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IMDbPro

Peter Boyle(1935-2006)

  • Actor
  • Soundtrack
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,00019
Peter Boyle
The story is about a 12 year old girl who loses her mother in an automobile accident. Her father struggles with the loss of his wife and trying to raise his young daughter who believes her father is partly responsible for her mother's death...
Play trailer2:19
All Roads Lead Home (2008)
40 Videos
99+ Photos
A bold, blunt instrument of hatred and violence at the onset of his film career, Peter Boyle recoiled from that repugnant, politically incorrect "working class" image to eventually play gruff, gentler bears and even comedy monsters in a career that lasted four decades.

He was born on October 18, 1935, in Norristown, Pennsylvania, to Alice (Lewis) and Francis Xavier Boyle. He eventually moved to Philadelphia, where his father was a sought-after local TV personality and children's show host. His paternal grandparents were Irish immigrants, and his mother was of mostly French and British Isles descent. Following a solid Catholic upbringing (he attended a Catholic high school), Peter was a sensitive youth and joined the Christian Brothers religious order at one point while attending La Salle University in Philadelphia. He left the monastery after only a few years when he "lost" his calling.

Bent on an acting career, Boyle initially studied with guru Uta Hagen in New York. The tall (6' 2"), hulking, prematurely bald actor wannabe struggled through a variety of odd jobs (postal worker, waiter, bouncer) while simultaneously building up his credits on stage and waiting for that first big break. Things started progressing for him after appearing in the national company of "The Odd Couple" in 1965 and landing TV commercials on the sly. In the late 60s he joined Chicago's Second City improv group and made his Broadway debut as a replacement for Peter Bonerz in Paul Sills' "Story Theatre" (1971) (Sills was the founder of Second City). Peter's breakout film role did not come without controversy as the hateful, hardhat-donning bigot-turned-murderer Joe (1970) in a tense, violence-prone film directed by John G. Avildsen. The role led to major notoriety, however, and some daunting supporting parts in T.R. Baskin (1971), Slither (1973) and as Robert Redford's calculating campaign manager in The Candidate (1972). During this time his political radicalism found a visible platform after joining Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland on anti-war crusades, which would include the anti-establishment picture Steelyard Blues (1973). This period also saw the forging of a strong friendship with former Beatle John Lennon.

Destined to be cast as monstrous undesirables throughout much of his career, he played a monster of another sort in his early film days, and thus avoided a complete stereotype as a film abhorrent. His hilarious, sexually potent Frankenstein's Monster in the cult Mel Brooks spoof Young Frankenstein (1974) saw him in a sympathetic and certainly more humorous vein. His creature's first public viewing, in which Boyle shares an adroit tap-dancing scene with "creator" Gene Wilder in full Fred Astaire regalia, was a show-stopping audience pleaser. Late 70s filmgoers continued to witness Boyle in seamy, urban settings with brutish roles in Taxi Driver (1976) and Hardcore (1979). At the same time he addressed several TV mini-movie roles with the same brilliant darkness such as his Senator Joe McCarthy in Tail Gunner Joe (1977), for which he received an Emmy nomination, and his murderous, knife-wielding Fatso in the miniseries remake of From Here to Eternity (1979).

While the following decade found Peter in predominantly less noteworthy filming and a short-lived TV series lead as remote cop Joe Bash (1986), the 90s brought him Emmy glory (for a guest episode on The X-Files (1993)). Despite a blood clot-induced stroke in 1990 that impaired his speech for six months, he ventured on and capped his enviable career on TV wielding funny but crass one-liners in the "Archie Bunker" mold on the long-running sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). A major Emmy blunder had Boyle earning seven nominations for his Frank Barrone character without a win, the only prime player on the show unhonored. He survived a heart attack while on the set of "Everybody Loves Raymond" in 1999, but managed to return full time for the remainder of the series' run through 2005.

