Lee Wilkof | |
|---|---|
 Lee Wilkof | |
| Born | June 25, 1951 |
| Occupation | Actor/Director/Writer |
| Years active | 1978-present |
| Spouse(s) | Connie Grappo (1984-present; 1 child) |
Lee Wilkof (born June 25, 1951)is an American character actor who has been appearing on stage, film and television for 6 decades.
Wilkof is from Canton, Ohio. He is the middle child of Anne Louise and Darwin Wilkof. He has two brothers, Todd and Robert. [1] He graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1972 [2] and studied acting with Austin Pendleton in New York City.[ citation needed ]
After graduating college, Wilkof co-wrote and performed in a comedy revue, The Present Tense, in 1977 at the Park Royal Theatre in New York City. [3] Shortly after its closing, Wilkof moved to Los Angeles and landed small film and television roles. His big break came in 1982 with the leading role as Seymour in the original Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors." [4]
Wilkof directed the film No Pay, Nudity with a cast that stars Nathan Lane, Gabriel Byrne, and Frances Conroy. [5] In 2023 he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in Terence Blanchard's Champion, as The Announcer.
Wilkof plays the banjo and sings in the musical quartet Twenty Mule Team Weiner Train. He is the winner of the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest # 217.
Wilkof lives in Gardiner, New York with his wife, painter Connie Grappo. They have a daughter Perrie who is an acclaimed baker living in Columbus, Ohio. Wilkof was diagnosed with stage two throat cancer in 2020, and is currently cancer free. [6]
Drama Desk Award nomination for The Present Tense
Kiss Me, Kate is a musical written by Bella and Samuel Spewack with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. The story involves the production of a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and the conflict on and off-stage between Fred Graham, the show's director, producer, and star, and his leading lady, his ex-wife Lilli Vanessi. A secondary romance concerns Lois Lane, the actress playing Bianca, and her gambler boyfriend, Bill, who runs afoul of some gangsters. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.
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The Iceman Cometh is a play written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1939. First published in 1946, the play premiered on Broadway at the Martin Beck Theatre on October 9, 1946, directed by Eddie Dowling, where it ran for 136 performances before closing on March 15, 1947. It has subsequently been adapted for the screen multiple times. The work tells the story of a number of alcoholic dead-enders who live together in a flop house above a saloon and what happens to them when the most outwardly "successful" of them embraces sobriety and reveals that he has been on the run after murdering his "beloved" wife.
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Hy Anzell was a Yiddish-speaking American actor. He originated the role of the flower shop owner, "Mr. Mushnik", in the original off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors with Ellen Greene and Lee Wilkof. He was also in the original 1976 Broadway cast of Checking Out.
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Little Shop of Horrors is a horror comedy rock musical with music by Alan Menken and lyrics and a book by Howard Ashman. The story follows a hapless florist shop worker who raises a plant that feeds on human blood and flesh. The musical is loosely based on the low-budget 1960 black comedy film The Little Shop of Horrors. The music, composed by Menken in the style of early 1960s rock and roll, doo-wop and early Motown, includes several well-known tunes, including the title song, "Skid Row (Downtown)", "Somewhere That's Green", and "Suddenly, Seymour".
Little Shop of Horrors is a 1986 American horror comedy musical film directed by Frank Oz. It is an adaptation of the 1982 off-Broadway musical of the same name by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman, which is itself an adaptation of the 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors by director Roger Corman. The film, which centers on a floral shop worker who discovers a sentient carnivorous plant that feeds on human blood, stars Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, and the voice of Levi Stubbs. The film also features special appearances by Jim Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Guest, and Bill Murray. It was produced by David Geffen through The Geffen Company and released by Warner Bros. on December 19, 1986.
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