Tony Fitzpatrick, a boundlessly creative man whose talents enriched the worlds of visual arts, theater, film, radio, literature and random conversations, and who mentored and influenced a generation or two of younger artists, died Saturday morning at Rush Medical Center in Chicago. He was 66.
According to his wife Michele, he died of a heart attack. He had been at the hospital awaiting a double lung transplant.
Michele had been with him, as had their two adult children, son Max and daughter Gaby (Gabrielle). Fitzpatrick had been in the hospital for many weeks, entertaining with his stories and palpable optimism the nurses on the intensive care floor as well as a steady stream of visiting friends and admirers.
As he recently told an old friend, “It seems like everybody wants to wish me well.” And take photos with him, listen to what he thought of contemporary politics and politicians (as usual, not much) and listen as he talked enthusiastically about the future.
These people visiting represented Fitzpatrick’s many worlds. A relatively aimless and hard-drinking young man born and raised in the western suburbs, he would later in life stop drinking, marry Michele, and dive into life with a stunning energy.
Anthony Fitzpatrick was born in Nov. 1958. A visual artist as well as an actor and theater-maker, his distinctive art was coveted by collectors and museums. A mural he created in honor of former Steppenwolf Theatre artistic director Martha Lavey, titled “Night and Day in the Garden of All Other Ecstasies,” was installed in 2021 on the exterior of the theater’s expanded campus on Halsted Street. Although he said later that summer that a show at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art in Glen Ellyn would be his final solo museum exhibition, he continued to show his work at his Dime Gallery on Western Avenue in the Wicker Park neighborhood.
E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune
A mural by artist Tony Fitzpatrick at the new Steppenwolf Theatre expanded campus in 2021. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)
His voice was common on radio stations, especially WLUP. He could be found at poetry slams and soon on stages and screens, in such films as “Primal Fear,” “Mad Dog and Glory” and “Philadelphia,” and most recently as a security guard in the “Patriot” TV series.
He was as busy as ever these past weeks. On Oct. 4 he “hosted,” via Zoom, the opening of his new art exhibition, “Songbirds and Crucifixions” at Great Lakes Tattoo. He was giving interviews about his new book, a spectacular 113 pages titled “The Sun at the End of the Road,” filled with Fitzpatrick’s distinctive art, poetry and prose — his mind. Some consider this a memoir and indeed that is one element. But here is how Fitzpatrick put it, “here is some of what I remember, some of what I have learned and damn near all of what I love — birds, stories, people and dogs.”
Artist Tony Fitzpatrick feeds ducks in Humboldt Park’s lagoon on May 9, 2020. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Artwork by Chicago’s Tony Fitzpatrick is included in the “Winging It: A Brief History of Humanity’s Relationship with Birds” exhibit, June 16, 2025, at the Newberry Library. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune)
He was planning to appear in a play based on his new book as part of Steppenwolf Theatre’s LookOut series, but it had understandably been postponed.
This story is updating.
rkogan@chicagotribune.com
Originally Published: October 11, 2025 at 1:15 PM CDT