Following a superb turn as Billy Bob Thornton's unrepentantly racist father in the sobering Oscar-winner Monster's Ball (2001), the remainder of his films were primarily situated in frivolous comedy fare such as The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002), The Santa Clause 2 (2002), Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), typically playing cranky curmudgeons. Boyle died of multiple myeloma (bone-marrow cancer) and heart disease at New York Presbyterian Hospital in 2006, and was survived by his wife Lorraine and two children. He was 71.
BornOctober 18, 1935
DiedDecember 12, 2006(71)
BornOctober 18, 1935
DiedDecember 12, 2006(71)
IMDbProStarmeter
Top 5,00019
  • Won 1 Primetime Emmy

Photos169

Bill Pullman, Peter Boyle, Glynis Johns, Monica Keena, Micole Mercurio, and Jack Warden in While You Were Sleeping (1995)
Peter Boyle in Saturday Night Live (1975)
Peter Boyle in Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)
Peter Boyle in Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)
Robert De Niro and Peter Boyle in Taxi Driver (1976)
Peter Boyle, Harry Cohn, Norman Matlock, and Harry Northup in Taxi Driver (1976)
Robert De Niro and Peter Boyle in Taxi Driver (1976)
Robert De Niro and Peter Boyle in Taxi Driver (1976)
Peter Boyle and Sally Murphy in Flying Blind (1992)
Téa Leoni, Peter Boyle, and Corey Parker in Flying Blind (1992)
Peter Boyle in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996)
Peter Boyle in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996)

Known for

Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett, Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts, and Ray Romano in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996)
Everybody Loves Raymond
7.2
TV Series
  • Frank Barone
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Belushi in Red Heat (1988)
Red Heat
6.1
  • Lou Donnelly
  • 1988
Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver (1976)
Taxi Driver
8.2
  • Wizard
  • 1976
Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, and Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein (1974)
Young Frankenstein
8.0
  • The Monster
  • 1974

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Actor

  • All Roads Lead Home (2008)
    All Roads Lead Home
  • The Shallow End of the Ocean
    • (voice)
  • Tim Allen and Martin Short in The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006)
    The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
  • Tripping the Rift (2004)
    Tripping the Rift
    • (voice)
  • Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett, Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts, and Ray Romano in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996)
    Everybody Loves Raymond
  • Matthew Lillard, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Neil Fanning in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
    Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
  • Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story (2002)
    Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story
  • Tim Allen in The Santa Clause 2 (2002)
    The Santa Clause 2
    • (uncredited)
  • Promo Poster
    The Adventures of Pluto Nash
  • The Cat Returns (2002)
    The Cat Returns
    • (English version, voice)
  • Lunch Break
  • Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry in Monster's Ball (2001)
    Monster's Ball
  • Jerry Stiller, Kevin James, and Leah Remini in The King of Queens (1998)
    The King of Queens
  • Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Norm MacDonald, and Reni Santoni in Doctor Dolittle (1998)
    Doctor Dolittle
  • Natasha Henstridge in Species II (1998)
    Species II
    • (uncredited)

Soundtrack

  • Peter Boyle, Brad Garrett, Patricia Heaton, Doris Roberts, and Ray Romano in Everybody Loves Raymond (1996)
    Everybody Loves Raymond
    • (uncredited)
  • Nicolas Cage, Sarah Jessica Parker, and James Caan in Honeymoon in Vegas (1992)
    Honeymoon in Vegas
  • Gene Wilder, Marty Feldman, and Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein (1974)
    Young Frankenstein
    • (uncredited)

Videos41

While You Were Sleeping
Clip 1:05
While You Were Sleeping
While You Were Sleeping
Clip 1:29
While You Were Sleeping
The Shadow
Clip 3:02
The Shadow
The Santa Clause
Clip 0:57
The Santa Clause
The Santa Clause
Clip 1:32
The Santa Clause
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Clip 1:28
The Friends of Eddie Coyle
Trailer
Trailer 3:09
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 3:43
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 2:24
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 2:53
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:39
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 3:06
Trailer

Personal details

Edit
    • October 18, 1935
    • Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA
    • December 12, 2006
    • Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA(multiple myeloma and heart disease)
    • Loraine Alterman BoyleOctober 21, 1977 - December 12, 2006 (his death, 2 children)
    • Lucy Boyle
    • (Grandparent)
  • Other works
    (1970s) TV commercial: Florsheim Shoes.
  • Publicity listings
    • 5 Interviews
    • 9 Articles
    • 4 Pictorials
    • 2 Magazine Cover Photos

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Got lost while trying to reach his audition for Everybody Loves Raymond (1996) with his wife frequently asking him if he knew where he was going. The frustration of not knowing caused him to become irritated and snappy when he finally arrived and, as a result, was cast as the gruff and grouchy Frank Barone.
  • Quotes
    I don't think I would be an actor if I was all that intelligent.
    • Often played gruff yet lovable characters
    • Steelyard Blues
      (1973)
      $75,000

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