Gerome Ragni

Gerome Ragni (born Jerome Bernard Ragni; September 11, 1935 – July 10, 1991) was an American actor, singer and songwriter, best known as the co-author of the groundbreaking 1960s musical Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical.

Ragni was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of ten children from an impoverished Italian family.

He attended Georgetown University and The Catholic University of America. It was at the latter that he discovered a flair for the dramatic, and he began studying acting with Philip Burton. Ragni made his acting debut in Washington, D.C., in 1954 playing Father Corr in Shadow and Substance. From then on he acted whenever he could find work. In 1963 he appeared in the New York production of the hit play War, at the Village South Theatre, for which he won the Barter Theatre Award for Outstanding Actor. On May 18, 1963, he married his longtime girlfriend Stephanie. They have a son named Erick.

1964 found him playing a bit part at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in the Broadway production of Hamlet, which starred Richard Burton. As a result, he appeared in Richard Burton's Hamlet, the film version of the show, released by Warner Bros. in 1964. That same year he made his first Off-Broadway appearance in the anti-capital-punishment musical Hang Down Your Head and Die at the Mayfair Theatre with friend James Rado, a fellow actor who was studying with Lee Strasberg. It played one performance. In a 2008 interview with The Advocate Rado described himself as omnisexual and Ragni's lover.

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