Tony Lo Bianco, ‘The French Connection,’ ‘Law & Order’ Star, Dead at 87

Long-time character actor Tony Lo Bianco, who was featured in films such as The French Connection, has died at 87, his representative has confirmed.

Lo Bianco, who was still working as recently as 2022, suffered from prostate cancer, according to the New York Post.

The actor was a mainstay on the big screen, but was also featured in the long-running TV series Law & Order and some of its offshoots. On TV he appeared on Homicide: Life on the Streets, the recent reboot of Walker, Texas Ranger, The Streets of San Francisco, The Twilight Zone, and a long string of TV movies.

The Brooklyn-born actor’s big screen work included 1973’s Serpico, The Seven-Ups, City Heat, and The French Connection.

“Tony Lo Bianco passed away last night at his horse farm in Maryland after a battle with prostate cancer,” read a statement by the actor’s representative.

“His wife, Alyse, was by his side,” the rep added.

As a young man, Lo Bianco was a Golden Gloves boxer, but. in 1964 the boards called him and he performed in a Broadway production of Incident at Vichy.

Britten by the acting bug, he next made his film debut in 1965’s The Sex Perils of Paulette and the next year appeared on the popular spy spoof TV series, Get Smart.

File/ 1978: (L-R) Tony Lo Bianco, Lee Strasberg appearing in the ABC tv movie ‘The Last Tenant’. ( Ken Regan /Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)

But it was in 1971 that he made his first big impression on the industry when he portrayed mobster Sal Boca in William Friedkin’s Gene Hackman vehicle The French Connection. The film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and Lo Bianco shot to the top along with the film.

Lo Bianco reminisced about his role as a Spaniard in the film The Honeymoon Killers when he put on a Spanish accent and surprised the director with his versatility. “They wanted to cast a guy with a Spanish accent. I’m Italian American, but I took on a Spanish accent and landed the role. Everybody thought it was genuine, then they heard my real voice one day on set. They couldn’t believe it,” he said.

The actor went through three wives after his first marriage to Dora Landey in 1964 ended in divorce in 1984. He next married Elizabeth Fitzpatrick in a union that lasted from 2002 to 2008. He married his third wife, Alyse Best Muldoon, in 2015. He has three daughters with his first wife.

Alyse Lo Bianco (L) and US actor Tony Lo Bianco attend the screening of “Somewhere In Queens” at Metrograph in New York on April 17, 2023. (ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)

He is survived by his daughters Miriamne and Nina. His third daughter, Anna, passed from breast cancer in 2006, according to The New York Times.

Comedian Joe Piscopo lamented the actor’s loss, writing, “Sad to report that dear, long time friend #TONYLOBIANCO passed away peacefully last night. Love to his Alyse and the LoBianco Family. Tony was a proud Italian American who loved this country heart and soul. Rest in Peace, mio caro amico.”

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