Michael Peter Moran (February 8, 1944 â€" February 4, 2004) was an
American actor and playwright.Moran was born in Yuba City, California,
but his family moved frequently because his father was a United States
Army officer. While his family was living in Cedar Grove, New Jersey,
he graduated from Passaic Valley Regional High School in Little Falls.
While he was a student there, he designed and supervised construction
of an elaborate set for a benefit production of Robert Merrill's
musical Take Me Along. He gained some of his first experience under
Gilbert Rathbun in the theater program at Seton Hall University in
South Orange, N.J. - though he was not a student there - and at the
Theater on the Mall in Paramus, where he worked with director Robert
Ludlum, who had not yet launched his career as a novelist. Moran's
roles at Seton Hall included Sir Toby Belch in William Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night and "Mortimer, the Man Who Dies" in The Fantasticks by
Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones.Moran moved to the Lower East Side of New
York City in 1966 and was educated at New York University's Tisch
School of the Arts. He became a member of the theatre groups the
Manhattan Project and the Cooper-Keaton Group. Both groups produced
plays written by Moran, including Call Me Charlie, starring Danny
DeVito. He also appeared in several productions for the New York
Shakespeare Festival, and in off-Broadway productions including
Sheridan's The Rivals (1984, Lion Theatre, 422 West 42nd Street), of
which one critic wrote, "Michael P. Moran, built like a barrel, comes
close to stealing the show as he roars and blusters through the role
of Sir Anthony."Moran appeared in several plays by Horton Foote at the
Ensemble Studio Theatre: The Prisoner's Song (2002), Everything That
Rises Must Converge, and The Belmont Avenue Social Club. The New York
Times wrote of Prisoner's Song "Pitch-perfect performances by the
four-member cast make it work. ... The galvanizing force, though, is
Michael P. Moran's aching rendition of Luther Wright."
American actor and playwright.Moran was born in Yuba City, California,
but his family moved frequently because his father was a United States
Army officer. While his family was living in Cedar Grove, New Jersey,
he graduated from Passaic Valley Regional High School in Little Falls.
While he was a student there, he designed and supervised construction
of an elaborate set for a benefit production of Robert Merrill's
musical Take Me Along. He gained some of his first experience under
Gilbert Rathbun in the theater program at Seton Hall University in
South Orange, N.J. - though he was not a student there - and at the
Theater on the Mall in Paramus, where he worked with director Robert
Ludlum, who had not yet launched his career as a novelist. Moran's
roles at Seton Hall included Sir Toby Belch in William Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night and "Mortimer, the Man Who Dies" in The Fantasticks by
Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones.Moran moved to the Lower East Side of New
York City in 1966 and was educated at New York University's Tisch
School of the Arts. He became a member of the theatre groups the
Manhattan Project and the Cooper-Keaton Group. Both groups produced
plays written by Moran, including Call Me Charlie, starring Danny
DeVito. He also appeared in several productions for the New York
Shakespeare Festival, and in off-Broadway productions including
Sheridan's The Rivals (1984, Lion Theatre, 422 West 42nd Street), of
which one critic wrote, "Michael P. Moran, built like a barrel, comes
close to stealing the show as he roars and blusters through the role
of Sir Anthony."Moran appeared in several plays by Horton Foote at the
Ensemble Studio Theatre: The Prisoner's Song (2002), Everything That
Rises Must Converge, and The Belmont Avenue Social Club. The New York
Times wrote of Prisoner's Song "Pitch-perfect performances by the
four-member cast make it work. ... The galvanizing force, though, is
Michael P. Moran's aching rendition of Luther Wright."
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