Broadway actor Nick Cordero died Sunday after contracting the coronavirus and spending weeks in intensive care, his wife said.
"I am in disbelief and hurting everywhere," his wife, Amanda Kloots, posted on Instagram. "My heart is broken as I cannot imagine our lives without him."
Cordero, 41, went to an emergency room with symptoms of the virus on March 30 and was placed on a ventilator two days later.
He had no known pre-existing conditions, Kloots has said, but he developed an infection that caused two mini-strokes and septic shock. Doctors at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles also placed Cordero, a Tony-nominated actor, in a medically induced coma and amputated his right leg.
Kloots told CBS News last week that Cordero would likely need a double lung transplant to "live the kind of life that I know my husband would want to live."
In a note Sunday on Instagram, Kloots said she held Cordero's hand and sang his favorite song, "Live Your Life."
"As I sang the last line to him, 'they'll give you hell but don't you [let] them kill your light not without a fight. Live your life,' I smiled because he definitely put up a fight," she said. "I will love you forever and always my sweet man."
The Tony Award-nominated actor specialized in playing tough guys on Broadway in such shows as “Waitress,” “A Bronx Tale” and “Bullets Over Broadway.”
He spent more than 90 days in the hospital, Kloots said. He entered the emergency room on March 30 and had a succession of health setbacks, including mini-strokes, blood clots, sepsis infections, a tracheostomy and a temporary pacemaker implanted.
During Cordro's hospitalization, Kloots sent him daily videos of her and their 1-year-old son, Elvis, so he could see them if he woke up, and urged friends and fans to join a daily sing-a-long. A GoFundMe page to pay for medical expenses has raised over $600,000.
The lanky Cordero originated the menacing role of husband Earl opposite his estranged wife, played by Jessie Mueller, in “Waitress,” as well as the role of Sonny in Chazz Palminteri's “A Bronx Tale.” It was at “Bullets Over Broadway” where Cordero met his wife. The two married in 2017.
He played a mob soldier with a flair for the dramatic in Broadway's Woody Allen 1994 film adaptation of “Bullets Over Broadway,” for which he received a Tony nomination for best featured actor in a musical. He and his family moved to Los Angeles to star in “Rock of Ages.”
On the small screen, Cordero appeared in several episodes of “Blue Bloods” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” and he had a role in the film “Going in Style.”
His former publicist, Lisa Goldberg, said in a statement that the time she spent with Cordero "was never without laughter."
"He wasn’t about winning the race, he was all about enjoying the ride," she said. "He was the client that always said thank you and he was the friend who always sat talking until 2 a.m. He was a fighter and fiercely loved his family. He will be deeply missed.”
