Theater|Patrick Quinn, 56, an Official of Actors' Equity Association, Dies
Patrick Quinn, 56, an Official of Actors' Equity Association, Dies
By Campbell Robertson
Patrick Quinn, a former president of the Actors' Equity Association who was about to become its first new executive director in 25 years, died yesterday at his country home in Bushkill, Pa. He was 56 and lived in Manhattan.
The cause was a heart attack, said Maria Somma, a spokeswoman for Actors' Equity.
In August, Mr. Quinn was appointed to the highest staff position at Equity, the union that represents 45,000 stage actors and stage managers. His tenure was to begin on Oct. 5. He would have succeeded Alan Eisenberg, who has held the position since 1981.
"We had a very close working relationship," Mr. Eisenberg said. "It would have been a pretty seamless transition."
Ms. Somma said union officers would meet with the council, the union's 83-member governing body, in the next few days to decide how to proceed.
Mr. Quinn had been a member of Equity since 1970 and was elected to the council in 1977. In 2000, he was elected president, a position he held for six years. As president, he helped negotiate a new four-year contract for the union; encouraged Equity members to vote for the first union dues increase in 20 years; and worked closely with producers, theatrical landlords and other unions to help the industry weather the financial consequences of 9/11.
In 1987, Mr. Quinn helped create Equity Fights AIDS, a nonprofit organization started by the union. It later merged with Broadway Cares.
Along with his duties at Equity, Mr. Quinn was a working actor in theater and on television. He made his Broadway debut in the 1976 revival of "Fiddler on the Roof" and performed in six other Broadway productions, including "Lend Me a Tenor," "Beauty and the Beast," "A Class Act" and the 1998 revival of "The Sound of Music."
He was active in Off Broadway and regional theater, often appearing at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey and recently playing Daddy Warbucks in "Annie" and "Annie Warbucks" at the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. He also directed "Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know," a revue that ran for three years off Broadway.
His television credits include recurring roles on "Bosom Buddies" and several soap operas, and appearances on all three current versions of "Law and Order."
Patrick Dominic Quinn was born in Philadelphia, the son of a funeral director and a homemaker. After graduating from Temple University, where he studied theater, he took his first Equity role, in a tour of "Man of La Mancha." In the next few years he continued to act in tours and summer stock, and also started the Charade Dinner Theater, the first Equity dinner theater in the Philadelphia area.
He is survived by his partner of 12 years, Martin Casella; three brothers, James, of Naples, Fla., Gerard, of Coatesville, Pa., and John, of Doylestown, Pa; and a sister, Liz Anne Antonucci of Bloomington, Minn.