Actor Peter Scolari is dead at age 66 after a two-year battle with cancer. He starred alongside Tom Hanks in “Bosom Buddies” for two years in the early 1980s for ABC. He then followed up with a long-running role as a small town TV producer opposite Bob Newhart on “Newhart,” which brought him three Emmy nominations.
He finally won an Emmy Award in 2016 as Best Comedy Guest Actor after initially not even being nominated. Following Gold Derby’s reporting that summer (see report here), Peter MacNicol was deemed ineligible for “Veep” due to appearing in too many episodes of that HBO comedy. Scolari was just out of a nomination in seventh place for “Girls” on HBO where he played the father of Lena Dunham‘s character Hannah, so the Television Academy gave him that nomination slot instead. Watch our short backstage video in the Emmy press room has Scolari discusses that unusual turn of events. You can also view videos below of our red carpet chat with him prior to his Emmy win and a 25-minute interview with him a year later discussing the surreal nature of that experience.
He took down “Saturday Night Live” hosts Larry David and Tracy Morgan, recent category winners Bradley Whitford (“Transparent,” 2015) and Bob Newhart (“The Big Bang Theory,” 2013) and first-time contender Martin Mull (“Veep”).
In over 40 years, some of his other TV credits included “Honey I Shrunk the Kids,” “From the Earth to the Moon” (produced by Hanks), “The Love Boat,” “Murphy Brown,” “E.R.,” “The West Wing,” “The Good Fight,” “Madoff,” “Fosse/Verdon” and “Ally McBeal.” He had a cameo in a film directed by Hanks, “That Thing You Do!,” plus appeared with him on Broadway in “Lucky Guy” in 2013.
PREDICT the 2022 SAG Awards nominees until Jan. 12
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
