Actor Mark Blum, an actor on ‘Law & Order’ and ‘Succession,’ died on Thursday of complications from COVID-19, the disease associated with the coronavirus. He was 69 years old.
Blum was born in Newark, New Jersey to a Jewish family, and actor grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey, and graduated from Columbia High School in 1968. The later actor Mark Blum got inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 2012. Blum then went on to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania.
In “Desperately Seeking Susan,” he played Gary Glass, the husband of bored New Jersey homemaker Roberta Glass, portrayed by Rosanna Arquette.
“This is tragic, and my heart goes out to him, his family and his loved ones,” Madonna, his “Desperately Seeking Susan” co-star, said on social media. “I remember him as funny, warm, loving, and professional when we made Desperately Seeking Susan in 1985!”
Blum was active in the Screen Actors Guild, having served on the New York and national boards, the union said.
“This is a painful loss to our SAG-AFTRA family,” union President Gabrielle Carteris said. “Mark Blum understood that all performers working in this industry share the same employers and that our strength depends on our unity. He was a visionary.”
Gabrielle added that “those of us lucky enough to have known him will treasure our memories of a gifted actor, a master teacher, a loyal friend, and a beautiful human,” she said. “I always appreciated Mark’s clear perception of complex situations. Mark was smart, funny, and a true actor’s actor.”
Actor Mark Blum Career
Blum started acting on stage in the 1970s. In the 1980s, he worked in the movies Lovesick (1983), Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Just Between Friends (1986), Crocodile Dundee (1986), Blind Date (1987), and The Presidio (1988). He later appeared in Coin Heist (2017).
On television, he co-starred in Sweet Surrender in 1987. Blum also appeared on the following programs; Capital News in 1990, Frasier in 1997, and NYPD Blue in 1999. From 2014 to 2018, he appeared in Mozart in the Jungle.
Blum won an Obie Award for his performance as Al in the Playwrights Horizons production of Albert Innaurato’s play, Gus and Al, during the 1988–1989 season. On Broadway, he appeared in Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, and Richard Greenberg’s The Assembled Parties. In 2013, he appeared as Max in the Primary Stages production of The Model Apartment. Blum was on the faculty of HB Studio in New York City.
In 2018, Blum had cast in a recurring role as Ivan Mooney in the former Lifetime thriller series You. He regularly acted at Playwrights Horizons, an off-Broadway theater in New York City, and frequently appeared on Broadway, including in the revival of Twelve Angry Men. Also, his recent Broadway credits included The Assembled Parties, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man — twice — and Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers. Blum was also active in the Screen Actors Guild, having served on the New York and national boards.
Blum had TV credits on “Frasier,” “NYPD Blue,” and “Law & Order.” More recently, he appeared in “Mozart in the Jungle,” “Us,” and “Succession.”
