Nick Apollo Forte obit

Nick Apollo Forte, Actor in 'Broadway Danny Rose,' Dies at 81

He was not on the list.

A longtime performer in cabarets and on cruise ships, he played has-been Lou Canova in the classic 1984 movie.

Born in Waterbury on June 14, 1938, Forte began his showbiz career as Nicky Redman at age 15. After opening for Della Reese at the Apollo Theater in 1957, he incorporated the Harlem venue into his stage name.

Forte, who also played the drums and keyboards and recorded several albums, spent a lifetime in cabarets and nightclubs and 15 years as a headliner on cruise ships that took him to Australia, New Zealand, China, Alaska and Hawaii.

He said he preferred gigs in small rooms. "Truthfully, I would rather play any day for 500-seater places than I would play outside concerts," he said. "It's not personalized. They're going to see me in a cabaret and they're going to say, 'My God, I could hear all the words. I could hear what he's talking about.' It's not a lot of noise out in the field or something like that."

His family took "comfort and pride in the fact that throughout his career, Nick only sang what he fondly referred to as 'happy songs.'"

Forte said he turned down work in The Sopranos — "Every other word was F-you, F-this. I may be a proud Italian American, but I don't use that kind of language" — but did appear as a guy named Gaslight Johnny Tomorrow on ABC's The Ellen Burstyn Show in 1987 and as himself on Showtime's Billions in 2016.

Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Rosalie; daughters Robin, Carmel, Lynn and Shelly; sons Nicholas, Mark and Jeffery; siblings Aurelia and Frank; 21 grandchildren; and two great- grandchildren.

Memorial contributions in his name may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital or the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.