JOHN TYRRELL

TYRRELL--John, passed away peacefully at home on Thursday, September 11, 2025. He was 76. John was born and raised in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. John's natural stage presence and enthusiasm for performing was evident from an early age. As a child, he was the star of his family's home movies, always making sure the camera was trained on him. And as a teenager, he spent a summer performing with a local theater group in productions of "South Pacific" and "West Side Story." After attending Marquette University, John moved to New York City and was accepted to The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, where he studied with the late Sanford Meisner. At the age of 25, John made his Broadway debut in the original cast of "Equus." He would later appear on Broadway in "The Merchant" and "The Miser" with Philip Bosco. Off-Broadway, John appeared in "The Crucible" and "Nora," and was part of the national tour of "The Elephant Man." His regional theater credits took him across the country, from the Fulton Theater to the Cleveland Playhouse to the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis. John featured on numerous stages in the Northeast, including Cape May Stage, Shakespeare on the Sound, South Jersey Regional Theatre, and The Schoolhouse Theater, where he was last seen as Richard in "The Seafarer." And for his performance in Racing Demon with the Merrimack Repertory Theater, John was nominated for a Boston Outer Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor. Beyond the stage, John spent 20 years teaching acting and training a new generation of performers. He began his teaching career at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts before returning to The Neighborhood Playhouse in 2014, where he coached students in the same Meisner acting technique he learned as a student training under the method's namesake. Anyone that knew John knew him to be a kind, empathetic man with a wonderful sense of humor. He was quick-witted and easy to talk to. He always saw the best in people and managed to keep a Zen attitude (unless, of course, you were a group of tourists blocking the sidewalk outside of his Hell's Kitchen apartment). John is survived by his loving partner of 43 years, Michael, his sister Nancy Mallon, his brother Eugene and his wife Peggy, his nephews William, Patrick (Olivia), and Dylan, his niece Maggie (Paul), and his great-nephew Nathaniel and great-niece Charlotte. He was predeceased by his parents, Dr. Eugene Tyrrell and Bernadette Burke Tyrrell, and his brother-in-law, Robert Mallon. A memorial service will be held on Wednesday, September 17, 2025 at the A.S. Cole Son & Co. Funeral Home, 22 N. Main Street, Cranbury, New Jersey from 6:30pm-8:00pm, with a service beginning at 8:00pm. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the John Tyrrell Scholarship Fund at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.