Patrick Quinn


Patrick Dominic Quinn was an American actor and a former president of the Actors' Equity Association.
The son of a mortician, Quinn studied theater at Temple University. After graduation from college he took his first Equity role in a touring company of Man of La Mancha. He also helped start the Charade Dinner Theater, the first Equity dinner theater in metropolitan Philadelphia.
His first Broadway role was in the 1976 revival of Fiddler on the Roof. He also was in the cast of Lend Me a Tenor, Beauty and the Beast, A Class Act and the 1998 revival of The Sound of Music.
Quinn's television credits included a recurring role on the ABC sitcom Bosom Buddies and parts on various soap operas. He also appeared in all three current versions of the NBC crime drama Law & Order. Quinn's voice was also featured as the main character in a Schoolhouse Rock! song called Tax Man Max.
Quinn, who had been a member of Equity since 1970, was elected to the council in 1977. He was elected president in 2000. In 1987 he helped organize the non-profit organization Equity Fights AIDS, which later merged with Broadway Cares.
At the time of his death, he was scheduled to succeed Alan Eisenberg as executive director of the association.. He was the second AEA president to die in the office after Colleen Dewhurst.
Quinn died of a heart attack at his country home in Bushkill, Pennsylvania, aged 56. He was survived by his life partner of twelve years, Martin Casella, three brothers, Jimmy, Jerry and John, one sister, Lizanne, their spouses, and nine nieces and nephews.