Peter Boyle
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Image:Peterboyle.jpg Peter Boyle (born October 18, 1935, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American actor.
A native Philadelphian of Irish descent, Boyle has won praise for playing both comic and dramatic roles. He served in the Army, but his military career was shortened by a nervous breakdown. Boyle was also a monk in the Christian Brothers order, and taught drama at their school in Pittsburgh before turning to acting. He graduated from La Salle University in Philadelphia in 1957. He was briefly part of The Second City Chicago ensemble, and he studied acting with famed acting coach Uta Hagen. He had a brief scene in the critically acclaimed 1969 film Medium Cool.
Rise to fame
His first starring role was as the title character in the movie Joe which was released in 1970, in which Boyle played a hardhat bigot to wide acclaim. The film's release was surrounded by controversy over its violence and language. Ironically, it was during this time that Boyle became close friends with the actress Jane Fonda, and with her he participated in many protests against the Vietnam War. After seeing people cheer at his role in Joe, Boyle refused the lead role in The French Connection (1971) as well as other movie and TV roles that, he believed, glamorized violence.
Boyle had another hit role with Young Frankenstein in 1974, directed by Mel Brooks. Boyle also gave another acclaimed dramatic performance in the 1977 television film Tail Gunner Joe where he played disgraced Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Boyle is most often seen in supporting roles and appears more often as a character actor than a leading man. Some of his better known roles include appearances in Taxi Driver, The Dream Team, The Shadow, and The Candidate.
He won an Emmy award in 1996 for his role in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose," a season-three episode of the cult TV show The X-Files, in which he played an insurance salesman who can see into the future. In the 1970s when he hosted Saturday Night Live' (1975) he had the opportunity to demonstrate his fine singing voice.
Boyle is probably best known to audiences today for his role as cranky Frank Barone in the popular CBS television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which aired from 1996 until 2005. The show was shot in Los Angeles, to which Boyle commuted from his New York City home. He was repeatedly nominated for an Emmy for this role, but never won (beaten out multiple times in the Supporting Actor category by his costar Brad Garrett), though all of the other lead actors on the show -- Garrett, Ray Romano, Patricia Heaton, and his TV wife Doris Roberts -- have won at least one Emmy each for their performances.
Trivia
- Boyle was best friends with rock legend John Lennon, who was the best man at Boyle's 1977 wedding to Lorraine Alterman, with whom he has two daughters, Lucy and Amy. Boyle met Lennon through his wife, a reporter for Rolling Stone who was friends with Yoko Ono.
- Boyle suffered a stroke in 1990 and was unable to talk for 6 months.
- Starting in late 2005, Boyle, with former TV wife Doris Roberts, appeared in several TV ads for the 75th anniversary of Alka-Seltzer, reprising the famous line, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing."
- On April 12, 2006, Boyle appeared on an Episode of Mind of Mencia.