Lauren Cahill was a real-estate man by day and an actor most of the rest of the time.
Cahill, who died at 90, was active in local theater for decades.
He died July 31 in a care facility in Wheat Ridge.
“If you got Lauren into your show, you knew you had a solid, hard-working, dependable, fine actor,” said Henry Lowenstein, who produced and did design at the Bonfils Theatre, where Cahill often performed. It closed in 1986.
After selling real estate for 15 years, Cahill was executive director of the Denver Home Builders Association. Much of his job was lobbying the state legislature.
“He was very outgoing and could take stressful situations and smooth them out,” said his daughter, Linda Backer of Arvada.
“Whatever he was in, he was into it with both feet,” Backer said.
Cahill also was on the board of the National Association of Home Builders and president of the executive officers’ council.
He was named industry Man of the Year in 1978 by the Colorado Association for Housing and Building.
He retired in 1985.
But acting was in his blood.
In 1951, he was onstage with Grace Kelly at Denver’s Elitch Theater, playing a minor role in “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” said his son Kevin Cahill of Denver. Another time, he was in a play with Patricia Neal.
Other plays included “The Rainmaker,” “Guys and Dolls,” and “The Devil’s Advocate.”
In high school, he played saxophone and tap-danced in a band.
He went to New York City because “he had the bug to be an actor,” said his son, but after going to a few “cattle (casting) calls,” he decided to follow another career.
Nevertheless, “he had many, many outstanding roles” locally, said Lowenstein. “He was absolutely great” as Willy Loman, the lead in “Death of a Salesman.”
Lauren H. Cahill was born in Trinidad on Oct. 3, 1918, and graduated from high school there.
Cahill attended Trinidad State Junior College for two years and Columbia School of Radio and Drama in Chicago for two years.
He was in Gen. George Patton’s 3rd Army in World War II and was badly injured in France when a mortar shell exploded. A French boy found Cahill in a farm field and went for help. He had suffered severe back injuries, his daughter said.
“He never found out who that boy was,” Backer said.
Cahill married Eulalie “Lee” Isom on Feb. 13, 1943. She died in 2008.
In addition to his daughter and son, Cahill is survived by another son, Jack Cahill of St. Louis; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
Inside.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
