Cliff Gorman (born Joel Joshua Goldberg; October 13, 1936 – September 5, 2002) was an American stage and screen actor.
He won an
Obie award
The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...
in 1968 for the stage presentation of ''
The Boys in the Band'',
[ and went on to reprise his role in the 1970 ]film version
A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
.
Life and career
Gorman was born Joel Joshua Goldberg in Queens, New York
Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long I ...
, the son of Jewish parents, Ethel (née Kaplan) and Samuel Goldberg, who later changed their surname to Gorman. He attended The High School of Music & Art
The High School of Music & Art, informally known as "Music & Art" (or "M&A"), was a public specialized high school located at 443-465 West 135th Street in the borough of Manhattan, New York, from 1936 until 1984. In 1961, Music & Art and the High ...
in Manhattan.[
Gorman won a ]Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...
in 1972 for playing Lenny Bruce
Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...
in the play ''Lenny''.[ Although the ]film version
A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
, directed by Bob Fosse
Robert Louis Fosse (; June 23, 1927 – September 23, 1987) was an American actor, choreographer, dancer, and film and stage director. He directed and choreographed musical works on stage and screen, including the stage musicals ''The Pajam ...
, featured Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is th ...
, Gorman was recruited to portray a Dustin Hoffman-like character portraying Lenny Bruce, in a side-story in Fosse's autobiographical film '' All That Jazz'' (1979).
He played Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...
in the 1981 TV movie '' The Bunker'', and co-starred as Lt. Andrews in the film ''Angel
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
'' (1984). He had roles in the movies '' Cops and Robbers'' (1973), ''Rosebud
Rosebud may refer to:
* Rose bud, the bud of a rose flower
Arts
* The name of Jerry Garcia's guitar from 1990 until his death in 1995.
* In the 1941 film ''Citizen Kane'', the last words of Charles Foster Kane and an overall plot device.
* "Ros ...
'' (1975), '' Brinks: The Great Robbery'' (1976), ''An Unmarried Woman
''An Unmarried Woman'' is a 1978 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Mazursky and starring Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates and Michael Murphy. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Original Sc ...
'' (1978) with Jill Clayburgh
Jill Clayburgh (April 30, 1944 – November 5, 2010) was an American actress known for her work in theater, television, and cinema. She received the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Act ...
, ''Night of the Juggler
''Night of the Juggler'' is a 1980 American neo-noir action crime drama exploitation thriller film starring James Brolin.
Plot
A former cop (James Brolin), aligns with a street smart young clerk from the New York City dog pound (Julie Carmen) on ...
'' (1980), '' Hoffa'' (1992) with Jack Nicholson
John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
and Danny DeVito
Daniel Michael DeVito Jr. (born November 17, 1944) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He gained prominence for his portrayal of the taxi dispatcher Louie De Palma in the television series ''Taxi'' (1978–1983), which won him a Gold ...
, and ''Night and the City
''Night and the City'' is a 1950 film noir directed by Jules Dassin and starring Richard Widmark, Gene Tierney and Googie Withers. It is based on the Night and the City (novel), novel of the same name by Gerald Kersh. Shot on location in Londo ...
'' (1992). His TV work included performances in the series ''Law and Order
In modern politics, law and order is the approach focusing on harsher enforcement and penalties as ways to reduce crime. Penalties for perpetrators of disorder may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing, three-strikes laws a ...
'', ''Murder, She Wrote
''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The series f ...
'', '' Friday the 13th: the Series'', and the 1970s drama '' Police Story'', written by former LAPD
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...
Detective Sergeant Joseph Wambaugh
Joseph Aloysius Wambaugh, Jr. (born January 22, 1937), is a best-selling American writer known for his fictional and nonfictional accounts of police work in the United States. Several of his early novels were set in Los Angeles and its surroun ...
.
On the September 13, 1965 episode of '' To Tell The Truth'', Gorman sat in seat #1 as an imposter for game #3 of the evening. He received two votes, one from Orson Bean
Orson Bean (born Dallas Frederick Burrows; July 22, 1928 – February 7, 2020) was an American film, television, and stage actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He was a game show and talk show host and a "mainstay of Los Angeles’ small ...
, and one from Kitty Carlisle
Kitty Carlisle Hart (born Catherine Conn; September 3, 1910 – April 17, 2007) was an American actress, singer, and spokeswoman for the arts. She was the leading lady of the Marx Brothers movie '' A Night at the Opera'' (1935) and was a regular ...
. When asked what he actually did for a living, he responded that he sold room air conditioners for the Republic Water Heater Company.
Personal life
Gorman and his wife cared for his fellow '' The Boys in the Band'' cast member Robert La Tourneaux
Robert La Tourneaux (August 10, 1940 – June 3, 1986) was an American actor best known for his role of Cowboy, the good-natured but dim hustler hired as a birthday present for a gay man, in the original Off-Broadway production and 1970 film ve ...
in the last few months of his battle against AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
, until La Tourneaux's death on June 3, 1986.
Death
Gorman died of leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
in 2002, aged 65, although his final film, ''Kill the Poor
"Kill the Poor" is a song by Dead Kennedys, released in October 1980 on Cherry Red Records as the band's third single, with "In-sight" as its B-side. The song is a scathing satire of the elite who if given the chance, would wipe out the impover ...
'', was not released until 2003. He was survived by his wife, Gayle Gorman.
Filmography
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorman, Cliff
1936 births
2002 deaths
Male actors from New York City
American male film actors
American male stage actors
American male television actors
Jewish American male actors
Deaths from cancer in New York (state)
Deaths from leukemia
Obie Award recipients
Tony Award winners
The High School of Music & Art alumni
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews