Peter Scolari

The Art of Not Being the Star

Peter Scolari soon realized that his place in the industry wasn't in the spotlight but just a step or two to the right. In 1980, he put on a dress and heels to star in Bosom Buddies alongside an unknown Tom Hanks. That sitcom lasted just thirty-seven episodes, but it forged a professional partnership that would last for decades.

Scolari brought an almost mathematical physical precision to every scene. While other actors chased the easy laugh, he preferred to work on rhythm and silence. That ability to hold the frame without saying a word helped him survive the cancellation of his first major series.

Hollywood quickly typecast him as the nervous, slightly neurotic everyman.

In 1984, he joined the cast of Newhart as Michael Harris, a yuppie TV producer who was deeply self-absorbed. It was his period of greatest media exposure. He received three consecutive Emmy Award nominations between 1987 and 1989 for this role. Yet the award eluded him for nearly thirty more years.

His relationship with Hanks didn't end in the eighties. In 1996, he appeared in That Thing You Do!, and later, in 2004, he lent his voice and movements to The Polar Express. He never minded that his friend was the biggest star on the planet. Scolari preferred the security of the character actor who never stops working.

Redemption on Cable and Stage

In the mid-1990s, he accepted the lead role in the TV version of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show. Filming ran from 1997 into 2000. It was a purely commercial project that allowed him to raise his children and step away from the pressures of Hollywood's front ranks.

And then came Broadway.

Scolari found in theater a freedom that television denied him because of his slight build. He worked in productions of Hairspray and Wicked. In 2013, he reunited with Hanks onstage in the play Lucky Guy. By then he was a respected veteran who balanced New York stages with surgical appearances in prestige series.

In 2012, Lena Dunham cast him in Girls. Playing Tad Horvath, a family man who comes out later in life, brought him critical relevance once again. In 2016, he won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor for this role. It was a late recognition that came after he replaced another actor who couldn't shoot his scenes.

Scolari never complained about being the second choice.

A Finale Shrouded in Shadows and Reshoots

His final years of work were marked by sobriety and dark characters. In 2014, he joined the DC universe in the series Gotham, playing the corrupt Commissioner Loeb. It was a register far removed from the canned laughter of his early days. Yet he still kept that restless gaze that always made him seem on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

In 2019, he began working on Evil, a series about paranormal events in which he played Bishop Marx. He filmed his scenes while battling an illness he kept strictly private. Peter Scolari died on October 22, 2021 in New York from cancer diagnosed two years earlier.

He left behind a body of more than one hundred on-screen credits and four marriages in his personal history. His final credited appearance was in the episode C Is for Cop, which aired that same year. The actors' union recorded his death at the age of sixty-six.