Chicago actor Matt DeCaro never took being a working actor for granted.
Last week, before an unusually early-in-the-day staging of August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” at the Goodman Theatre, artistic director Susan Booth bumped into DeCaro as she entered the Goodman through the loading dock. Lamenting their cockcrow schedule, she asked Mr. DeCaro how he was holding up.
“Matt had a grin on his face, and he looked quizzically at me, like ‘what an odd question,’ and he said, ‘I’m doing great. We get to do this,’” Booth recalled, noting that it was the last conversation she had with Mr. DeCaro. “And I’ve been thinking a lot about that: We get to do this.”
Mr. DeCaro performed in a production of the play Friday night and died early Saturday at his Bridgeport home from heart failure, his wife, Sheila O’Callaghan, said. He was 70.
After receiving word of his death, the Saturday matinee production of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” was canceled, but the cast decided collectively to carry on with Saturday evening’s performance with the help of Mr. DeCaro’s understudy, Scott Aiello.
“They expressed a pretty strong desire to do it because they felt that’s what he’d want them to do,” Booth said. “It was brave and highly emotional. They were extraordinary.”
Mr. DeCaro played Sturdyvant, the owner of a Chicago recording studio in the 1920s who had a contentious relationship with Ma Rainey, known as “mother of the blues.”
Booth said sparks flew onstage between Mr. DeCaro and E. Faye Butler, who stars as Ma Rainey.
“You look at them nose to nose on stage and each at the absolute top of their game,” said Booth. “She recently told me that every time she was onstage with Matt, she had to be her best, and it gave her permission to be her best.”
Mr. DeCaro was a beloved figure in the acting community.
“The hallmark of Matt, on and off stage, was he always made whoever he was talking to feel like they were much more interesting than he was. His generosity and curiosity made the best scene partner, but also a lovely friend off stage because he was just always intrigued by whoever he was talking to, and you realize how rare that is,” Booth said.
“Anybody who worked with him wanted to work with him again,” Booth said.
“With actors, there’s a couple ways you audition. One is a legit audition. But another is who you are in the process, and, if you are a delight to be in the room with, people want you back,” Booth said. “And the guy could do anything from musicals to straight plays to Shakespeare and Chekhov, but he was also just dreamy in the room. You wanted to be in the room with him.”
Mr. DeCaro’s stage career spanned four decades across major stages in Chicago and around the country.
At a Goodman festival in 2006 honoring playwright David Mamet, actor John Mahoney had to back out of a leading role in the theater’s production of “Romance,” and Mr. DeCaro was tapped to play his part.
“Matt could not have been more gracious, affable and charismatic, and he really embodies the spirit of the Chicago theater community,” said Denise Schneider, director of communications at the Goodman. “There have been so many beautiful tributes on social media to him.”
Mr. DeCaro also had various film and television roles, including on “Prison Break,” “Chicago P.D.” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” in which he played a doctor who was tapped by the show’s star Larry David to investigate whether a bingo game at the senior home where his father lived was rigged.
Mr. DeCaro was born April 2, 1956, to Matthew DeCaro Sr. and Laura Fitzpatrick DeCaro, who both grew up in Canaryville. He was a banker. She worked in the audio visual department for the University of Illinois.
Mr. DeCaro was raised near Marquette Park and went to St. Laurence High School, where he acted in his first play “Fiddler on the Roof.”
He worked for many years as a special education teacher at the Chicago Academy for the Arts, picking up acting gigs when he was able to, his wife said.
“He went to college and got a teaching degree at University of Illinois Chicago but always wanted to act,” she said. “He loved acting. He was a craftsman, so meticulous about the work.”
Mr. DeCaro especially treasured working on productions affiliated with a university that included student actors.
“He just loved teaching and guiding the students and making sure they were learning the right way,” his wife said.
“Many young artists looked to him as a mentor,” said Jim McCaffrey, DeCaro’s agent at Stewart Talent.
In addition to his wife, Mr. DeCaro is survived by his son, Fitzpatrick DeCaro, as well as three grandchildren.
Services are pending.