Michael Higgins, at 88; was Obie-winning N.Y. actor
NEW YORK - Michael Higgins, an Obie-winning actor who was for decades a familiar presence on New York stages, died Nov. 5 in Manhattan, where he lived. He was 88.
His death, at Beth Israel Hospital, was from heart failure, his daughter, Deirdre, said.
Mr. Higgins was best known for the role of Frank Strang, the father of the disturbed youth who blinds horses, in the original Broadway production of "Equus." The play, by Peter Shaffer, opened at the Plymouth Theater in 1974.
Writing in The New York Times that year, Walter Kerr called Mr. Higgins "excellent as a father turned ashen." The production also starred Peter Firth as the youth, Alan Strang; Frances Sternhagen as Alan's mother; and Anthony Hopkins as his psychiatrist.
Among Mr. Higgins's other Broadway credits are "Romeo and Juliet" (1951), with Olivia de Havilland; "The Lark," by Jean Anouilh (1955), with Julie Harris and Christopher Plummer; and "The Iceman Cometh," by Eugene O'Neill (1973), with James Earl Jones. His many Off Broadway roles include Antony opposite Colleen Dewhurst's Cleopatra at the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1963.
Mr. Higgins received two Obies, the off-Broadway theater award presented annually by The Village Voice. The first, in 1958, was for his performance as John Proctor in "The Crucible," by Arthur Miller; the second, in 1980, was for the role of the father in David Mamet's "Reunion."
Michael Patrick Higgins was born in Brooklyn on Jan. 20, 1920. His father, an insurance salesman and poet, instilled in him early a love of Shakespeare. As a teenager, Mr. Higgins worked to lose his Brooklyn accent to prepare for a career in the theater. In World War II, he served with the Army in Italy, earning a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. After the war, Mr. Higgins made his Broadway debut in "Antigone" (1946), starring Katharine Cornell.
Besides his daughter, Deirdre, Mr. Higgins leaves his wife, the former Elizabeth Lee Goodwin; two sons, Sean and Christopher; two brothers, Hugh and Thomas; two sisters, Marie Higgins and Anna Karlya; and four grandchildren.
His film credits include "The Stepford Wives" (1975), "The Seduction of Joe Tynan"(1979), and "Fort 