Warren Michael Manzi (July 1, 1955 – February 11, 2016) was an American playwright and actor, who was best known for the play ''
Perfect Crime
Perfect crimes are crimes that are undetected, unattributed to an identifiable perpetrator, or otherwise unsolved or unsolvable as a kind of technical achievement on the part of the perpetrator. The term is used colloquially in law and fiction (es ...
''.
Career
Manzi was born in
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644.
Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Ha ...
to a single mother of Italian descent. His family later moved to
Lawrence, Massachusetts, where he attended Holy Rosary School and
Central Catholic High School.
He graduated from the
College of the Holy Cross and obtained a master's degree from the
Yale School of Drama
The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University is a graduate professional school of Yale University, located in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1924 as the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts, the school provides training in e ...
. Manzi wrote ''
Perfect Crime
Perfect crimes are crimes that are undetected, unattributed to an identifiable perpetrator, or otherwise unsolved or unsolvable as a kind of technical achievement on the part of the perpetrator. The term is used colloquially in law and fiction (es ...
'' in 1980 at age 25, while an understudy for a role in ''
Amadeus
Amadeus may refer to:
*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), prolific and influential composer of classical music
*Amadeus (name), a given name and people with the name
* ''Amadeus'' (play), 1979 stage play by Peter Shaffer
* ''Amadeus'' (film), ...
''. Early reviews of ''Perfect Crime'' described it as confusing, and Manzi continually rewrote the play throughout the rest of his life. ''Perfect Crime'' opened in New York City on April 18, 1987 and was performed over 11,800 times throughout Manzi's lifetime, becoming the longest running play in city theatre history. Manzi also wrote ''One for the Money'' and ''The Queen of the Parting Shot''.
As an actor, Manzi appeared in the films ''
The Manhattan Project'' (1986) and ''
Nuts'' (1987).
He was married to Ellen Margaret Michelin from 1995 to 1996, when she died. Manzi died of pneumonia aged 60 in 2016, in
Lawrence, Massachusetts.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Manzi, Warren
1955 births
2016 deaths
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
Writers from Manchester, New Hampshire
College of the Holy Cross alumni
David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University alumni
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
Deaths from pneumonia in Massachusetts
American writers of Italian descent
People from Lawrence, Massachusetts
Actors from Manchester, New Hampshire