Who is Nick Cordero, the Canadian Broadway star who died of COVID-19?
For 90 days, actor Nick Cordero laid in a hospital bed in a medically induced coma while his wife Amanda Kloots sat by his side, watching his battle with COVID-19 and his health deteriorate.
Cordero, a Tony-nominated Broadway star from Hamilton, Ont., died Sunday at 41 years old. He is survived by his wife and son
“ God has another angel in heaven now,” Kloots wrote in a post on Instagram. “He was surrounded in love by his family, singing and praying as he gently left this earth.”
Throughout her husband’s time in hospital, Kloots, a fitness trainer and former Radio City Rockette, had posted regular updates on his health, launching a daily singalong with the hashtag #wakeupnick to show support for Cordero during the six weeks he was in a medically induced coma.
· Tony-nominated Broadway star Nick Cordero dies at 41 of coronavirus
Cordero, standing 6-foot-5, with dark hair and a baritone voice, was a menacing presence on TV shows such as “Lilyhammer,” “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and the police drama “Blue Bloods.” But he was best known for his work on Broadway, playing charismatic brutes in musicals including “Bullets Over Broadway” and “A Bronx Tale” — two shows in which his character was previously portrayed on-screen by Bronx-born actor Chazz Palminteri.
Those roles gave Cordero a chance to take major parts after years of being passed over in favour of shorter actors who, he once joked, looked “better next to the leading lady.” Before he was cast in “Bullets Over Broadway,” he had appeared in the off-Broadway musical “The Toxic Avenger” and as a replacement performer in the jukebox hit “Rock of Ages,” but was preparing for a fallback career by taking real estate classes.
Born on Sept. 17, 1978, in the city of Hamilton, Cordero grew up with the arts. His father, an immigrant from Costa Rica, and mother were both school teachers.
Cordero recalled participating in Latin dances as a boy, dancing with older girls (“I thought I was super cool”) years before he learned to tap-dance for “Bullets Over Broadway.”
“Theatre kept me out of trouble,” said Cordero, who began performing cabaret at age 14 and later sang on a cruise ship.
He went on to attend Ryerson University’s acting program in downtown Toronto for two years before he dropped out to play in his rock band, LoveMethod.
In the early aughts, he shifted his focus to acting, performing in Canadian stage productions and appearing in an episode of the Showtime series “Queer as Folk” before moving to New York City in 2007.
Soon after his arrival in the Big Apple, he was cast in a New Jersey production of “The Toxic Avenger,” which ran off-Broadway beginning in 2009. Written by Joe DiPietro and Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan, the musical was adapted from a schlocky 1984 movie about a geek named Melvin who is thrown into a vat of toxic waste and becomes a slimy green superhero.
Cordero took on another unusual superhero role in 2015, playing the Avenging Angelo — a villainous character with the special gift of locating empty parking spots — in the off-Broadway musical “Brooklynite.”
He met his wife in 2017, after the two worked together on “Bullets Over Broadway.” Kloots danced in the production. About two years later, Kloots gave birth to their son who they named Elvis. Recently, the family moved to Los Angeles, where Cordero starred as the Hollywood nightclub owner Dennis in a new production of “Rock of Ages.”
With files from the Washington Post
