On Tuesday, April 22 at 2:40 p.m. in the Stage One studio theater, Wagner College Theatre will offer a master class led by actor and director Tony Lo Bianco.
The public is invited to sit in on this workshop.
Film screening: ‘The French Connection’ — April 11 — In the runup to the April 22 master class, the WCT will host a screening of “The French Connection” (1973), in which Tony Lo Bianco played heroin wholesaler Sal Boca. The screening will be held on Friday, April 11 at 6:30 p.m. in Spiro 28.
Veteran actor TONY LO BIANCO is not only known for his skills as a performer, but has extended his talents into directing, writing and producing as well. The New York born-and-bred tough guy and former Golden Gloves boxer has distinguished himself over the years with a variety of blue-collar roles, initially on stage and then on film and TV. Adept at playing both sides of the law — the determined, streetwise cop and the corrupt politico or syndicate boss — he embodies them with a dark, brooding, edgy intensity.
In 1963, Lo Bianco founded the Triangle Theatre, serving as its artistic director for 6 years and collaborating with lighting designer Jules Fisher, playwright Jason Miller and actor Roy Scheider.
Lo Bianco was a regular in Joseph Wambaugh’s TV series, “Police Story,” in the mid 1970s, opposite actors Don Meredith and Chuck Connors.
Lo Bianco won an off-Broadway Obie award as a waning baseball icon in “Yanks-3, Detroit-0, Top of the Seventh.” He also won an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Tony nomination for his role in Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge.”
Lo Bianco received critical kudos for his 1984 one-man show, “Hizzoner!”, based on the life of Fiorello LaGuardia. When he took the show to public television, he won a New York Area Television Academy Award. He revived the show in 2008 under the title, “LaGuardia,” and again recently as “The Little Flower.”
Lo Bianco’s film career started off promisingly with the cult classic, “The Honeymoon Killers” (1969), in which he portrayed a cold-blooded ladies’ man who, paired with a heavyset nurse, sought out wealthy, lonely women to swindle and murder. Over the years, he has given added weight and dimension to such films as “The French Connection” (1971), “The Seven-Ups” (1973), “Bloodbrothers” (1978), “City of Hope” (1991), “Nixon” (1995) and “The Juror” (1996). Lo Bianco scored exceptionally well with such mini-movies as “Marciano” (1979), as fighter Rocky Marciano, and “Bella Mafia” (1997). He has directed episodes of TV programs as “Police Story” (1973) and the feature film, Too Scared to Scream (1985). In a solid career that has nearly reached the four decade mark, the durable Tony Lo Bianco has brought to life a number of interesting, hard-boiled characters.
Compilation including substantial portions of the biographical sketch by Gary Brumburgh for IMDb.