Michael McGrath, the veteran stage actor who won a Tony Award for his performance in the Broadway musical Nice Work If You Can Get It, has died. He was 65.
McGrath’s publicist confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that he died suddenly at his home in Bloomfield, New Jersey on Thursday. No cause of death has been determined.
A regular in Broadway and off-Broadway musicals and musical comedy productions, McGrath had starring turns in Plaza Suite, Tootsie, Memphis, Born Yesterday and Wonderful Town. He was also the first actor to play the role of Patsy, King Arthur’s long-suffering sidekick, in Spamalot, which also earned him a Tony nomination.
McGrath was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on Sept. 25, 1957. He graduated from St. Peter’s High School in Worcester and then attended the Boston Conservatory, leaving after three months to pursue a career in acting.
He began his stage career in Worcester before moving to Boston and garnering attention following a three-year run in Gerard Alessandrini’s musical comedy Forbidden Broadway from 1985 to 1989. One of McGrath’s co-stars in Forbidden Broadway was the actress Toni DuBuono, whom he would go on to marry.
“Forbidden Broadway has always been one of the hardest shows I’ve ever done,” McGrath said in an interview about the production that proved his breakout. “It’s like doing an opera every night. It was 24 songs a night.”
McGrath moved to New York and gained his first Broadway credit in 1992 as part of Joseph Dougherty’s musical My Favorite Year. During the 1990s, he had parts in The Goodbye Girl, Swinging on a Star and the revival of Neil Simon’s Little Me where he played one of the Buchsbaum brothers alongside Martin Short. McGrath’s performance in Swinging on a Star earned him his first Drama Desk nomination in 1996.
Michael McGrath, Faith Prince and Martin Short in Little Me in 1998.
Everett Collection
His first major Broadway role was in Wonderful Town, playing Chick Clark from 2003 to 2005. By now an established stage talent, McGrath was cast in Spamalot, Eric Idle’s musical adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The high-profile production opened in Chicago in 2004, moving to Broadway the following year. McGrath originated the role of Patsy, King Arthur’s coconut-clopping servant.
“It was an amazing time in my life to work with such people as Mike Nichols and Tim Curry, Hank Azaria, David Hyde Pierce,” McGrath said in an interview in 2014 about working on Spamalot. “When the project was first presented to me, I thought, ‘How the hell are they gonna do a musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail? I just couldn’t see it. Nonetheless, when I was told that Mike Nichols was directing it, I jumped at the chance to be involved.”
The original cast of Spamalot, from left Sara Ramirez, Christopher Sieber, Tim Curry, Eric Idle, Michael McGrath and Hank Azaria with creator Eric Idle.
Peter Kramer/Getty Images
McGrath, who sang the iconic “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” in Spamalot, starred in the production for two-and-a-half years and earned Tony and Drama Desk nominations for best featured actor in a musical in 2005.
In 2012, McGrath scored his one and only Tony award, as well as a Drama Desk prize, for playing Cookie McGee in the musical Nice Work If You Can Get It. His other notable Broadway credits include originating the role of Mr. Simmons in Memphis (2009), playing Ralph Kramden in the musical stage adaptation of the classic sitcom The Honeymooners (2017) and playing Stan Fields in Tootsie (2018).
Outside of theater, McGrath was notably Martin Short’s announcer and sidekick on The Martin Short Show, the short-lived syndicated talk show that birthed the Jiminy Glick character. He also had minor roles in the feature films Changing Lanes (2002) and The Interpreter (2005).
He is survived by his wife of 30 years, actress Toni Di Buono, and daughter, actress Katie Claire McGrath.
