A Second Generation Passes On...

LA TIMES quote**

((Peter Boyle, the actor who transformed from an angry workingman in "Joe" to a tap-dancing monster in "Young Frankenstein" and finally the comically grouchy father on "Everybody Loves Raymond," has died. He was 71.
Boyle died Tuesday evening at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He had been suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease, said his publicist, Jennifer Plante.
A member of the Christian Brothers religious order who turned to acting, the tall, prematurely balding Boyle gained notice in the title role of the 1970 sleeper hit "Joe," playing an angry, murderous bigot at odds with the emerging hippie youth culture.
Briefly typecast in tough, irascible roles, Boyle began to escape the image as Robert Redford's campaign manager in "The Candidate" and left it behind entirely after "Young Frankenstein," Mel Brooks' 1974 send-up of horror films. The latter movie's defining moment came when Gene Wilder, as scientist Frederick Frankenstein, introduced his creation to an upscale audience. Boyle, decked out in tails, performed a song-and-dance routine to the Irving Berlin classic "Puttin' On the Ritz."

It showed another side of Boyle, one that would be best exploited in the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," in which he played curmudgeonly paterfamilias Frank Barone for 10 years.
On television, he starred in "Joe Bash," an acclaimed but short-lived 1986 "dramedy" in which he played a lonely beat cop.

He won an Emmy in 1996 for his guest-starring role in an episode of "The X Files," and he was nominated for "Everybody Loves Raymond" and for the 1977 TV film "Tail Gunner Joe," in which he played Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
In the 1976 film "Taxi Driver," he was the cabbie-philosopher Wizard, who counseled Robert DeNiro's violent Travis Bickle.
He did dozens of other films, including "T.R. Baskin," "F.I.S.T.," "Johnny Dangerously," "Conspiracy: Trial of the Chicago 8" (as activist David Dellinger), "The Dream Team," "Monster's Ball," "The Shadow", "The Santa Clause," "The Santa Clause 2," "While You Were Sleeping" (in a charming turn as Sandra Bullock's future father-in-law) and "Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed."

The son of a local TV personality in Philadelphia (see below), Boyle was educated in Roman Catholic schools and spent three years in a monastery before abandoning his religious studies. He later described the experience as similar to "living in the Middle Ages."
He explained his decision to leave in 1991: "I felt the call for awhile; then I felt the normal pull of the world and the flesh."

He traveled to New York to study with Uta Hagen, supporting himself for five years with various jobs, including postal worker, waiter, maitre d' and office temp. Finally, he was cast in a road company version of "The Odd Couple." When the play reached Chicago he quit to study with that city's famed improvisational troupe Second City.

Upon returning to New York, he began to land roles in TV commercials, off-Broadway plays and finally films.
Through his wife, a friend of Yoko Ono, the actor became close friends with John Lennon. "We were both seekers after a truth, looking for a quick way to enlightenment," Boyle once said of Lennon, who was best man at his wedding.

In 1990, Boyle had a stroke and couldn't talk for six months. In 1999, he had a heart attack on the "Raymond" set. He soon regained his health, however, and returned to the series.Despite his work in "Everybody Loves Raymond" and other Hollywood productions, Boyle made New York City his home. He and his wife had two daughters, Lucy and Amy.))

Interestingly enough, his father Pete Boyle Sr. had numerous TV kid shows (1954-1960) in and around the Philadelphia area. He had worked with such local people of note such as Joe Earley, Albert Mathis, and Ernie Kovacs. Pete Sr. even hosted the Easter parade in Philly in 1963.

Pete Sr. was also a talented artist, and would often draw pictures during his shows for the kids. Most of his earlier shows had a western feel to them, but in later years, he opted for the OUR GANG comedies. Uncle Pete's Funhouse long predeced many other kids shows with live hosts, and although we had Pee Wee, and Ernest, and even Captain Kangaroo, there will always be that special place for a pioneer of the small screen such as Pete Boyle. Peter Jr. learned a lot from his dad...that's for sure.
Sadly, Pete Sr. died in 1969 of heart disease, and he was 69 years old..about the same age as his son, (who was born in 1933). If there is any good from this, it's knowing that we, through our rememberance of them are better people for allowing them to touch our lives.

And you can't do much better than that...in ANY lifetime.