Tony Fitzpatrick (1958 - 2025)
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Actor, writer and multi-hyphenate artist Tony Fitzpatrick died on October 11 at the age of 66. Tony wrote and performed in many productions around Chicago. He earned a Jeff Award for Best Actor in Prop Thtr’s production of MASS MURDER, and he appeared in Lookingglass Theatre's production of RACE. In 2010, Tony wrote and starred in THIS TRAIN (16th Street Theater, Steppenwolf Garage), followed by Firecat Projects’ STATIONS LOST in 2011 at the Steppenwolf Garage before moving to the Boiler Room in Brooklyn.The trilogy concluded in 2012 with NICKEL HISTORY: THE NATION OF HEAT also at the Steppenwolf Garage. A mural he created in honor of former Steppenwolf Theatre artistic director Martha Lavey, titled “Night and Day in the Garden of All Other Ecstasies,” was installed in 2021on the exterior of the theater’s expanded campus on Halsted Street.
Appearing in more than 15 films, Tony’s screen credits include PRIMAL FEAR, MAD DOG AND GLORY, PHILADELPHIA, MARRIED TO THE MOB and THE FUGITIVE. Most recently, he had a recurring role in the TV show, PATRIOT. Other TV credits include ER, TURKS, CUPID and HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET. Tony was a renowned and prolific creator of mixed-media collages, drawings, murals and paintings. His work has been exhibited in the art world’s most prestigious institutions in North America, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. His work is also in the private collections of Martin Scorsese, Bill Gates, Lou Reed, and Harrison Ford, as well as on many album covers. He also was transformative as a gallery owner, poet, essayist, radio host, newspaper columnist, book author and printmaker. Anthony Fitzpatrick was born November 24, 1958, the fourth of eight children to Annamae, a writer, and James, a burial vault salesman. Born and raised in the western suburbs, Tony’s academic training in the arts took place at the College of DuPage. As he said about the school some years ago, “So much of my creative life began here. I did my first acting here. I started to seriously write poetry here. I made art here.” Tony is survived by his wife, Michele, and their children, Max and Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, and their extended family. With thanks to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times and Steppenwolf Theatre. |