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Tom Ligon, a veteran actor in films, TV and on Broadway who also was a longtime member of SAG-AFTRA New York Local board, has died. He was 85. The actors union confirmed his death but did not provide a cause or other details.
Born on September 10, 1940, in New Orleans, Ligon got his start guesting on TV in the mid-1960s before booking a supporting role in the 1969 film musical Paint Your Wagon starring Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood. That same year he starred in a pair of short-lived Broadway shows: Angela opposite Geraldine Page and Love Is a Time of Day with Sandy Duncan. He also appeared in numerous New York stage productions during the 1960s.
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He continued to work steadily onscreen from the 1970s into the 2010s, with films credits ranging from The Last American Hero and Bang the Drum Slowly — in which he also sang “Streets of Laredo” — to Joyride, Young Doctors in Love and Serial. His TV work included guesting on such popular series as Medical Center, Starsky and Hutch, Police Woman, Baretta, Dallas, Law & Order: SVU and daytime soaps The Young and the Restless, Loving, Santa Barbara, Another World and All My Children.
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He also was an understudy in Broadway’s Tartuffe in 1996.
A SAG-AFTRA member for some 60 years, Ligon served on the New York Local’s board and multiple committees, chairing the National Seniors Committee and co-chairing the NY Seniors Committee. He also was a strong advocate of the merging of SAG and AFTRA, which was finalized in 2012.
Ligon wed fellow actor K.C. Ligon (née Crawford) in 1976, and they remained married until her death in 2009.
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Erik Pedersen
Almontather Rassoul
