NBC Actor Dead at 79: Bruce French’s Wife Eileen Barnett Confirms His Passing

Bruce French, a veteran character actor best known for his role as Father Lonigan, the blind priest on the NBC soap opera Passions who could sense evil, has died.

French passed away on Feb. 7 at the age of 79 due to complications with Alzheimer’s disease, with which he was diagnosed four years prior, his wife of 34 years, longtime Days of Our Lives actress Eileen Barnett, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Born in Iowa on July 4, 1945, as the son of a funeral director, French went on to graduate from the University of Iowa, where he first met his bride-to-be, before serving in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.

After studying acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts upon his return, French starred in an off-Broadway production of The Shadow of a Gunman before making his onscreen debut in 1974’s Man on a Swing, starring Cliff Robertson and Joel Grey.

It was the start of a prolific career, which also included the 1978 films Coming Home and Bloodbrothers in addition to 1983’s Christine and Mr. Mom, 1985’s Fletch and Murphy’s Romance, 1986’s Legal Eagles and Wildcats, 2001’s Jurassic Park III, 2002’s Mr. Deeds, 2005’s Thank You for Smoking, and 2010’s Beginners and Beautiful Boy.

French also appeared in numerous TV series beyond Passions, on which he starred from 1999 to 2008. The veteran actor also appeared in episodes of L.A. Law, Picket Fences, Ally McBeal, The Practice, Boston Public, Boston Legal, Grey’s Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Mad Men, Gilmore Girls, House, The West Wing, Night Court, Cheers, Moonlighting, Matlock and more. He also appeared in numerous Star Trek titles, including Enterprise, Voyager and The Next Generation in addition to the 1998 film Star Trek: Insurrection.

French’s true love was that of the theater, however, and some of his most notable roles include his time as Lucky in an L.A. Actors Theatre production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot that was filmed for KCET’s Theatre in America series in 1977. He also was applauded for his role as Andrew Crocker-Harris in 2009 in Terence Rattigan’s The Browning Version at the Pacific Resident Theatre.

French’s former co-star and friend Barry Cutler took to Facebook to pay tribute to his late friend, whom he met in the late ’70s during a stage adaptation of A Christmas Carol. “Bruce seemed to me a best friend who just fell out of the sky. He cheered me on and presented me with a lovely ugly Scrooge mug for opening night,” Cutler wrote. “For many years thereafter, despite his superior talent, taste, and intelligence, he invited me along to great classical concerts and author’s lectures.”

Cutler went on, “He’d ask me to accompany him to movies on Oscar nights, to avoid the forever disappointment with that event. He’d ask me to dinners at his home to meet his wonderful friends (and, later, his beautiful and talented wife, Eileen Barnett). We’d discuss ideas for screenplays until he told me he was going to stop buying books on how to write because he wasn’t going to write and he’d rather read more interesting books.”

And beyond all of French’s accomplishments in life, Cutler wrote he was “one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I’ve ever encountered. An absolutely lovely and wonderful man.”

In addition to Barnett, whom he married in 1991, having reconnected 25 years after their University of Iowa meeting, French is survived by nieces Claire and Paula.