Gilbert Price

Gilbert Price (September 10, 1942 – January 2, 1991) was an American operatic baritone and actor.

Gilbert Price
Born	(1942-09-10)September 10, 1942 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	January 2, 1991 (aged 48) Vienna, Austria
Occupation(s)	Stage, film, television actor
Awards	Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical nominee (1972) Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical nominee (1975) Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical nominee (1978) Theatre World Award (1964)

Price was a protégé of Langston Hughes.^[1] He was a life member of New York's famed Actors Studio.^[2] Price first gained notice in 1964, for his performances in Hughes' Off-Broadway production of Jerico-Jim Crow. For his work, Price received a Theatre World Award.^[3]

Early life

Price was born on September 10, 1942, in New York City of African-American heritage. In 1960, he graduated from Erasmus Hall High School, where he stood out for both his talent and gentle, easygoing manner.^[3] It has been written that while he was a protégé of Langston Hughes, Hughes had become smitten with the young Price.^[4] Unpublished love poems by Hughes were addressed to a man Hughes called Beauty; it has been posited these poems referred to Price.^[1][5]

Career

Price made guest appearances on several television talk and variety shows including The Ed Sullivan Show, Red Skelton, Garry Moore and The Merv Griffin Show.^[6] Price also sang oratorios, including Leonard Bernstein's Mass, in 1971.

Awards

Price was nominated for three Tony Awards and was the recipient of a Theatre World Award:^[7][8]

• Jerico-Jim Crow (1964) – Theatre World Award
• Lost in the Stars (1972) – Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical
• The Night That Made America Famous (1975) – Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical
• Timbuktu! (1978) – Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical

Other works

• Fly Blackbird (1962) - C. Bernard Jackson & James Hatch
• The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd (1965) - Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley
• Promenade (1969) - Maria Irene Fornes & Al Carmines
• 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976) - Leonard Bernstein & Alan Jay Lerner

Death

Price died in Vienna, Austria, in 1991 at age 48, of accidental asphyxiation due to a faulty space heater.^[1]