Gerome Ragni (born Jerome Bernard Ragni; September 11, 1935 – July 10, 1991) was an American actor, singer, and songwriter, best known as one of the stars and co-writers of the 1967 musical Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. On June 18, 2009, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Early life Born Jerome Bernard Ragni in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was one of ten children in a low-income Italian-American family. He attended suburban Scott Township High School, where he appeared in various school productions. He attended Georgetown University and The Catholic University of America. At Catholic, he discovered an interest in theater, and began studying acting with Philip Burton. Ragni made his acting debut in Washington, D.C. in 1954, playing Father Corr in Shadow and Substance. He continued to act whenever he could find work. In 1963, he appeared in the New York production of War at the Village South Theatre, for which he won the Barter Theatre Award for Outstanding Actor. Career In 1954, Ragni made his professional stage debut in a Washington D.C. production, Shadow and Substance. In 1964, Ragni was an understudy for the role of Horatio at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in the Broadway production of Hamlet starring Richard Burton. He then appeared as the Messenger (uncredited) in Richard Burton's Hamlet, the film version of the production, released by Warner Bros. in 1964. That same year, Ragni made his first Off-Broadway appearance in New York City in the anti-capital punishment musical Hang Down Your Head and Die at the Mayfair Theatre on October 18 with James Rado, a fellow actor and friend who was studying with Lee Strasberg. Hang Down Your Head and Die was a success in London. It was first produced in the UK by the Oxford University Experimental Theatre Club in 1964; two cast members and writers were students Terry Jones and Michael Palin. It then moved from Oxford to the Comedy Theatre in London's West End, was well-received and ran six weeks. But when it moved to New York the musical only had one performance, opening and closing on October 18, 1964. Theater critic Howard Taubman wrote in The New York Times, "Death by hanging is swift, but Hang Down Your Head and Die makes a long evening of it... After a while, one feels as if one were being bludgeoned." In 1965, Ragni performed in the role of Tom in