Starr Shines Bright on Broadway
by Ginny Ehrlich-Greenberg ...continued
"I would love to hear from anyone in drama and football," he added. Then as though he was giving an acceptance speech in thanks for all his successes, Mike recalled the friends whose kindness he remembers to this day:
"Kathleen Holter from Financial Aid, who worked with a lot of members of the Football team. She was helpful to so many students. I know a lot of people with great stories about Mrs. Holter."
"Ray Kennedy from Anthropology, who dissected every line of the song 'American Pie' in class."
"Jeff Doolittle and Bob Gutowski ['70, former president of Madison Square Garden] who were so kind to me."
"A night student, Miriam Krinsky, who came to see me in many of my shows."
"Jim Van Wart from the Drama Department."
"Bobby Rullan, a lacrosse and football player who was a good friend."
"Karla Tamburelli ['75]. We were friends in school and she played my wife in the short-lived TV series, Hardball."
Of the time he spent on the Hofstra stage, Mike's fondest memories are of performing in The Crucible, directed by Dr. Richard Mason and starring Brian Rose '72 [now a professor of performing arts at Adelphi University]; his leading role in the musical Fiorello; and Three Penny Opera, in which he performed with actor Robert Davi; Chris Albrecht '74, who is now chairman and CEO of HBO; and Lou Berger '72, head writer for Sesame Street and nine-time Emmy Award winner.
When The Gray Wig, Hofstra's alumni theater company, began in 1974, Mike again took the stage in the group's inaugural production, Guys and Dolls.
Fellow cast member and friend Jim Fellman, retired vice president for operations at Hofstra and the Honey and Arthur Sorin Distinguished Teaching Fellow, remarked, "I first met Mike when he was a student senator during some very turbulent times at the end of the Vietnam War. We played together with Al Passuello in Guys and Dolls. Mike played the role of Benny Southstreet, if my memory serves me well.
"Mike always impressed me as a very bright and generous fellow, with a fabulous sense of humor. Over the years - although we didn't see much of one another - when we did it was as if no time had passed in the interim. I cannot express the warmth and depth of my feelings about him."
Mike has been married since 1975 to Joanne, a Starr and star in her own right as director of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery for Children's Hospital of New Jersey at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. They have three children and were most recently on the Hofstra campus on May 21, 2006, to see their daughter Nicole receive a master's degree in speech pathology.
The Odd Couple played its last performance at the Brooks Atkinson Theater on June 4, but there are certainly more rave reviews ahead for Mike. Look for him next in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia with Hilary Swank, Scarlett Johansson and Josh Hartnett and the independent film Ossa Buco with actress Illeana Douglas.