Tom Aldredge

Thomas Ernest Aldredge (February 28, 1928 – July 22, 2011) was an American television, film and stage actor, best known for various appearances in movies, theatre and television, with a notable role as Hugh De Angelis on The Sopranos. He also appeared in the television shows Damages as Uncle Pete and Ryan's Hope. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for playing the role of Shakespeare in Henry Winkler Meets William Shakespeare (1978). His last role was on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire, playing the father of Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi).

Life and career

Aldredge was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Lucienne Juliet (née Marcillat) and William Joseph Aldredge, a colonel in the United States Army Air Corps. He originally planned to become a lawyer and was a Pre-Law student at the University of Dayton in the late 1940s. In 1947 he decided to pursue a career as an actor after attending a performance of the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Aldredge carved out a respected career on the Broadway stage that spanned five decades. He made his Broadway debut as Danny in the 1959 musical The Nervous Set. In 1972 he won a Drama Desk Award for his portrayal of Ozzie, the father of a blinded Vietnam veteran, in David Rabe's Sticks and Bones. He played Henry VIII's fool, Will Sommers, in Richard Rodgers' pentultimate musical, Rex in 1976. He originated the role of Norman Thayer Jr. in On Golden Pond in 1978, earning the first of three Tony Award nominations. His best-known role, however, was that of the Narrator/Mysterious Man in Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into The Woods, a role he later repeated in the PBS Great Performances production. He also created the role of the doctor in another Sondhiem/Lapine collaboration, Passion.