Tony-Nominated Actor Joseph Bova Dead at 81
Bova made his Broadway debut in 1959, starring as Prince Dauntless in Once Upon a Mattress opposite Carol Burnett's Princess. He reprised the role in the 1964 television movie of the same name. He received a 1970 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance in The Chinese and Dr. Fish. His other Broadway credits include The Rape of the Belt, Hot Spot, An American Millionaire, Saint Joan and 42nd Street in which he originated the role of Bert Barry. He had a long associated with the Public Theater, appearing in Shakespeare in the Park mountings of Love's Labor's Lost, Richard III, Troilus and Cressida, Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V. An Ohio native, he also was notably featured as the title character in the children's show Uncle Joe on a Cleveland station for six years in the 1940s.
His wife and two siblings are among his survivors.