Farewell, Peter Boyle

TWIT is sad to report that Peter Boyle has died today.  He was 71 years old, and died from multiple myeloma and heart disease.  Boyle was best known for his role of Frank, Raymond's deadpan, grumpy father on "Everybody Loves Raymond," which aired from 1996 through 2005.  Boyle was repeatedly nominated for an Emmy award for this role, but never won, and was often beat by in the Supporting Actor category by his co-star Brad Garrett.  His other co-stars won at least one Emmy for their performance on the show. 

Peter Boyle had no interest in performing when he was younger, and instead became a monk with the Congregation of the Christian Brothers, an order affiliated with the Catholic Church.  After a few years, monks said that Boyle was too funny for the monestary and he left.  Boyle was a veteran, and served in the Army, but his miltary career was shortened when he suffered a nervous breakdown. 

Boyle won praise for playing both comic and dramatic roles.  His first hit role was as Frankenstein's monster in the Mel Brooks comedy "Young Frankenstein" in 1974.  He went on appear in supporting roles and was more often cast as a character actor rather than a leading man.  In 1990, Boyle suffered a stroke that rendered him speechless for six months, but he made a full recovery.  He also had a heart attack in 1999 on the set of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and quickly regained his health and returned to the series. 

My favorite performance by Peter Boyle was not as Raymond's father, but in a guest star role on one of my favorite shows of all time, "The X-Files." As stated earlier, Boyle never won an Emmy for his role as Raymond's father, but he did win an Emmy in 1996 for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for the episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose."  Boyle played Clyde Bruckman, an insurance salesman who could predict the future.   He also did appeared in one of the funnier sketches on the first season of "Saturday Night Live" with John Belushi.  The sketch was "Dueling Brandos" and Boyle and Belushi traded lines from Brando movies. 

You will be missed, Peter Boyle.  Everytime I hear someone say "holy crap" I'll think of you.