Robert Allan Ackerman Cause of Death Revealed; Emmy Nominated Broadway Director Was 77

By Kate Hill

Robert Allan Ackerman Cause of Death Tragic: Emmy Nominated Broadway Director Dead at 77 — (Photo : Nick Elgar/ImageDirect) Robert Allen Ackerman arriving at the screening of 'Baby' a film based on the acclaimed novel by Patricia MacLachlan and directed by Robert Allan Ackerman with executive producers David Manson and Glenn Close.

Admired television show and Broadway director Robert Allan Ackerman reportedly passed away at the age of 77, as announced by his family through a spokesperson.

It was said that the director died last January 10, Monday, at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, Los Angeles, due to kidney failure, as reported by Deadline.

Ackerman used to guide multiple stars like Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, Vanessa Redgrave, Sean Penn, and Anne Bancroft for stage and television production in the last five decades. Others also include Ann Bancroft, Glenn Close, Susan Sarandon, Kevin Bacon, Richard Gere, Richard Chamberlain, John Malkovich, Victor Garber, Farrah Fawcett, Kirstie Alley, and Judy Davis.

Throughout his entire career, he managed to scored five Emmy nominations for his television works.

Robert Ackerman, Prolific Theater & Television Director, Dies at 77. Ackerman started out directing at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre. In the 1980s his theater productions included Martin Sherman’s Tony nominated “Bent,” starring Richard Gere and David Dukes;😢 pic.twitter.com/uxBLpHEE58
— Sumner (@renmusb1) January 13, 2022

Ackerman in the Industry

According to the same article, he was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1994. The Adelphi University alum used to work as a teacher in Harlem for seven years and aspired to become an actor.

By then, Ackerman joined an off-off-Broadway rep company to act. Still, then he quickly volunteered to direct, drawn to "the immediacy of live performance, watching actors as they worked, discussing lines with writers during rehearsals and previews and loving the backstage buzz of gossip between shows," he said.

By the late 1970s, the famed director first established himself as an Off-Broadway stage director working for The Public Theatre. He used to work for several shows and works by playwright Thomas Babe including "A Prayer For My Daughter," starring Laurence Luckinbill; "Taken in Marriage" starring Streep and Colleen Dewhurst; and "Fathers and Sons," starring Chamberlain and Dixie Carter.

More from his career in Broadway, he directed more shows adding Martin Sherman's "Bent" with Gere, David Dukes, and David Marshall Grant in 1979, John Byrne's "Slab Boys" with Penn, Bacon, and Val Kilmer in 1983, the Peter Allen-Harvey Fierstein musical "Legs Diamond" with Allen in 1988, and "Salome" with Pacino, Sheryl Lee and Esai Morales in 1992.

Apart from that, he also earned numerous notable TV credits like "David's Mother" in 1994 with Alley, "Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows," in 2001 Davis, "The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone" in 2003 with Mirren, and "The Reagans" in 2003 with Josh Brolin and Davis.

Actor Al Pacino left a heartfelt tribute to Ackerman following his death. In a statement, he said, "I love Bob. I loved being around him, his aurora, his steady peace. To work with him was joyous. He understood the language of theater art and communicated it with such ease."

He added, "His gift was intangible and there's no way of understanding how he created. When an artist has that special gift it is unexplainable, it just happens. When he stopped directing, he started writing again and his writing also had that same magic. He will be missed."

May his soul rest in peace.