Tom Ligon, who played backup catcher Piney Woods and performed the cowboy song “Streets of Laredo” in the poignant baseball drama Beat the drum slowlyHe died. He was 85 years old.
Ligon’s death was reported Monday by SAG-AFTRA New York Local. A longtime resident of Greenwich Village, he served as president of the National Committee on Senior Citizens and co-chair of the Committee on Senior Citizens of New York.
The blue-eyed Ligon also starred as a hillbilly demolition derby driver in 1971 Jumping (Also known as Rage on wheelsShe appeared two years later in another film about car racing, The last American heroStarring Jeff Bridges.
On television, Ligon was involved in a love quadrangle as Lucas Prentiss on the CBS soap opera The young and the restless From 1978 to 1982 he recurred as inmate Alvin Youde, a small-town sheriff convicted of aggravated assault, on HBO. geese From 2001-03.
In 1969, he starred opposite Geraldine Page on Broadway Angela And alongside Sandy Duncan in the duo Love is a time of dayBut both plays ran for a total of 12 performances.
At Paramount Beat the drum slowly (1973), directed by John D. Hancock, Lijeune plays guitar and sings “Streets of Laredo” (A Cowboy’s Lament) in the New York Mammoths’ locker room during a rain delay while his teammates listen, including those played by Robert De Niro – a starting pitcher suffering from Hodgkin’s disease – Michael Moriarty and Danny Aiello.
Thomas Bryant Lijeune was born in New Orleans on September 10, 1940. His father, Walter, was a colonel in the US Army and later worked for the Department of Defense.
Lijeune attended St. Albans School in Washington and then Yale University, where he starred as Kilroy in Tennessee Williams. Camino Real It reportedly caught the attention of the playwright.
He graduated from college as an English major in 1962 and continued acting in New York, sharing a $25-a-month sublet in The Village with another young actor, Sam Waterston.
It arrived on Broadway in 1963 Do I have a girl for you!But the comedy wrapped up opening night.
In 1964, Lijeune starred in the film Billy Budd at the Arena Theater in Washington and made his big screen debut in Michael Roemer’s acclaimed drama Nothing but a manStarring Evan Dixon and Abe Lincoln.
He had a major hit in 1968 with his Off-Broadway role in the long-running hit Your thingThen he appeared as a naive young man in the movie Joshua Logan Paint your car (1969), starring Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin.
Meanwhile, he continued to act on stage. In 1972, he starred off-Broadway with McClanahan’s Street God says there is no Peter OtIn 2007, he landed the lead role in an early Queen’s Theater Workshop production of Rajeev Joseph’s play. Bengal tiger in Baghdad Zoo (Robin Williams played the role in the 2011 Broadway production.)
Ligon has also been in movies Have a nice trip (1977) and Cutting class (1989) – his son played the latter part of the little-known Brad Pitt – and appeared in episodes of the drama and romance series (1989). Medical Center, Baretta, Charlie’s Angels, Police woman, Starsky and Hatch, Ba ba black sheep, Dallas, Law and order and Heart, she’s howler.
In addition The young and the restlessHe has worked on other soaps like Loving, Santa Barbara, Another world and All my children.
He was married to actress and dialect coach Katherine Dunphy Clarke (KC Ligon), daughter of actors David Clarke and Nora Dunphy, from 1976 until her death in 2009 from a blood disorder at the age of 60.
