John Cunningham Dies: Prolific Broadway Actor, ‘Dead Poets Society’ Dad Was 93

John Cunningham, a prolific Broadway actor who appeared in such acclaimed productions as the original stagings of Cabaret, 1776, Company, Six Degrees of Separation and The Sisters Rosensweig, and whose many screen credits included roles in Mystic Pizza, Dead Poets Society and School Ties, died Tuesday, January 6, in his Rye, New York, home. He was 93.

His death was announced by family, who noted that he died “in his beloved Victorian home aside the 11th hole at Rye Golf Club.”

Born June 22, 1932, in Auburn, New York, and raised in New Paltz, New York, Cunningham would go on a stint in the Army before attending the Yale School of Drama, where he attained a masters’ degree and made a lifelong friend in classmate and future talk show host Dick Cavett.

After Yale, Cunningham launched a film, stage and TV career that would span 70 years, including early TV roles on soaps The Secret Storm, The Doctors, Another World and Search For Tomorrow.

He began his stage career even before he had an agent: Following an audition for director Moss Hart, the 27-year-old Cunningham made his debut in the 1960 national and international touring company of My Fair Lady, taking the roles of Zoltan and Henry Higgins understudy.

His second Broadway production came in 1968 when he was cast as a replacement in the original staging of Cabaret; he succeeded Bert Convy in the role of Clifford Bradshaw.

A long and steady stream of significant roles in Broadway productions would follow, among them: Nikos in Zorba, Peter (and the understudy for Bobby) in Company, John Adams in 1776, Flan Kittredge in Six Degrees of Separation (opposite Stockard Channing), Nicholas Pym in The Sisters Rosensweig and Captain E.J. Smith in Titanic.

Cunningham last appeared on the New York stage in 2012 when, at age 80, he appeared in an Off Broadway revival of Tina Howe’s Painting Churches, just one of numerous Off Broadway productions in which he starred through the decades.

On the film side, Cunningham played the supporting role of John in the 1993 movie version of Six Degrees of Separation (Donald Sutherland was cast in the lead role of Flan). Other film credits include include the role of grandfather to Matt Damon’s character in 1988’s Mystic Pizza, the father of Ethan Hawke’s character in 1989’s Dead Poets Society, and the father of, again, Damon’s character in 1993’s School Ties. Other film credits include the 1993 Michael J. Fox comedy For Love Or Money and John Singleton’s Shaft remake in 2000.

Cunningham’s stentorian voice was featured in the 1997 Kevin Kline comedy In and Out (Cunningham was the voice on the “Be A Man” instructional guide) and as a newsreel announcer in 1997’s Starship Troopers.

His many TV credits include Law & Order, 30 Rock, The Good Wife, Damages, Cupid and Blue Bloods.

Cunningham is survived by his wife of nearly 70 years, Carolyn Cotton Cunningham; children Christopher, Catherine, and Laura; six grandchildren; and two great grandchildren. The family will host a memorial service at Rye Presbyterian Church in Rye, New York (and online via Zoom through the Church’s website) on Saturday, January 17 at 1:30 p.m. ET. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Entertainment Community Fund.