‘Girls’ and ‘Newhart’ actor Peter Scolari has passed away at the age of 66 after battling cancer for two years.
Ellen Lubin Sanitsky, the star’s manager at Wright Entertainment, confirmed his death, Variety reported.
Scolari starred opposite Tom Hanks in the comedy show Bosom Buddies but it was ultimately canceled after two seasons.
Scolari and Hanks remained friends even after the show was canceled in 1982. They also worked on other projects, including Hank’s ‘That Thing You Do!’
The actor was nominated four times for an Emmy – three times for his role in Newhart and in 2016 for playing Tad Horvath on Girls.
“When the nomination did come through in the way that it did, I was really quite taken aback and flush with gratitude and really humbled by it, thinking that this is a gigantic privilege,” Scolari said after he won the trophy.
“There’s about 50 to 100 other actors who are on the ballot, and I’m in the Academy, I looked through, there’s a lot of staggeringly talented actors, so I’m not quite so sure what it is I’ve done to get here, but I know I’m lucky, I can promise you that,” Scolari added.
His list of credits includes roles as Wayne Szalinski on Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, Commissioner Loeb on Gotham, and producer Michael Harris on Newhart.
In 2013, he reunited with Hanks for the production of Lucky Guy at Broadway’s Broadhurst Theatre.
Scolari, who married four times, had been married to actress Tracy Shayne for eight years.
“When Tracy and I got married, Tom got up to speak. To be honest with you, I thought he was going to tease me and make fun of me a little bit,” he recalled during an interview.
“And he didn’t tease me at all, he actually said, ‘We should all be a little more like him because he never stopped trying. He doesn’t give up.’
“Can you imagine such a thing? I cannot get my mind around what I’ve done in my life to deserve this kind of affection.”
Scolari is survived by his wife Shayne and his four children, Cali, Joseph, Keaton, and Nicholas.
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