T.R. Baskin," "Steelyard Blues," "Slither," "Kid Blue," and "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," where he turned in a strong performance as a bartender turned informant.

In 1974 Boyle got the role of his career as the monster in Mel Brooks' comedy classic "Young Frankenstein." Playing opposite Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn and Cloris Leachman, Boyle nearly stole the show in a performance that required him to mostly stumble around and grunt. It was only near the very end that Boyle had any dialogue but still garnered some of the best reviews for the film and for his career. Who will ever forget his classic duet with Wilder of "Puttin On The Ritz," or his visit to blindman Gene Hackman where all he wants is some food and drink but only ends up in severe pain.

Boyle continued taking supporting roles in such films as "Taxi Driver" as Wizard, a fellow taxi driver who provides Robert DeNiro with the contacts to buying guns. He also had roles in "Swashbuckler," "F.I.S.T.," and "The Brinks Job". In 1979 he had one of his best roles as a sleazy private detective searching for George C. Scott's daughter in the seedy pornographic underworld in "Hardcore."

Boyle kept busy in movies in the 1980's by continuing to take on supporting roles in such movies as "Where The Buffalo Roam" with Bill Murray, "Outland" with Sean Connery, "In God We Trust" which reunited him with his Young Frankenstein co-star Marty Feldman. Roles followed in such undistinguished films as "Yellowbeard," "Johnny Dangerously," "Turk 182," "Surrender," and "Red Heat." In 1989 he co-starred with Michael Keaton in "The Dream Team" along with Stephen Furst and Christopher Lloyd as four asylum inmates that get separated from their doctor while on a field trip to Yankee Stadium.

In the 90's Boyle took smaller roles in film as he concentrated more on television work. He appeared briefly in "Honeymoon in Vegas" and "Malcolm X" and played Tim Allen's boss in 1994's "The Santa Clause." He would appear as Father Time in the two sequels.

In 1996 Boyle's career hit its zenith when he was cast in Raymond. The role brought him seven Emmy Award nominations but he would be the only cast member not to win the award. Of the ten Emmy nominations he received the one he would win for also came in 1996 as a guest star on The X-Files. In the episode titled "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," Boyle played a psychic who aided Agents Mulder and Scully in the case of a serial killer. It was this role that led him to being cast on Raymond.

Boyle met his wife Lorraine, who survives him along with two daughters, on the set of Young Frankenstein. She was there as a reporter for Rolling Stone magazine when Boyle approached her in full monster make-up and asked her out on a date. When they married in 1977, John Lennon was Boyle's best man.

Peter Boyle will be best remembered as a terrific comedic character actor. He should also be known as a dependable actor in any genre in which he landed himself. Not every project was successful but he was usually successful in it. There aren't many actors you could say that about.

He will be missed.