In Act III of Their Lives, All’s Well

At first glance, it looks like any other room in an old folks’ home, with photos of kids on the wall and reminders to take medications. But Larry Vincent’s room is different: Taped to his desk is a note that George Bernard Shaw’s play “Saint Joan” could make a “fascinating” one-man show.

Vincent, a widowed actor, has come a long way since first arriving at the Lillian Booth Actors’ Home feeling bereft and alone with his memories. He had fallen several times in his Manhattan apartment, and when his children decided it was time for their dad to enter a retirement home, he felt a sense of dread.

The feeling lasted about 10 minutes.

“I originally told my kids they’d have to drag me kicking and screaming out of New York,” said Vincent, 83, as he motored about the New Jersey residence in a mechanized wheelchair. “But I feel at home because this is one of the most unique seniors’ homes anywhere. The feeling here is one of family and flamboyance.”

Both were on display last week as the actors’ home celebrated William Shakespeare’s birthday, an annual event at the retirement community, which is nestled on the leafy grounds of a six-acre estate only 15 miles from the Great White Way.

Broadway stars, theater magnates and others came to pay their respects to the Bard of Avon and visit the aging members of the entertainment community. During the two-hour party, visiting actor Joseph Sirola regaled the crowd with booming recitations of Shakespearean sonnets. And listeners cheered the story of Edwin Forrest, a 19th century thespian whose will provided for the care of elderly performers -- but specified that beneficiaries celebrate the bard’s birthday each year.

In that spirit, Vincent and others recited their favorite sonnets and rattled off lines from “King Lear.” A few explored a more modern repertoire, recalling scenes from “Death of a Salesman” and other plays.

Not your typical old-age home.

“We’ve had people here who were huge in the New York theater world,” said Joseph Benincasa, executive director of the Actors’ Fund of America, a nonprofit organization that runs a number of programs, including the Lillian Booth facility.

“But we’ve also had people who were ushers in New York theaters, people who helped with publicity, and people who come from the world of ballet and film as well as vaudeville and summer stock,” he said. “Every one of them has a great story.”

Many of these personal accounts were captured in “Curtain Call,” a 2000 documentary about the home that was nominated for an Academy Award in the short subject category. There were stories about Bernard Flood, who played the horn with Louis Armstrong; Dalton Dearborn, a Ringling Bros. circus clown; Tessie Moreno, a Ziegfeld girl; and others who offered glimpses of a life in entertainment.

While most residents pass through quietly, others have been memorialized in pop culture. Neil Simon’s 1972 play and subsequent film “The Sunshine Boys” was based on the real-life experiences of comedians Joseph Sultzer and Charles Marks, better known as the comedy team of Smith and Dale, who lived in the Actors’ Fund home.

The original facility was opened on Staten Island in 1902, a time when actors were generally considered a disreputable lot. Little provision was made to take care of them if they were in need of help. The more successful members of the theatrical community started the Actors’ Fund in 1882, offering housing and other assistance.

The group acquired the current New Jersey site in 1928 and has grown into a nationwide organization, offering a range of social, housing and medical programs in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Funded by private donors, performers and the proceeds from yearly benefit performances, the Actors’ Fund has an annual budget of about $17 million and serves more than 6,000 people.

A similar retirement facility is run by the Motion Picture and Television Fund in Woodland Hills. But unlike the San Fernando Valley home, which serves former film and TV performers, the Actors’ Fund takes applicants from the full range of the entertainment world. The New Jersey property is home to more than 100 people in an assisted-living program and in an adjacent nursing facility.

“This is how we take care of our own,” said Dale Olson, a Los Angeles-based Actors’ Fund trustee. “But things are somewhat different from your average retirement home. When actors and performers get together, the chemistry can be special.”

Vincent, the widower, learned the ropes in a hurry. He exercises his “actor’s prerogative” to rise at 10 a.m. and have breakfast privately in his room. And when he goes to the Stage Door Canteen for communal lunch and dinner, the mood is often theatrical.

“You have a lot of people here who don’t simply walk into a room,” he said. “They make grand entrances. One will say, in a rich, baritone voice: ‘Greetings, all!’ before finding a chair. Another says, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen!’ and then sits down.”

The home’s monthly calendar is filled with entertainment-related events. This month, there were cabaret workshops, stand-up comedy sessions, a gathering for singers and songwriters, plus theatrical outings to Manhattan. At night there were screenings of movies like “Long Days Journey into Night,” and others requested by residents.

A quick walk through the halls recalls a golden age of American theater, with large portraits of Katherine Hepburn and Helen Hayes on the walls, along with Hirschfeld line drawings of George Burns, Carol Channing and John Wayne.

But the magic of the home is that many residents are not living in the past.

Soon after he arrived here, Vincent was in the dining room when he heard a familiar voice. Without looking up, he knew he was listening to Joseph Bova, an actor with whom he had performed in 1948, in a Cleveland Heights, Ohio, theater.

“I was astonished,” said Vincent, who spent 52 years in the theater as an actor and director. ‘He was the same guy I remembered. And now, we’re performing again.”

Both men are rehearsing scenes from “Julius Caesar” that they plan to take on the road, as part of an Actors’ Fund community outreach program. Vincent plays the role of Brutus, Bova is Cassius, and the prospect of connecting with live audiences once again brings a look of happiness to their eyes.

“When I first came here, my first reaction was to think that I had come to the wrong place,” said Bova, 79, who starred on Broadway opposite Carol Burnett in “Once Upon a Mattress” and appeared in Joseph Papp productions of Shakespeare in the Park, sharing the boards with Meryl Streep, Martin Sheen, among others.

“I quickly learned that you have to seek out people who share your interests, and actors have a lot to share,” he said. “You never know who you’re going to connect with here, but I’m more likely to get along with an actor than an accountant.”

As this year’s Shakespeare festivities drew to a close, Vincent said goodbye to friends in the main room and motored back to his room. He gestured proudly at a wall filled with mementos of his years directing and acting, including a plaque listing the 40 plays he staged in the Midwest years ago, and photos of him with other performers.

But he also smiles over his plans for a one-man show of Shaw’s “Saint Joan.”

“My son, who lives in Ohio, had originally wanted me to come and live with him when I couldn’t live by myself in New York any longer,” Vincent recalled with a smile. “But after being here, I realized there was no way. I told him: ‘Over my dead body!’ ”