Peter Coffield


Peter Tenny Coffield was an American actor. Coffield worked as an actor in theater, television, and film. He is best known for his role in the film Cry Rape!. His other films include Times Square and Neil Simon's Only When I Laugh.
Coffield guest starred on several TV shows throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, Eight Is Enough, Wide World Mystery, Family, and Love, Sidney, and he acted in TV movies such as , and The Man Without a Country. He also performed in several plays on Broadway, including Hamlet, Abelard and Heloise, The Merchant of Venice, Tartuffe, and The Man Who Came to Dinner.
In addition to Broadway, Coffield had key roles in Misalliance at the Roundabout Theater, in A. R. Gurney's Middle Ages at the Hartman Theater in Stamford, Conn., and in S. N. Behrman's No Time for Comedy at the McCarter Theater in Princeton, N.J., and he performed at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and at the Old Globe Shakespeare Festival Theater in San Diego.
In The New York Times review of Coffield's performance as a homosexual student in Abelard and Heloise, theater critic Walter Kerr wrote, "Making a mask of his broad, handsome face, Mr. Coffield went about his chores deftly, confidently, with clear and virile purpose. Saying little, he seemed to think a great deal: thought can be a scene-thief, it turns out."
Coffield was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in 1974 for Best Actor in Daytime Drama for his role in CBS Daytime 90: Legacy of Fear.

Personal life

Coffield grew up in an Irish-Catholic household, the youngest of five children. Peter's eldest three siblings, Carolyn Coffield, Kitty Coffield, and James Coffield III, are from his father's first marriage. Coffield's father died in 1960; his mother died in 2001 in Tasmania, Australia, at the age of 94. Peter's brother Michael, an attorney in Chicago, died in 2007.
Coffield graduated from New Trier High School in 1963 and from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 1967, where he earned a B.S. in Oral Interpretation. He also earned a master's degree from the University of Michigan.
Coffield's long-time life partner was James Tripp, also an actor, who is the Head of Acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York.
Coffield died of an AIDS-related illness on November 19, 1983.

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
1973The Man Without a CountryLt. VinsonTV movie
1973Cry RapeAndy ColemanTV movie
1974CBS Daytime 90PeterGuest star, episode: "Legacy of Fear"
1974'OliverTV movie
1974Medical CenterRoger PatmanGuest star, episodes: "The Bribe" and "Trial by Knife"
1975'Paul StockerGuest star, episode: "Solomon's Dilemma"
1975Adams of Eagle LakeJimmy SimpkinsRecurring role, 2 episodes
1974–1976Wide World of MysteryChet / Jerry GerardGuest star, episodes: "Terror in the Night", "Too Easy to Kill", and "Death Is a Bad Trip"
1975Beacon HillLarry GreeneGuest star, episodes: "The Pretenders" and "The Test"
1977Barnaby JonesTom LandryGuest star, episode: "A Simple Case of Terror"
1977FamilyBrian SlaterGuest star, episode: "Best Friends"
1977Eight Is EnoughChuckGuest star, episode: "Hit and Run"
1977'Eli McGinnTV miniseries
1978TartuffeCleanteTV movie
1978W.E.B.KevinRecurring role, 5 episodes
1978'WayneGuest star, episode: "Till Death Do Us Part, Maybe/Chubs/Locked Away"
1980Hart to HartSanford WhitleyGuest star, episode: "Sixth Sense"
1981NurseDr. BensonGuest star, episodes: "Life Begins at Dinner" and "The Gifts"
1981Senior TripJerryTV movie
1982Love, SidneyEddieGuest star, episode: "Father's Day"
1983O'MalleyGuy FlemingTV pilot

YearTitleRoleNotes
Mar 3, 1969 – Apr 26, 1969RosencrantzLorenzoRevival, Play, Tragedy
Mar 10, 1971 – Apr 24, 1971Abelard and HeloiseRobert de MontboissierOriginal, Play, Drama
Jan 20, 1972 – Apr 29, 1972Vivat! Vivat Regina!Lord DarnleyOriginal, Play
Mar 1, 1973 – Apr 7, 1973'LorenzoRevival, Play, Comedy
Sep 25, 1977 – Nov 20, 1977TartuffeCléanteRevival, Play, Comedy, Farce
Jun 26, 1980 – Sep 7, 1980'Bert JeffersonRevival, Play, Comedy