Actor-Singer Lee Winston, a Tenor Off-Broadway and On, Dead at 60 | Playbill

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News Actor-Singer Lee Winston, a Tenor Off-Broadway and On, Dead at 60 Lee Winston, an actor and singer who appeared in Broadway's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and Carmelina, as well as operas, tours and regional productions, died March 17 of an apparent heart attack, according to friends.

Lee Winston, an actor and singer who appeared in Broadway's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and Carmelina, as well as operas, tours and regional productions, died March 17 of an apparent heart attack, according to friends.

Mr. Winston, 60, was attending the Westchester Film Festival when he was stricken. He played a pivotal role in the feature, "Chelsea's Chappaqua," which was part of the festival.

Alan Jay Lerner was a fan of Mr. Winston's tenor voice and cast him in supporting roles in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (1976) and Carmelina (1979).

He is survived by his companion, Pamela Nelson , known professionally as the singer and actress P.J. Nelson. The two, who met while they were appearing in the Broadway revival of The Music Man starring Dick Van Dyke in 1979, were active in productions at Theater @ St. Clement's . In September 2000, they appeared in leading roles in a rare revival of Bloomer Girl, the musical by Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg, at St. Clement's.

Mr. Winston was born Thomas Lee Winston March 14, 1941, in Great Bend, KS but raised in Dallas, TX. He began his acting and singing career in Dallas Summer Musicals in the 1960s. After graduating with a degree in journalism and music history from the University of Kansas, the William Allen White School of Journalism, he served in the U.S. Army. His roles with the National Opera Company of Raleigh earned him the notice of Off-Broadway and Broadway producers and he made his Broadway debut in the Music Theater of Lincoln Center revival of Show Boat in 1966. In the succeeding years he was active in many of the city's opera companies, in Off-Broadway and Broadway stagings, and in national tours of Broadway shows. Off-Broadway appearances included The Drunkard (1966), Oklahoma! at Equity Library Theater (1978), and, in recent years, several productions at Expanded Arts. In 2000, he was the lead in Mishkin's Paradise at Expanded Arts. He was a member of the national tours of 1776 and Canterbury Tales in the 1970s. At New York City Opera, he was in Ashmedai, directed by Harold Prince in 1977. At the Wexford Opera in Ireland in 1976 he starred as Peter Quint in The Turn of the Shrew by Benjamin Britten. He was Charley in The Little Mahagonny at Manhattan Theatre Club. For over a decade he was associated with concerts by the conductor-composer Anthony Newman. Last year he was the narrator on the recording of the opera by Newman called Nicole and the Trial of the Century.

— By Kenneth Jones

 
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