Len Cariou

Born on 30 September 1939 in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Canada, Cariou first honed his craft on home stages before emerging as a highly sought performer in both dramatic and musical comedy parts. He arrived in New York City in 1968 for his American debut, appearing in the Broadway staging of The House Of Atreus under Tyrone Guthrie’s direction. The next year he assumed the title role in an American National Theatre and Academy mounting of William Shakespeare’s King Henry V. A sharp departure followed in 1970 when he portrayed Bill Sampson opposite Lauren Bacall in the Broadway production of Applause, an effort that earned him a Tony Award nomination for his combined acting and vocal work. Three years afterward he received another Tony nomination for his portrayal of Fredrick Egerman in Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music. In 1977 he took a purely dramatic part in Cold Storage and then repeated the role of Fredrick Egerman in the widely criticized screen adaptation of A Little Night Music. Returning to Broadway in 1979, Cariou led Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, sharing the stage with Angela Lansbury; the performance brought him the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Additional Broadway appearances in the 1980s included Dance A Little Closer in 1983 and Teddy And Alice in 1987, the latter casting him as Theodore Roosevelt in a pair of comparatively modest vehicles.

From the 1990s onward Cariou moved fluidly between theater and film and television. Stage credits encompassed The Speed Of Darkness in 1991, The Dinner Party in 2000, and Proof in 2001. On screen he appeared in Executive Decision in 1996 and About Schmidt in 2002. Television work featured supporting parts in The Practice, The West Wing, and Murder, She Wrote, the last of these reuniting him with Lansbury.