Jobbing actor Nicholas Pryor, who graced the stage and screen (both big and small) for seven decades has passed away. He was 89.
Nicholas Pryor, Rest In Peace
Pryor’s wife, actress Christine Belford, informed The Hollywood Reporter that he succumbed to cancer on Monday in the home that they shared in Wilmington, North Carolina.
In response to the news, Jon Lindstrom (Kevin Collins, General Hospital) wrote on his Instagram: “It is my solemn task to announce the passing of the great Nicholas Pryor. Nick was an Actor’s actor, and an exceptional friend. He passed on October 7, 2024, surrounded by loving family.
“…He starred on #Broadway and delivered terrific work in Film and TV for over 60 years. But to me, he was my friend. One of the best I’ve ever had.
“He was a mentor, a sounding board, a trusted confidant, and even a father-figure beyond, yes, playing my own father on [GH] and [Port Charles]. And he was one of the funniest people you could hope to spend time with over a bottle of good wine and a great meal. I will miss him terribly… ”
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Nicholas Pryor: A Life Well Lived
The Baltimore native honed his craft while treading the boards at the Drummond Players, the Camden Hills Theatre in Maine, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Star Theatre in Minneapolis.
In a three-year span following his graduation from Yale University in 1956, Pryor appeared in a quartet of Broadway plays, each of them busts by anyone’s standards: The Egghead (with Karl Malden), Love Me a Little (opposite future Dark Shadows icon Joan Bennett), Howie (starring Leon Ames), and The Highest Tree (featuring Diana Douglas as his leading lady).
In 1958, he made his TV debut via Irna Phillip’s washboard weeper The Brighter Day. In the ensuing years, Pryor would appear in ten further sudsers: Young Doctor Malone (1959), The Secret Storm, Another World (his alter-ego’s impregnation of, and subsequent murder by, lead heroine Pat Matthews provided the catalyst for the debuting series’ first six months of plot), The Nurses, The Secret Storm, Love Is a Many Splendored Thing, All My Children (as one of the many Linc Tylers), The Edge of Night, and, of course, GH and Port Charles where we played errant father and super spy Victor Collins.
Pryor received top billing in his first film, The Way We Live Now (1970), which he followed up with supporting and bit roles in Man on a Swing (1974), The Happy Hooker (1975), The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979) and Airplane! (1980).
He was Tom Cruise’s much-put-upon parent in Risky Business (1983), Robert Downey Jr.’s father in Less Than Zero (1987), and one of the (semi-reluctant) Anti-Christ’s victims in Damien: Omen II (1978). His other film credits include Pacific Heights(1990), Hoffa (1992), Sliver (1993), Hail Caesar (1994), Collateral Damage (2002), The List (2007), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1 (2014), Doctor Sleep (2019) and Halloween Kills (2021) – – the latter proving his last work as an actor.
Pryor returned to the Great White Way on three occasions, appearing in That Championship Season, Thieves, and The Caube Mutiny.
His myriad of television work (over 100 entries on his stuffed resume) includes recurring roles in Little House on the Prairie, Beverly Hills, 90210 (as A. Milton Arnold, the chancellor of California University), Party of Five, and The Bronx Zoo, as well as stirring performances in miniseries The Adams Chronicles, Washington: Behind Closed Doors and East of Eden.
Pryor and Belford, his fourth wife, were married since July 1993 (and screen partners during his tenure on BH: 90210). He is also survived by his daughter, Stacey, and grandchildren, Auguste and Avril.
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