Carver starred opposite Carmello in Brown's musical Parade and picked up a Tony for his role opposite Rivera in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
As BroadwayWorld reported yesterday, Tony Award winning actor Brent Carver has passed away at age 68. This evening, Carver's Broadway colleagues took to social media to celebrate his life and legacy.
Carver's Parade collaborators, composer Jason Robert Brown and co-star Carolee Carmello shared their memories of the late artist.
Carmello shared a photo of she and Carver portraying Leo and Lucille Frank in the musical along with a sweet tribute.
Rest In Peace, dear Brent. You were such a brilliant talent and I was so fortunate to share a stage with you. Thank you for inspiring so many, especially me. #BrentCarver pic.twitter.com/T6C128O0Tm
- Carolee Carmello (@CaroleeCarmello) August 6, 2020
Brown also shared a photo of Carver along with a lengthy and loving statement.
In memory of the great Brent Carver. pic.twitter.com/26sMj3Ah4s
- Jason Robert Brown (@MrJasonRBrown) August 6, 2020
See Carver's stunning portrayal of Leo Frank in the musical here:
Carver's Kiss of the Spider Woman co-star, the great Chita Rivera, also paid tribute on Twitter writing:
My heart is broken at the loss of my great friend and amazing artist #BrentCarver.
- Chita Rivera (@Chita_Rivera) August 6, 2020
I shall miss him more than I can say. #Broadway @TheTonyAwards pic.twitter.com/SqNzAZaMyy
Carver took home a 1993 Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Molina:
Remembering Brent Carver in his final Stratford performance. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/HqeoehKmaP
- Stratford Festival (@stratfest) August 7, 2020
With a heavy heart Mirvish Productions will mark the life of Brent Carver, one of Canada's most acclaimed actors, by dimming the marquee lights of two theatres on Friday August 7 at 8PM - the Royal Alexandra, and the Princess of Wales.
- Mirvish Productions (@Mirvish) August 7, 2020
📷: Marcus Oleniuk (Toronto Star) pic.twitter.com/pf9rGvEhQU
ACTRA Toronto mourns the passing of the exceptional Brent Carver, winner of the ACTRA Award for Outstanding Performance - Male in 2004 for Elizabeth Rex. pic.twitter.com/7RayQgBQPv
- ACTRA Toronto (@ACTRAToronto) August 7, 2020
We are sad to hear of Brent Carver's passing. He was a talented actor and gave the Canadian theatre community great pride. We are reflecting on our first season in 1998 where Carver played the title role in Don Carlos - he truly helped launch Soulpepper in that first season. #RIP pic.twitter.com/i2m3eEh7id
- Soulpepper Theatre Company (@Soulpepper) August 7, 2020
Saw Brent Carver 3 times on Broadway in the Brilliant Kander and Ebb Musical KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN. He was sublime to say the least. Rest In Peace. Gone to soon.
- Mario Cantone (@macantone) August 7, 2020
Just gutted to hear this. Every show I did with Brent, every time I saw him perform, I learned something. Laughter or sadness, he'd leave you in tears one way or the other. A breathtaking talent and a beautiful soul. #RIP #BrentCarver https://t.co/sFq1tane6L
- Eric McCormack (@EricMcCormack) August 7, 2020
#brentcarver Loss of a great actor and a gentle soul. RIP x Crossbar 1979 pic.twitter.com/mB09L3MR03
- Kim Cattrall (@KimCattrall) August 7, 2020
The last two years, each day, a new challenge. I've lost so many loved ones during this time, family and friends, comrades and collaborators I celebrate each one of their lives, and pray they Rest In a Heavenly Peace. #BrentCarver #HalPrince #TerrenceMcNally pic.twitter.com/3BJX2QiXWT
- Anthony V. Crivello (@VegasPhan) August 7, 2020
Carver's family announced the news in a statement earlier today. They wrote, "Our family is sharing news of Brent Carver's passing on Aug 4 at home in Cranbrook, BC, his birthplace and favourite place on Earth. Blessed with many talents and a natural love of theatre, Brent was always known as a first-class performer, unique in the presentation of his craft, delighting audiences through film, TV, stage and concert performances."
"Brent, in his humble fashion, will be remembered as the kind, gentle and gifted man he was, with the deepest love as a true friend and family member. His love of performing was matched only by his zest for life and lifetime devotion to family, friends and treasured pets. Thank you to the performing arts community for embracing our Brent and helping him fulfill his dreams with joy in his heart. Brent will be missed."
Born in 1951, the Canadian actor Brent Carver was a star of both stage and screen. He began studies at the University of British Columbia but left in 1972 to pursue a career in theater, performing in the Vancouver Arts Club's production of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.
In 1976 he played Leo in the CBC television sitcom Leo and Me, which also starred a young Michael J. Fox in his first television show. Though taped in the mid-1970s, the program did not air till 1981. Other television work in the 1970s included Inside Canada (1973) and the TV movies One Night Stand (1978), for which he earned an Etrog Award, and Crossbar (1979), in which he starred with Kim Cattrall.
In 1979, Carver made his first appearance on a U.S. stage, playing Ariel to Anthony Hopkins's Prospero in The Tempest at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angles. Carver won his first Dora Award for his portrayal of Horst in Martin Sherman's Bent (1981), a play about the Nazi persecution of homosexuals, at the Bathurst Street Theatre in Toronto. His stage work involved an extended association with Canada's Stratford Shakespeare Festival in the 1980s, where he performed in many of the classic repertory pieces, including Hamlet (title role). In the 1980s he also appeared in a number of films, TV movies and dramatic productions, and television shows, including The Wars (1983), Cross Country (1983), Anne's Story (1984), Love and Larceny (1985), The Pirates of Penzance (1985), All for One (1985), Much Ado About Nothing (1987), Spies, Lies & Naked Thighs (1988), The Twilight Zone (1989), War of the Worlds (1989), and Millennium (1989).
For all his stage and screen work, Carver became an international star with his stellar performance as Molina - in Toronto, New York, and London - in Kander and Ebb's musical The Kiss of the Spider Woman. In that role, Carver won the Tony Award® for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in 1993, as well as a New York Drama Desk Award, a Dora Award, and an Olivier Award nomination. He can be heard on the original London cast recording.
In 1996, at Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre and Vancouver's Ford Centre for the Performing Arts, Carver offered his own cabaret show, Brent Carver in Concert. He returned to New York in 1998, playing Leo Frank in the original cast of Parade, a musical by Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown, at Lincoln Center. The musical won two Tony Awards® and several nominations, and Carver, who can be heard on the original Broadway cast recording, won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Musical.
Playing alongside Christopher Plummer as Lear, Carver portrayed Edgar in Shakespeare's King Lear at Lincoln Center in 2004.
His later film and television work include the roles of Leonardo da Vinci in Leonardo: A Dream of Flight (1998), Ichabod Crane in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1999), and Philip in Ararat (2002).
He last appeared on Broadway as Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet in 2013.
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