The Young and The Restless Actor Tom Ligon Dies At 85

Tom Ligon, a New York stage actor who became famous as Lucas on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless, died in NYC. He was 85. His passing was confirmed by his friend Steve Hayes on Facebook. Ligon’s death was also confirmed by SAG-AFTRA New York Local. His cause of death has not been revealed yet.

How Did Tom Ligon Break Through?

Ligon stormed into acting with a stroke of luck. While he was a student at Yale, his turn as Kilroy in Tennessee Williams’ “Camino Real” caught the playwright’s attention, The Hollywood Reporter reported. That moment opened the door to a working life on the New York stage. Broadway followed soon after. Ligon made his stage debut in 1963 in Have I Got a Girl for You, then returned in 1969 with Angela and Love Is a Time of Day, as per Playbill. In 1968, he created the role of Orson in the off-Broadway favorite Your Own Thing. He appeared in episodes on and appeared on episodes of Medical Center, Baretta, Charlie’s Angels, Police Woman, Starsky & Hutch, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Dallas, Law & Order.

He appeared consistently onscreen from the 1970s into the 2010s. Ligon found parts in Paint Your Wagon (1969) and Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), the baseball drama in which he sang “Streets of Laredo” in a locker room scene alongside Robert De Niro, per the outlet. His 1971 film Jump later was passionately endorsed by Quentin Tarantino, who called it “this amazing film that no one’s ever seen” and said it was “hilarious and very satirical” in a 2013 interview. From 1978 to 1982, he was Lucas Lorenzo Prentiss on The Young and the Restless, amassing his biggest fanbase.

Ligon, who was a chair of SAG-AFTRA in the 2000s, made national headlines in 2013 when, at 72, he physically defended his home against a burglar by using a karate chop. He was preceded in death by his wife of more than 30 years, K.C., in 2009.