| Issue #39, December 22, 2006 |
PETER BOYLE, 71
By Sabrina Mashburn
I will never forget hiding under the covers, with only the top of my head peeking out, staring at the tall, dark shadow that filled the doorway. “Ennnnngggghhhh” it moaned like an old Hollywood horror movie monster. “Unnnngggghhh…… Girls…… Go tooooo sleeeeeeep!”
I shrieked and giggled as “Frankenstein,” AKA Mr. Boyle, stomped into the room, with arms outstretched and face slackened, to our delight. As a childhood friend of his youngest daughter, Amy, I was able to see a side of Peter Boyle that was very far from his cranky old coot of a character on Everybody Loves Raymond and the eloquent movie star and child of the sixties that everyone in the entertainment industry knew and loved. To me, Mr. Boyle was the funniest, kindest dad on the planet (next to my own, of course). And as a budding actress, I also thought he was the coolest dad in the class. Mr. Boyle was a member of the Academy and got movies on tape, and later on DVD, months before they came out in theaters.
Years later, when I moved out to LA to go to USC and pursue my dream of becoming an actress, Mr. Boyle invited me to come over to his house anytime I needed to talk to someone, or needed some advice about starting up in the business. When I sat in the stands beside the red carpet at the 2005 Emmy Awards, where Mr. Boyle received an award for Best Supporting Actor, I heard a voice shouting up to the bleachers “Sabrina! Hi! How are you doing?” I looked down, and there was Mr. Boyle, with his oldest daughter, Lucy and his wife, Lorraine, waving to me. As everyone around me stared in amazement and my friends all clamored to know why a movie star would shout up to the bleachers to say hello to me, I was amazed that the same guy who played “Frankenstein” for Amy and me at grade-school sleepovers was also a very famous movie star. Along with being a great father, husband and mentor, Peter Boyle was, first and foremost, a brilliant actor.
Along with his 2005 Emmy Award for Everybody Loves Raymond, Peter Boyle was also the winner of a Screen Actors Guild Best Actor Award, also for Everybody Loves Raymond. And although he did not receive accolades in the form of awards until late in his life, he is perhaps best known for his stunning ability as a character actor, with his memorable performances in films such as Young Frankenstein (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Malcom X (1992), and most recently, Monster’s Ball (2001). His specialty was always breathing life into smaller roles, where he would change every facet of his personality, body motions and facial nuances to embody each character he played.
Peter Boyle was a Hollywood favorite – wherever he went, industry professionals from every generation and corner of the industry flocked to him. Once, when at a Kids for Kids benefit in New York City, I witnessed movie stars and pop stars rushing up to Mr. Boyle all day, shaking his hand, singing his praises and begging for a photo with one of Hollywood’s favorite people. In his younger days, he and the late John Lennon were close friends. Lennon was Peter Boyle’s best man at his wedding to Lorraine, who had been a close friend of Lennon’s wife Yoko long before she met Peter. It was Yoko who first introduced Peter and Lorraine, and a collage by Yoko and John, commemorating Peter and Lorraine’s wedding, hangs in the Boyles’ New York City apartment to this day as a memory of the two couples’ happy times together.
Peter Boyle was a brilliant actor and a friend to everyone he knew. He will be sorely missed, but never forgotten, as his exquisite performances, preserved on film and the legacy of this much loved man will keep his spirit alive for years to come.
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Peter Boyle died on December 12th, 2006, in New York City, after a long battle with multiple myeloma and heart disease. He is survived by his wife, Lorraine, and their children, Lucy and Amy.
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