William Hickey; Oscar Nominee, Teacher

William Hickey, who was better known as an acting teacher than as an actor until he was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as a dying Mafia don in the film “Prizzi’s Honor,” has died. He was 69.

Hickey, who lived in Greenwich Village, died Sunday in a New York hospital of complications from emphysema and bronchitis.

In the 1985 film, Hickey did a star turn as the 84-year-old Don Corrado Prizzi, which won him an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor. Anjelica Huston won the best supporting actress Academy Award for her role in the film.

“ ‘Prizzi’ is my first grown-up acting role,” Hickey told The Times when he was shooting the movie in 1985. “Mr. (director John) Huston told me to contrive any kind of character I wanted, and I worked on everything, from the makeup (which he said required 3 1/2 hours’ application each day of shooting), to the Mafia family loyalty.

“Mr. Huston directs like I teach my classes,” he added. “Jack [Nicholson] and I would report to the set to do a scene, and Mr. Huston would say, ‘Now we’ll leave you both alone to play the scene.’ Then he would gather the crew, and everyone would leave to let us come up with our own stuff.”

Hickey taught acting for four decades at the HB Studio (named for its founder Herbert Berghof) in Manhattan. Among Hickey’s students were Barbra Streisand, Steve McQueen, Sandy Dennis, the late James Dean and, briefly, Nicholson.

But the Brooklyn-born Hickey also worked steadily as an actor, taking small character roles in films, television and on the New York stage.

Among his more than 20 motion picture credits are “A Hatful of Rain,” “Flanagan,” “Miss Lonelyhearts,” “On the Town” and “National Lampoon’s Summer Vacation.”

His early television appearances included the prestigious theatrical series “Studio One” and “Philco Playhouse.”

Theater assignments included appearing with Katharine Hepburn and Bert Lahr in “Twelfth Night” at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Conn., and with Uta Hagen in “St. Joan” on Broadway.

The teacher and actor is survived by his companion and former student, Lilli Afan, and his sister, Dorothy Finn, both of New York.