While everyone was trying to make it to the auditions for Everybody Loves Raymond (1996), he got lost because his wife kept asking him if he knew where he was going. The frustration of not knowing eventually caused him to become angry and quick-tempered when he finally arrived, and as a result he was cast as the grumpy and irritable Frank Barone.
Before deciding to continue his acting career, he was a monk in the Christian Brothers order.
Peter's wife, Loraine Alterman Boyle, was a reporter for "Rolling Stone" magazine when they first met; he was in full makeup for Young Frankenstein (1974). Through his friendship with Yoko Ono, Peter met former Beatle John Lennon, and they became best friends. Lennon served as best man at their wedding. Their first child, Lucy, was born in 1980, two days after Lennon's murder.
In October 1990 he suffered a near-fatal stroke that left him completely mute and immobile for nearly six months. He also suffered a heart attack on set in 1999 while filming an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond (1996). After angioplasty surgery he recovered quickly and returned to the series.
My father hosted a popular lunchtime cartoon show in Philadelphia in the 1950s called "Lunch with Uncle Pete."
After seeing people cheer his role in Joe (1970), he turned down the lead role in The French Connection (1971) and other roles that glorified violence.
He had two daughters with his wife Loraine: Lucy Boyle and Amy Boyle.
He was the only actor in the cast of Everybody Loves Raymond (1996) who never won an Emmy for his work on the comedy series.
He commuted between Los Angeles, California and his home in New York City for the filming of Everybody Loves Raymond (1996).
Throughout all nine seasons of Everybody Loves Raymond (1996), the New York-based Boyle commuted to Los Angeles. His daughters Lucy and Amy went to school in New York.
In The in Crowd (1988) he played his own father, Philadelphia TV star Pete Boyle.
He was friends with Doris Roberts.
He died on the evening of December 12, 2006, at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan (NYC), from multiple myeloma and heart disease.
In the 1970s, when he hosted Saturday Night Live (1975), he showed off his fine singing voice.
At the 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007) he received a special tribute as part of the annual In Memoriam segment.
He appeared in four films selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Medium Cool (1969), Young Frankenstein (1974), Taxi Driver (1976) and Malcolm X (1992).
In the late 1960s, he was a member of an improvisational trio with Trent Gough and Judd Hirsch, performing at Hillys On The Bowery (run by Hilly Kristal, famous for CBGB) on 9th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues in Greenwich Village.
His father's grandparents were Irish immigrants. His mother's Louisiana family was of French and, to a lesser extent, Welsh, English, Scotch-Irish (Northern Irish), Scottish, German and Polish descent.
He graduated from La Salle University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1957.
He studied drama at Herbert Berghof's HB Studio in Greenwich Village, New York City.
He was buried in Green River Cemetery in Long Island, New York.