Joseph Bova, a Tony-nominated actor best known for creating the role of Prince Dauntless in Once Upon a Mattress, passed away on March 12th at the Actors' Fund Retirement Home in New Jersey. He was 81 years old.
After working in Cleveland as program director at WNBK (the city's NBC station) and hosting the children's TV show "Uncle Joe," he came to New York and soon after (as Joe Bova) starred opposite
Carol Burnett in 1959's fractured musical fairy tale
Once Upon a Mattress; he would also reprise his performance in the 1964 TV version.
Nominated for a Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Play (for his work in
The Chinese, one of two one-act Murray Schisgal plays), the actor also appeared on Broadway in
42nd Street, Saint Joan, An American Millionaire, and
Hot Spot (with music by
Mattress' Mary Rodgers), among others. Off-Broadway credits included
The Cradle Will Rock and
The Matchmaker, while he appeared in Shakespeare in the Park productions of
Romeo and Juliet,
Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Love's Labour's Lost and
Troilus and Cressida.
His film and TV credits included "Kojak," "Starsky and Hutch,"
Serpico and
Up the Sandbox.He is survived by his wife Lee Lawson, also an actress with numerous Broadway credits, as well as by two siblings.
