Veteran Character Actress Anne Pitoniak Dies at 85

Two-time Tony Award nominee Anne Pitoniak, who began a distinguished stage career in her mid-50s, died on April 22 of cancer, according to The New York Times. She was 85 and lived in Manhattan.

Pitoniak was born in Westfield, Massachusetts, on March 30, 1922, and graduated from the University of North Carolina. She joined the U.S.O. and met her soldier husband, Jerome Milord, when they did a show together in Japan. They had two children and divorced in 1968.

During her marriage, Pitoniak acted only in a few commercials. But in 1975, with her children grown, she began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute and joined the resident company at the Actors Theater of Louisville two years later. There, she appeared in Marsha Norman's first play, Getting Out, John Pielmeier's Agnes of God and Jane Martin's Talking With, which transferred to an off-Broadway production.

Pitoniak's stage career blossomed quickly in New York, where she became a top choice for strong older women roles. She received a Best Actress Tony nomination in 1983 for playing the suicidal Kathy Bates' distraught mother in Norman's 'night, Mother, the same year she was honored with a Theatre World Award for both 'night Mother and Talking With. In 1994, she received a Best Featured Actress nomination for Picnic. Other Broadway credits included The Octette Bridge Club, Amy's View, Uncle Vanya, Dance of Death and Imaginary Friends. Pitoniak's off-Broadway credits included The Last of the Thorntons, The Batting Cage, The Rose Quartet, Pygmalion, Steel Magnolias, All the Way Home, The Gay Apprentice and Too Close for Comfort.

Two years ago, actress Amy Ryan sat down to tea with Pitoniak, her co-star in Uncle Vanya, to discuss the art of stage acting in a charming First Person feature for Broadway.com. Pitoniak observed, "What I love about theater is that there's so much to learn from other people's points of view. From 'night, Mother I learned to listen to my children by what they were not saying. Once a lesson from theater is awakened in you, it will never leave you."