Actor-stage Manager Wally Peterson Dies at 93

Actor, singer and stage manager Wally Peterson died on Wednesday, March 30, according to Variety.com. Peterson died of natural causes in New York City. He was 93.

Peterson, born in Boston, made his first broadcast on a local radio station singing "Blue Moon" at the age of 15. He received his own weekly radio series and continued to broadcast until he entered the military service during WWII. In the late 1930s, Peterson was a member of the Barter Theater in Virginia and by 1942 Peterson had appeared in a number of professional operettas including "The Student Prince," "Lady Baltimore" and "Rose Marie."

Returning to the U.S. after the war, Peterson auditioned for the London company of "Oklahoma," which opened in 1947. It was during "Oklahoma" that Peterson formed a friendship with actors Elliot Martin and Marjorie Austin. Martin and Austin went on to become theatrical producers who put on many of the Broadway and West End productions that Peterson would later work in.

In 1948 he met singer-actress Joy Nichols whom he married in 1949.

In 1951, Peterson returned to Drury Lane in a production of "South Pacific."

In 1962, after appearing on Broadway in "A Passage to India," Peterson began working in stage management. He was production manager on the Broadway comedy "Never Too Late."

His experiences as a songwriter led him to create his one-man show "Tin Pan Alley and the Silver Screen," which toured the university circuit in U.S. before continuing on to a successful run at London's Arts Theater in 1992 at age 75.

The Petersons were divorced in the mid-'70s, and Joy died in 1992. Peterson is survived by two daughters, a son, two grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

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