By Mark Kennedy
Tony Award-nominated actor Nick Cordero, who specialised in playing tough guys on Broadway in such shows as Waitress, A Bronx Tale and Bullets Over Broadway, has died in Los Angeles after suffering severe medical complications after contracting the coronavirus. He was 41.
Cordero died on Sunday at Cedars-Sinai hospital after more than 90 days in the hospital, his wife, Amanda Kloots, said.
Broadway star Nick Cordero, pictured here at the opening night of Rock Of Ages in Hollywood in January this year, has died at 41.Credit: Getty Images
"God has another angel in heaven now," she posted on Instagram. "Nick was such a bright light. He was everyone's friend, loved to listen, help and especially talk. He was an incredible actor and musician. He loved his family and loved being a father and husband."
Cordero was admitted to emergency on March 30 and had a succession of health setbacks, including mini-strokes, blood clots, sepsis infections, a tracheostomy and a temporary pacemaker implanted. He had been on a ventilator and unconscious and had his right leg amputated. A double lung transplant was being explored.
Kloots sent him daily videos of her and their one-year-old son, Elvis, so he could see them if he woke up, and urged friends and fans to join a daily sing-a-long. A GoFundMe page to pay for medical expenses has raised more than $600,000.
"I tell him, I say, 'You're gonna walk out of this hospital, honey. I believe it. I know you can,'" she told CBS This Morning recently. "'We're gonna dance again. You're gonna hold your son again.' My line is, 'Don't get lost. Get focused.'"
Cordero with wife Amanda Kloots at the premiere of Going in Style in New York in 2017.Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
The lanky Cordero originated the menacing role of husband Earl opposite his estranged wife, played by Jessie Mueller, in Waitress, as well as the role of Sonny in Chazz Palminteri's A Bronx Tale. It was in Bullets Over Broadway that Cordero met his wife. They married in 2017.
Cast members from Waitress – Mueller, Keala Settle, Kimik Glenn and songwriter Sara Bareilles – helped raise money for Cordero by covering his song Live Your Life. Sylvester Stallone sent a video with best wishes.
Kloots had said that it was difficult to tell whether Cordero understood what was happening to him, but said he could respond to commands by looking up and down when he was alert.
Her husband played a mob soldier with a flair for the dramatic in Broadway's Woody Allen 1994 film adaptation of Bullets Over Broadway, for which he received a Tony nomination for best-featured actor in a musical. He moved to Los Angeles to star in Rock of Ages.
On the small screen, Cordero appeared in several episodes of Blue Bloods and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and he had a role in the film Going in Style.
Actor and guitarist for Bruce Springsteen Stevie Van Zandt offered Cordero his first TV acting gig in the final episode of Lilyhammer.
After Cordero was admitted to hospital, Van Zandt teamed up with Constantine Maroulis and Vincent Pastore to make a video performing Live Your Life.
Cordero was last onstage in a Kennedy Centre presentation of Little Shop of Horrors. His off-Broadway credits include The Toxic Avenger and Brooklynite.
The virus has sickened other Broadway veterans, including the actors Danny Burstein, Tony Shalhoub, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Gavin Creel, Aaron Tveit and Laura Bell Bundy as well as composer David Bryan.
It has also claimed the life of Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally.
AP
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