Tom Ligon

Tom Ligon was an American actor who worked largely in the theater before moving into film and television. Born in New Orleans, he was mentored in Paris by the folksinger and actor Gordon Heath, then studied at Yale, where Tennessee Williams saw him play Kilroy in Camino Real and he became one of the busiest young actors in New York. He created the role of Orson in the Off-Broadway musical Your Own Thing (1968) and appeared on Broadway in Angela and Love is a Time of Day. That stage work led to Paint Your Wagon (1969) and to Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), for which he sang the title song. He later appeared in The Young and the Restless and Oz, played the Tiger in the original staging of Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, and chaired SAG-AFTRA's national seniors committee. He died in 2026.