Chicago actor Louis Zorich, husband of Olympia Dukakis, dead at 93
Chicago Sun Times
By Maureen O’Donnell
2/1/2018
Louis Zorich, a busy stage actor who is probably best-known for playing the father of Paul Reiser on the TV sitcom “Mad About You,” has died at 93.
A deep-voiced Chicago native who studied at Roosevelt University and the Goodman School of Drama, he was the longtime husband of actress Olympia Dukakis.
Their son Peter announced Wednesday on Facebook that Mr. Zorich had died in his sleep. His death was confirmed by a representative for the actress.
Mr. Zorich also was the uncle of former Chicago Bears player Chris Zorich.
In a 2010 appearance at an AARP gathering in Orlando, they talked about the reason for their lengthy marriage:
“When we first got together. . . .we didn’t read books about it,” he said. “We just said to ourselves that, one to the other, that I’m there for you, and you’re there for me. If she wanted to go to Hollywood and do a movie, I says do it. If I want to go away on Broadway, you go do it.”
She said, “We know that that’s been the glue.”
In 1989, she told an interviewer, “When the kids were young, I limited my career. It was my husband who urged me to continue.”
They were in the news together in 1988 when a thief stole her “Moonstruck” Oscar for Best Supporting Actress from their Montclair, New Jersey, home.
Mr. Zorich and his wife helped found New Jersey’s Whole Theater company.
He wrote a book about auditioning — “What Have You Done?” In it, he singled out his teachers at the Goodman Theatre School, Dr. Bella Itkin and Joe Slowik, “for believing in me.”
The couple have three children. Mr. Zorich’s brother Blaise, who died in 2002, was a founder of the South Side Shindo Kan School of Judo, where Chris Zorich studied martial arts.
ZORICH, Louis
Born: 2/12//1924, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Died: 1/30/2018, U.S.A.
Louis Zorich’s westerns – actor:
Hudson Bay (TV) – 1959 (Jamie McKenzie, Jack Cherry, Grosjean)
R.C.M.P. (TV) – 1959 (Sam Covell)