{"id":2770,"date":"2026-06-30T08:36:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T08:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2770"},"modified":"2026-06-30T08:36:45","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T08:36:45","slug":"tom-ligon-actor-in-bang-the-drum-slowly-dies-at-85","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2770","title":{"rendered":"Tom Ligon, Actor in \u2018Bang the Drum Slowly,\u2019 Dies at 85"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tTom Ligon, who portrayed backup catcher Piney Woods and performed the cowboy ballad \u201cStreets of Laredo\u201d in the poignant baseball drama Bang the Drum Slowly<\/em>, has died. He was 85.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tLigon\u2019s death was reported Monday by SAG-AFTRA New York Local. A longtime resident of Greenwich Village, he served as its National Seniors Committee chair and New York Seniors Committee co-chair. <\/em>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tThe blue-eyed Ligon also starred as a hillbilly demolition derby driver in 1971\u2019s Jump<\/em> (also known as Fury on Wheels<\/em>) and appeared two years later in another movie revolving around car racing, The Last American Hero<\/em>, starring Jeff Bridges.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn television, Ligon was involved in a love quadrangle as Lucas Prentiss on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless<\/em> from 1978-82 and recurred as the prisoner Alvin Yood, a small-town sheriff convicted of aggravated assault, on HBO\u2019s Oz<\/em> from 2001-03.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1969, he starred on Broadway opposite Geraldine Page in Angela<\/em> and alongside Sandy Duncan in the two-hander Love Is a Time of Day<\/em>, but both plays lasted a total of 12 performances.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Paramount\u2019s Bang the Drum Slowly<\/em> (1973), directed by John D. Hancock, Ligon plays the guitar and sings \u201cStreets of Laredo\u201d (The Cowboy\u2019s Lament) in the New York Mammoths locker room during a rain delay as his teammates, including those played by Robert De Niro \u2014 he\u2019s the starting catcher who\u2019s terminally ill with Hodgkin\u2019s disease \u2014 Michael Moriarty and Danny Aiello, listen on.<\/p>\n

\n\tThomas Bryant Ligon was born in New Orleans on Sept. 10, 1940. His father, Walter, was a U.S. Army colonel who later worked for the Defense Department.<\/p>\n

\n\tLigon attended St. Albans School in Washington and then Yale University, where he starred as Kilroy in Tennessee Williams\u2019 Camino Real<\/em> and reportedly got the attention of the playwright.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe graduated from college as an English major in 1962 and pursued acting in New York, where he shared a $25-a-month sublet in the Village with another young actor, Sam Waterston.<\/p>\n

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\n\tHe made it to Broadway in 1963 in Have I Got a Girl for You!<\/em>, but the comedy closed on opening night.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 1964, Ligon starred in the title role in Billy Budd<\/em> at the Arena Stage in Washington and made his big-screen debut in Michael Roemer\u2019s acclaimed drama Nothing But a Man<\/em>, starring Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe made a splash in 1968 with an off-Broadway turn in the long-running Your Own Thing<\/em>, then appeared as a na\u00efve youngster in Joshua Logan\u2019s Paint Your Wagon<\/em> (1969), starring Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, he continued to act on the stage; in 1972, he starred off-Broadway with Rue McClanahan in God Says There Is No Peter Ott<\/em>, and in 2007, he had the title role in an early Queens Theater workshop production of Rajiv Joseph\u2019s Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo<\/em> (Robin Williams played the part in the 2011 Broadway production).<\/p>\n

\n\tLigon also was in the films Joyride<\/em> (1977) and Cutting Class<\/em> (1989) \u2014 his son in the latter was played by an unknown Brad Pitt \u2014 and appeared on episodes of Medical Center<\/em>, Baretta<\/em>, Charlie\u2019s Angels<\/em>, Police Woman<\/em>, Starsky & Hutch<\/em>, Baa Baa Black Sheep<\/em>, Dallas<\/em>, Law & Order<\/em> and The Heart, She Holler<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn addition to The Young and the Restless<\/em>, he worked on such other soaps as Loving<\/em>, Santa Barbara<\/em>, Another World<\/em> and All My Children<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was married to actress and dialect coach Katharine Dunfee Clarke (K.C. Ligon), daughter of actors David Clarke and Nora Dunfee, from 1976 until her 2009 death from a blood disorder at age 60.<\/p>\n

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Tom Ligon, who played catcher Piney Woods and performed the ballad "Streets of Laredo" in the baseball drama Bang the Drum Slowly, has died at 85.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[39,654],"class_list":["post-2770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-obituaries","tag-robin-williams"],"yoast_head":"\nTom Ligon, Actor in \u2018Bang the Drum Slowly,\u2019 Dies at 85 - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=2770\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom Ligon, Actor in \u2018Bang the Drum Slowly,\u2019 Dies at 85 - 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