Len Cariou
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Len Cariou (born September 30, 1939) is a Canadian actor.
Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he grew up and attended schools in East Kildonan, including Miles Macdonell Collegiate for grades 10 and 11.
Cariou started his acting career in Stratford, Ontario, tackling classical roles like King Lear, Macbeth, Prospero, Coriolanus, Brutus, Petruchio, Iago, Oberon, and Henry V. He was offered a scholarship at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal but, married with a young child and financial responsibilities, he rejected it.
In 1968, Cariou made his Broadway debut in The House of Atreus. Two years later he landed his first starring role in Applause, a musical adaptation of the film All About Eve. It earned him a Tony Award nomination as Best Actor in a Musical and won him the Theatre World Award. In 1973 he garnered his second Tony nod for A Little Night Music. Six years later he won both the Tony and a Drama Desk Award for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street in the Stephen Sondheim musical. His next projects, the Alan Jay Lerner-Charles Strouse musical Dance a Little Closer (1983), Arthur Miller's sole musical, Up from Paradise (1983), and Teddy & Alice (1987) proved to be far less successful.
In 2002, Cariou joined Anne Heche and Neil Patrick Harris as the replacement cast in the award-winning drama Proof.
Cariou's film credits include Flags of Our Fathers, About Schmidt, Thirteen Days, The Four Seasons, and the Harold Prince-directed screen adaptation of A Little Night Music with Elizabeth Taylor. His latest project, 1408, is in post-production for a 2007 release.
On television, Cariou has appeared in The West Wing, Law & Order, The Practice, Ed, The Outer Limits, and multiple episodes of Murder, She Wrote.
Cariou narrated Major League Baseball's World Series films from 1992-1997. He has recorded a number of books, including several by Michael Connelly, for audiotape release. In 2004, he was elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame.
Preceded by John Cullum for On the Twentieth Century |
Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical 1979 for Sweeney Todd |
Succeeded by Jim Dale for Barnum |
[edit] External links
- Len Cariou at the Internet Movie Database
- Len Cariou at the Internet Broadway Database
- Len Cariou Downstage Center XM radio interview by the American Theatre Wing, February 2007
Categories: Canadian musical theatre actors | Canadian film actors | Canadian male singers | American Theatre Hall of Fame inductees | Canadian television actors | Law & Order cast members | The West Wing cast members | Living people | Major League Baseball announcers | Tony Award winners | People from Winnipeg | World Series | 1939 births