Tony Lo Bianco, the Brooklyn actor who oozed criminal charm in the gritty 1970s New York City dramas and , has died. He was 87. Lo Bianco died Tuesday night of prostate cancer at his horse farm in Poolesville, Maryland, his wife, Alyse, told .
Lo Bianco was also memorable as a smooth-talking con man with a lonely nurse (Shirley Stoler) for a girlfriend/accomplice in Leonard Kastle’s documentary-style (1970), which Francois Truffaut once said was his favorite American film. In another cult classic, the horror thriller (1976), directed by , Lo Bianco starred as a New York cop who investigates a series of bizarre murders orchestrated by the leader of a religious group (Richard Lynch). He received a best actor Tony nomination in 1983 for playing Eddie Carbone in a revival of Arthur Miller’s , but he was best known on the stage for portraying Fiorello La Guardia, a fellow Italian-American and the popular mayor of New York from 1934-45, in several productions.
In the best picture winner (1971), directed by , Lo Bianco was Sal Boca, a flashy guy who as the owner of a modest luncheonette seemed to have a lot of cash on hand. Of course, he was involved in an illegal narcotics operation. Two years later, Lo Bianco was back in another New York-set crime thriller, (1973), appearing again with co-star Roy Scheider.
His character, Vito Lucia, is a crooked undertaker and underworld informant who backstabs his childhood pal, Scheider’s cop, Buddy. ( produced and produced and directed ,.
