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Tommy Tune is a Actor American born on 28 february 1939 at Wichita Falls (USA)
Thomas James "Tommy" Tune (born February 28, 1939) is an American actor, dancer, singer, theatre director, producer, and choreographer. Over the course of his career, he has won ten Tony Awards and the National Medal of Arts.
Tune was born in Texas to oil rig worker, horse trainer and restaurateur Jim Tune and Eva Mae Clark. He attended Lamar High School in Houston and the Methodist-affiliated Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas. He studied dance under Patsy Swayze in Houston. He also studied dance with Kit Andree in Boulder, Colorado. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from the University of Texas at Austin in 1962 and his Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the University of Houston. Tune later moved to New York to start his career.
Career
In 1965, Tune made his Broadway debut as a performer in the musical Baker Street. His first Broadway directing and choreography credits were for the original production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1978. He has gone on to direct and/or choreograph eight Broadway musicals. He directed a new musical titled Turn of the Century, which premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on September 19, 2008 and closed on November 2, 2008.
Off-Broadway, Tune has directed The Club and Cloud Nine. Tune toured the United States in the Sherman Brothers musical Busker Alley in 1994-1995 and in the stage adaptation of the film Dr. Dolittle in 2006.
Tune is the only person to win Tony Awards in the same categories (Best Choreography and Best Direction of a Musical) in consecutive years (1990 and 1991), and the first to win in four categories. He has won ten Tony Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
On television, Tune was a recurring guest star and assistant choreographer from 1969-70 on The Dean Martin Show and its summer replacement series, Dean Martin Presents The Golddiggers.
Tune appeared in a 1975 TV special titled Welcome to the "World" along with Lucie Arnaz and Lyle Waggoner to promote the opening of Space Mountain at Walt Disney World.
Tune's film credits include Ambrose in Hello, Dolly! (1969), and The Boy Friend with Twiggy (1971). Tune released his first record album, Slow Dancing, in 1997 on the RCA label, featuring a collection of his favorite romantic ballads.
In 1999, he made his Las Vegas debut as the star of EFX at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.
Tune staged an elaborate musical entitled Paparazzi for the Holland America Line cruise ship the Oosterdam in 2003. He works often with The Manhattan Rhythm Kings, for example touring in a Big Band revue entitled Song and Dance Man and White Tie and Tails (2002).
Tune has been performing in his musical revue, Steps in Time: A Broadway Biography in Song and Dance, in Boston in April 2008 and continuing in various venues from Bethesda, Maryland in January 2009 to California in February 2009.
The Tommy Tune Awards, presented annually by Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) honor excellence in high school musical theatre in Houston. The current home of the Tommy Tune Awards is the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston, Texas.
In 2013, he appeared as Argyle Austero in the revived fourth season of Arrested Development on Netflix.
In 2015, he made a return to the New York stage as a featured performer in City Center's popular series Encores! He was featured in two numbers in LADY, BE GOOD; his first act number was the Gershwin standard "Fascinatin' Rhythm."
Personal life
When not performing, he used to run an art gallery in Tribeca that featured his own work. As of 2014 it is no longer open. In Tune's 1997 memoir Footnotes, he writes about what drives him as a performer, choreographer and director, offers stories about being openly gay in the world of theatre, his partners David Wolfe and Michael Stuart, about his days with Twiggy in My One and Only and meeting and working with his many idols.
Before leaving Texas in the 1960s for a Broadway career in New York, Tune worked with Mary Highsmith, mother of crime novelist Patricia Highsmith, at the Point Summer Theatre. In a letter to her daughter, Highsmith referred to Tune as her "adopted boy" whom she called "Romano." Tune later praised Highsmith for helping him develop his talents: "She was an opening for me; she opened a little bit of my tight fabric so that I might peer through."
Source : Wikidata
Tommy Tune
Birth name Thomas James Tune
Nationality USA
Birth 28 february 1939 (85 years) at Wichita Falls (USA)
Awards National Medal of Arts
Nationality USA
Birth 28 february 1939 (85 years) at Wichita Falls (USA)
Awards National Medal of Arts
Biography
Early yearsTune was born in Texas to oil rig worker, horse trainer and restaurateur Jim Tune and Eva Mae Clark. He attended Lamar High School in Houston and the Methodist-affiliated Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas. He studied dance under Patsy Swayze in Houston. He also studied dance with Kit Andree in Boulder, Colorado. He went on to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from the University of Texas at Austin in 1962 and his Master of Fine Arts in Directing from the University of Houston. Tune later moved to New York to start his career.
Career
In 1965, Tune made his Broadway debut as a performer in the musical Baker Street. His first Broadway directing and choreography credits were for the original production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas in 1978. He has gone on to direct and/or choreograph eight Broadway musicals. He directed a new musical titled Turn of the Century, which premiered at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago on September 19, 2008 and closed on November 2, 2008.
Off-Broadway, Tune has directed The Club and Cloud Nine. Tune toured the United States in the Sherman Brothers musical Busker Alley in 1994-1995 and in the stage adaptation of the film Dr. Dolittle in 2006.
