Last night at the SAG Awards, the cast of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel won the award for Ensemble in a Comedy Series while actor Tony Shalhoub won the award for Male Actor in a Comedy Series.
It was a nice night for the cast, as both Alex Borstein and Rachel Brosnahan were nominated as well, both for Female Actor in a Comedy.
However, both during Tony Shalhoub’s acceptance of his award and Rachel Brosnahan’s comments during the ensemble award, there was a touch of sadness.
Both honored late actor Brian Tarantina in their speeches.
“With your blessings,” Shalhoub said. “I will dedicate this to one of our family, who we lost this year and who we miss terribly, the most marvelous Brian Tarantina. Our brother — here’s to you.”
Here is Tony Shalhoub’s acceptance speech.
When it was time for the cast to accept their award, Rachel Brosnahan added her tribute.
“We are missing, as Tony said, one really, really, really important member of our ensemble tonight, Brian Tarantina,” she said. “We had such an amazing time with him here last year so thank you so, so much. This is dedicated to him.”
Here is their full acceptance speech.
Who was Brian Tarantina?
Brian Tarantina was an actor on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. He portrayed Jackie, the emcee at the Gaslight comedy club. This is where Midge Maisel performs her acts at on the show.
Tarantina died in November 2019 unexpectedly at the age of 60. His death came when police received a 911 call in New York City. according to reports, Tarantina was found unresponsive on his couch and was declared dead.
People reported that Tarantina had been ill.
“He was recently in the hospital and was in the process of recuperating from what I believe to be a heart-related issue,” a rep said at the time.
It was later learned that Brian Taratina’s cause of death was an accidental overdose.
Brian Tarantina was a veteran actor. Outside of his role on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, he also appeared as Bootsy on Gilmore Girls and had several roles in TV shows like Law & Order, Blue Bloods, and The Blacklist.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel will return with Season 4 later in 2020.