Ray Stricklyn, the veteran stage, film, and television actor who became the most awarded Los Angeles stage performer of the 1980s, died in his home on Tuesday after long battle with chronic emphysema. He was 73.
Born in Houston, Texas, Stricklyn left his hometown in 1950 to pursue an acting career in New York. He made his Broadway debut in 1952 in Moss Hart's The Climate of Eden, followed by an Off-Broadway turn in Truman Capote's The Grass Harp, directed by José Quintero. He moved to Hollywood in 1955, where he became a contract player for 20th Century Fox Studios. His films included The Proud and the Profane, Crime in the Streets, Somebody Up There Likes Me, The Last Wagon, The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker, and The Big Fisherman. He portrayed Bette Davis' son in The Catered Affair and Gary Cooper's son in Ten North Frederick, and went on to star in Young Jesse James and The Plunderers, for which he was nominated for Supporting Actor Golden Globe.
In 1973, Stricklyn changed careers, serving for 10 years as West Coast director of publicity for New York's John Springer Associates, repping such clients as Henry Fonda, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Robert Preston, and Bette Davis. In 1982 Stricklyn returned to the stage, appearing in such L.A. productions as How Does Your Garden Grow? and Naomi Court. His association with Tennessee Williams earned him the most acclaim: in Vieux Carré and in the one-man Confessions of a Nightingale, in which Stricklyn portrayed Williams, both of which won him Best Actor awards from the L.A. Drama Critics Circle and L.A. Weekly. He toured with Confessions for a decade, from New Orleans to Edinburgh to Israel, performing it for the last time in 1997. He issued the candid autobiography Angels & Demons in 1999, about his life as an actor and a gay man. In November 2000 Stricklyn was honored with a Theatre LA Ovation Award for Career Achievement.
He is survived by his sister Mary Ann, his nieces Karen and Kathy, and his longtime companion, L.A. stage director David Galligan.