Tune is the only person to win Tony Awards in the same categories (Best Choreography and Best Direction of a Musical) in consecutive years (1990 and 1991), and the first to win in four categories. He has won ten Tony Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
On television, Tune was a recurring guest star and assistant choreographer from 1969-70 on The Dean Martin Show and its summer replacement series, Dean Martin Presents The Golddiggers.
Tune appeared in a 1975 TV special titled Welcome to the "World" along with Lucie Arnaz and Lyle Waggoner to promote the opening of Space Mountain at Walt Disney World.
Tune's film credits include Ambrose in Hello, Dolly! (1969), and The Boy Friend with Twiggy (1971). Tune released his first record album, Slow Dancing, in 1997 on the RCA label, featuring a collection of his favorite romantic ballads.
In 1999, he made his Las Vegas debut as the star of EFX at the MGM Grand Las Vegas.
Tune staged an elaborate musical entitled Paparazzi for the Holland America Line cruise ship the Oosterdam in 2003. He works often with The Manhattan Rhythm Kings, for example touring in a Big Band revue entitled Song and Dance Man and White Tie and Tails (2002).
Tune has been performing in his musical revue, Steps in Time: A Broadway Biography in Song and Dance, in Boston in April 2008 and continuing in various venues from Bethesda, Maryland in January 2009 to California in February 2009.
The Tommy Tune Awards, presented annually by Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) honor excellence in high school musical theatre in Houston. The current home of the Tommy Tune Awards is the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Houston, Texas.
In 2013, he appeared as Argyle Austero in the revived fourth season of Arrested Development on Netflix.
In 2015, he made a return to the New York stage as a featured performer in City Center's popular series Encores! He was featured in two numbers in LADY, BE GOOD; his first act number was the Gershwin standard "Fascinatin' Rhythm."
Personal life
When not performing, he used to run an art gallery in Tribeca that featured his own work. As of 2014 it is no longer open. In Tune's 1997 memoir Footnotes, he writes about what drives him as a performer, choreographer and director, offers stories about being openly gay in the world of theatre, his partners David Wolfe and Michael Stuart, about his days with Twiggy in My One and Only and meeting and working with his many idols.
Before leaving Texas in the 1960s for a Broadway career in New York, Tune worked with Mary Highsmith, mother of crime novelist Patricia Highsmith, at the Point Summer Theatre. In a letter to her daughter, Highsmith referred to Tune as her "adopted boy" whom she called "Romano." Tune later praised Highsmith for helping him develop his talents: "She was an opening for me; she opened a little bit of my tight fabric so that I might peer through."
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Filmography of Tommy Tune (3 films)
Actor
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, 1h51Genres Musical theatre, Documentary, Historical, Musical
Themes Documentary films about cities
Actors Edie Adams, Beatrice Arthur, Alec Baldwin, Kaye Ballard, Bryan Batt, Betsy Blair
Roles Self
Rating82%
The Boy Friend (1971)
, 2h17Directed by Ken Russell
Genres Comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Films about sexuality, Théâtre, LGBT-related films, Musical films, Films based on plays, Films based on musicals, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film
Actors Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian, Tommy Tune, Brian Murphy, Barbara Windsor
Roles Tommy
Rating67%
The plot exists on three levels. First there is the frame story where in the south of England in the 1920s a struggling theatrical troupe is performing a musical about romantic intrigues at a finishing school for young women in the south of France. To ongoing backstage dramas and audiences smaller in number than the cast, two extra ingredients arrive: a famous Hollywood film producer turns up to see the show, and Polly, the mousy assistant stage manager, is forced to go on when the leading lady breaks a leg. As Polly struggles to keep her cool while acting opposite the male lead she secretly loves, the rest of the company backstab each other trying to impress the impresario.
Hello, Dolly! (1969)
, 2h22Directed by Gene Kelly, Richard Lang
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Romantic comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films, Films based on plays, Films based on musicals, Children's films
Actors Barbra Streisand, Walter Matthau, Edra Jean Peaker, Michael Crawford, Marianne McAndrew, J. Pat O'Malley
Roles Ambrose Kemper
Rating69%
In 1890, all of New York City is excited because widowed, brassy Dolly Levi is in town ("Call On Dolly"). Dolly makes a living through matchmaking and numerous sidelines ("Just Leave Everything to Me"). She is currently seeking a wife for grumpy Horace Vandergelder, the well-known "half-a-millionaire", but it becomes clear that Dolly intends to marry Horace herself. Dolly travels to Yonkers, New York to visit Horace. Ambrose Kemper, a young artist, wants to marry Horace's weepy niece, Ermengarde, but Horace opposes this because Ambrose's vocation does not guarantee a steady living. Horace, who is the owner of Vandergelder's Hay and Feed, explains to his two clerks, Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker, that he is going to get married because "It Takes a Woman" to cheerfully do all the household chores. He plans to travel to New York City to propose to Irene Molloy, who owns a hat shop there. Dolly arrives in Yonkers and sends Horace ahead to the city. Before leaving he tells Cornelius and Barnaby to mind the store.