Cliff Notes – Joe Marinelli, The Morning Show and General Hospital star, dead aged 68
- Veteran actor Joe Marinelli passed away at 68 after a battle with stomach cancer, confirmed by family and agent.
- Best known for his roles in NBC’s Santa Barbara and CBS’s Guiding Light, he recently appeared in Apple TV’s The Morning Show.
Joe Marinelli: The Morning Show and General Hospital star dead aged 68
Veteran actor Joe Marinelli has died at the age of 68, his family and agent have confirmed.
The Santa Barbara actor, who recently starred in hit Apple TV show The Morning Show, died of stomach cancer on Sunday, June 22.
He is best known for playing Bunny Tagliatti in 171 episodes of NBC soap Santa Barbara; bank robber Pauly Hardman on the CBS daytime drama Guiding Light in 1993; and as mobster Joseph Sorel in General Hospital.
Marinelli’s agent Julie Smith told CNN he was living with stomach and throat cancer for a few years before his death, and the soapstar’s wife Jean Marinelli confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter.
In The Morning Show, Marinelli played TV show director Donny Spagnoli, alongside Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, who portrayed presenters on the fictional daytime show.
The series also stars Steve Carell, Juliana Margulies, John Ham, and Billy Crudup.
‘I really loved him and what he stood for,’ Mark Duplass, who plays TMS executive producer Chip Black on the show, told Hollywood Reporter.
‘We didn’t spend 10,000 hours together, but we were spiritually aligned in many ways.’
Outside of TV, Marinelli also starred in films including Sideways and One Last Ride in 2004.
Connecticut-born Marinelli, who studied acting at London’s The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, made brief guest appearances in a number of TV shows, including The West Wing, Desperate Housewives, Lethal Weapon, and NYPD Blue.
After returning to the US following drama school, Marinelli worked as a carpenter until landing roles in Cagney & Lacey and Paper Dolls, and L.A. Law, which introduced him to Santa Barbara producer Jill Farren Phelps.
Hollywood director Alexander Payne, who was behind Sideways in 2004, paid tribute to Marinelli.
‘The great Joe Marinelli acted in my very first movie at film school 40 years ago and again in Sideways,’ Payne said of the late actor. ‘Aside from being an extraordinary artist, he was a uniquely magnificent human being with a heart as big as the ocean.’
He is survived by wife Jean Marinelli, who he married in 1991, and two children Vincent and David.
His son David’s childhood friend, musician and Billie Eilish’s brother Finneas, told The Hollywood Reporter that when he was 14, he was ‘a beneficiary of the same things anyone lucky enough to know Joe was; countless great stories accompanied by thoughtful questions, a million small lessons and dozens of large ones…
‘Even at the times in my own life when I did not fully understand myself, Joe always seemed to.’