Veteran actor Joe Marinelli has died at the age of 68, his family and agent have confirmed.
The Santa Barbara actor – who recently starred in hit Apple TV show The Morning Show – died of stomach cancer on Sunday, June 22.
He is best known for playing Bunny Tagliatti in 171 episodes of NBC soap Santa Barbara; bank robber Pauly Hardman on the CBS daytime drama Guiding Light in 1993; and as mobster Joseph Sorel in General Hospital.
Marinelli’s agent Julie Smith told CNN he was living with stomach and throat cancer for a few years before his death, and the soapstar’s wife Jean Marinelli confirmed the news to The Hollywood Reporter.
In The Morning Show, Marinelli played TV show director Donny Spagnoli, alongside Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, who portrayed presenters on the fictional daytime show.
The series also stars Steve Carell, Juliana Margulies, John Ham, and Billy Crudup.
‘We lost a great one,’ Mark Duplass, who plays TMS executive producer Chip Black on the show, said on X.
‘Joe Marinelli lived in rare air. Generous performer, beautiful human, wide-eyed positivist.
‘I got to know him shooting The Morning Show. We taught classes together. We talked about nothing and everything in between takes.
‘We cut right to the important stuff on Day 1 of meeting. I will miss him dearly. And I will try to live my life a bit more like he lived his. We all should.’
Outside of TV, Marinelli also starred in films including Sideways and One Last Ride in 2004.
Connecticut-born Marinelli, who studied acting at London’s The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, made brief guest appearances in a number of TV shows, including The West Wing, Desperate Housewives, Lethal Weapon, and NYPD Blue.
After returning to the US following drama school, Marinelli worked as a carpenter until landing roles in Cagney & Lacey and Paper Dolls, and L.A. Law, which introduced him to Santa Barbara producer Jill Farren Phelps.
Hollywood director Alexander Payne, who was behind Sideways in 2004, paid tribute to Marinelli.
‘The great Joe Marinelli acted in my very first movie at film school 40 years ago and again in Sideways,’ Payne said of the late actor. ‘Aside from being an extraordinary artist, he was a uniquely magnificent human being with a heart as big as the ocean.’
He is survived by wife Jean Marinelli, who he married in 1991, and two children Vincent and David.
His son David’s childhood friend – musician and Billie Eilish’s brother – Finneas, told The Hollywood Reporter that when he was 14, he was ‘a beneficiary of the same things anyone lucky enough to know Joe was; countless great stories accompanied by thoughtful questions, a million small lessons and dozens of large ones…
‘Even at the times in my own life when I did not fully understand myself, Joe always seemed to.’
Marinelli’s Santa Barbara co-star Leigh McCloskey wrote a heartfelt tribute on Facebook.
‘A sweeter man or a dearer friend you could not find than Joe Marinelli. I knew Joe was sick and so admired his indefatigable spirit throughout what sounded like a very difficult, if not impossible, ordeal,’ she said.
‘Joe was a champion. He was a great acting partner, teacher, philosophical friend, passionate believer in people, and a storyteller extraordinaire that with laughter and depth revealed the human spirit so beautifully and in so many different ways.
‘He has a beautiful, incredibly talented family that reflects his love of music and art and with his amazing wife Jean, together they always radiated generous and noble hearts.’
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