Longtime NBC Actor Dies of Alzheimer’s Disease Complications: Bruce French Was 79
Character actor and veteran stage star Bruce French, best known for playing Father Lonigan in the NBC soap Passions, has died. French passed away Friday in Los Angeles of complications from Alzheimer’s disease, his wife, Days of Our Lives alum Eileen Barnett, told The Hollywood Reporter. French had been diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disorder about four years ago. He was 79.
“The world is a dimmer place today, missing this amazing light that has gone out,” French’s niece, Claire French, wrote in a Facebook tribute. “We will miss Uncle Bruce tremendously, but are confident that he is joyously reunited with his beloved mom and in the seat he told my dad to save him.”
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Throughout his decades-long career, French racked up over 150 acting credits, and was best known for his role on Passions, NBC’s aughts soap that ran from 1999 until 2008. French appeared in all nine seasons of the hit series as Father Lonigan, the blind priest who had premonitions of evil.
Born in Iowa in 1945, French graduated from the University of Iowa before he went on to serve with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He later pursued acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and made his acting debut in the off-Broadway play The Shadow of a Gunman in 1972. He went on to make his big screen debut just two years later in Man on a Swing, and would go on to appear in films including Mr. Deeds, Mission: Impossible III, Jurassic Park III, Fletch, and Thank You for Smoking, among others.
French also had a prolific TV career. In addition to Passions, the actor also starred in soaps including Dallas and Falcon Crest, as well as series such as Beverly Hills, 90210, Ally McBeal, The Practice, Criminal Minds, L.A. Law, Who’s the Boss?, and Crash.
He also had close ties to the Star Trek franchise, not only starring in the 1998 film Star Trek: Insurrection, but also the TV series Enterprise, Voyager, and The Next Generation.
His friend and fellow actor Barry Cutler paid tribute to French on Facebook, remembering him for his “his superior talent, taste, and intelligence” and for being “one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I’ve ever encountered. An absolutely lovely and wonderful man.” Cutler added that French’s “best work was done in the theatre,” noting that he “performed at the Taper, South Coast Rep, and Seattle Rep. I saw him do some absolutely astonishing work at the Pacific Resident Theatre and at Ralph Waite’s L.A. Actors Theatre, playing Lucky in WAITING FOR GODOT.”
French is survived by his wife, as well as his nieces, Claire and Paula.
