Michael McGrath, the Broadway actor who starred in zany, feel-good musicals and won a Tony Award for “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” has died. He was 65.
McGrath died Thursday at his home in Bloomfield, New Jersey, his publicist Lisa Goldberg said. No further details have been announced.
“Michael McGrath was as amazing behind the scenes as he was on it,” Michael Urie wrote in the tribute. “Cute, mischievous, genius. His loss is profound, but I will continue to take everything he taught me wherever I go.
McGrath was in more than a dozen Broadway shows including “Plaza Suite,” “She Loves Me,” “Tootsie” and “Spamalot,” as well as on television as Martin Short’s sidekick on “The Martin Short Show.”
“Very saddened to hear that Michael McGrath, our first and most beloved Patsy in ‘Spamalot,’ has passed away,” wrote Monty Python member Eric Idle. “Warm hugs to all the “Spamalot” family and very happy memories of a beautiful man.”
In 2012, McGrath won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical as wiseguy Cookie McGee in “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” starring Matthew Broderick and Kelli O’Hara.
He also played a cantankerous radio station owner in “Memphis” and performed subtle vaudeville chops in “On the Twentieth Century” singing “Five Zero,” an ode to the joy of money.
In a 2007 review of “Follies” at City Center, The Associated Press said McGrath “emanates a combative, friendly Charlie hospitality that also hides insecurity. God-why-don’t-you-love-me blues.’″