Broadway & TOMA Star Tony Musante Dies at 77

Variety reports that Tony Musante, best known for starring in the 1973 TV detective series TOMA, has passed away at age 77. The actor died on Tuesday, November 26th in Manhattan of a hemorrhage after oral surgery.

Musante made his Broadway debut in "P.S. Your Cat is Dead!" for which he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. He also appeared on the Great White Way opposite Meryl Streep in Tennessee Williams's "27 Wagons Full of Cotton" in 1976.

Musante acted in numerous feature films and television series, including Toma (which was later reincarnated as Baretta starring Robert Blake) and the soap opera As The World Turns. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work in a 1975 episode of Medical Center, A Quality of Mercy. Musante also played Antonio "Nino" Schibetta, a feared Mafia boss and the Italian gang leader inside of Emerald City during the first season of the HBO critically acclaimed television series Oz.

Among his film roles were "The Last Run" opposite George C. Scott in 1971, "The Pope of Greenwich Village" and 1967's "The Incident" with Martin Sheen.

In a recent article in the New York Times, Musante's wife Jane spoke about her husband's decision to leave his TV career to play the title role in Stanley Kramer's 1975 telefilm "Judgment: The Court Martial of Lt. William Calley." "People in Hollywood always asked him if he regretted it, but he really never did," she shared. "He didn't become the household name, or make the money he would have had he done it. But he needed variety."

Musante also appeared in several Italian TV shows and films such as 2003?s "La Vita Come Viene."

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