Nicolas Coster, Broadway and ‘All the President’s Men’ actor, dead at 89

Broadway and soap opera veteran Nicolas Coster, who also appeared in the classic political drama “All the President’s Men,” has died at age 89, his family announced.

A cause of death was not released for Coster, who died Monday evening at a Florida hospital.

“Please remember him as a great artist,” his daughter wrote in an announcement on his Facebook page. “He was an actor’s actor! I will always be inspired by him and know how lucky I am to have such a great father!! Rest In Peace.”

Born in London in 1933, Coster repeatedly appeared on Broadway between 1961 and 1991. He debuted in a production of “Becket,” serving as Lawrence Olivier’s understudy for the Henry II role.

“Larry was very athletic, even at 54,” Coster told the Orange County Register of Olivier in 2006. “One night, he twisted his knee terribly during the first act. I was standing offstage watching and Olivier came limping off and looked at me and said, ‘Not tonight, Nicolas!’”

Coster also worked with Elizabeth Taylor in Broadway’s “The Little Foxes” in 1981, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He last appeared on Broadway in a 1991 production of “Getting Married.”

Coster was similarly prolific in the soap opera space, appearing on episodes of “All My Children,” “Young Doctor Malone,” “The Secret Storm,” “Santa Barbara” and “Another World.” He played Anthony Makana on five episodes of “One Life to Live” during the 1980s, and portrayed Eduardo Grimaldi on 11 episodes of “As the World Turns” the following decade.

Soap operas accounted for only some of Coster’s nearly 175 onscreen credits, which spanned seven decades. He played Markham in 1976′s “All the President’s Men,” which starred Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford as Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, the journalists who uncovered Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal.

Coster’s onscreen career began with an uncredited appearance as a seaman in 1953′s “Titanic,” and notably included a recurring role as the father of the Blair Warner character on “Facts of Life.”

He won a Daytime Emmy in 2017 for the Amazon series “The Bay.”