httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0giISDLdjs
Millions of people thought they knew the actor John Mahoney from his work in the NBC sitcom “Frasier” – for 11 hit seasons from 1993 through 2004, he played a cranky Seattle police officer who’d taken a bullet in the hip and then been forced to live with his neurotic son.
Over the years, he lavished most of his time and attention on his beloved Steppenwolf, appearing in more than 30 productions in total at the theater, including Conor McPherson’s “The Seafarer” in 2008, perhaps Mahoney’s most devastating performance, if only for the way it emphasized his innt frailty.
In 1979, Steppenwolf still was populated by people, all friends, who were 15 or 20 years younger than Mahoney.
“We were a bunch of kids,” distraught Steppenwolf co-founder Terry Kinney said Monday night, recalling his early years with Mahoney.
Aside from “Frasier” and his stage work in Chicago, he appeared in the 1987 Barry Levinson film “Tin Men,” and such movies as “Eight Men Out,” “The Hudsucker Proxy” and, most memorably for many, both “Moonstruck” and “Barton Fink.” On Broadway, Mahoney appeared in the resonant 2007 revival of “Prelude to a Kiss.” Back in 1986, he received a Tony Award for his work in Jerry Zaks’ production of John Guare’s “The House of Blue Leaves.” But he always wanted to come home to Chicago, whose mayor, Rahm Emanuel, said in a statement Monday that Mahoney’s contribution to the city would “Endure for generations to come.”
On Monday night, Steppenwolf, which has been suffering through the deaths of several ensemble members in recent months, canceled its planned opening-night performance of the play “You Got Older.” Artists and supporters were instead expected to gather in the theater’s bar and raise a glass to Mahoney, who, some weeks ago, had reminded Shapiro that he did not wish t to be any kind of formal memorial.