Mark Vaccacio portrayed John Lennon in the original run of "Beatlemaniaa" at the Winter Garden Theatre.

Veteran Bronx Beatles impersonator Mark Vaccacio continues performing, and taking his mind off of his illness, as he slowly dies from terminal cancer. From Michael Wilson’s story about Vaccacio in the New York Times:

“For more than three decades, Mr. Vaccacio has switched his accent from Bronx offstage to Liverpool on, starting with the role of John Lennon in Beatlemania on Broadway in the late 1970s. Since the late 1990s, he has played with the tribute band Strawberry Fields at clubs, summer festivals, corporate parties, black-tie weddings, Caribbean bars and, for several years, at noon every Saturday at B. B. King’s.

But without the suit and wig and teeth, he is just another guy from Yonkers by way of Long Island, with two ex-wives, more ex-girlfriends, a daughter far lovelier than he, a father who died young of colon cancer, and a bunch of pals in bands.

A guy who, about a year ago, suddenly had no appetite and went to the doctor. ‘I had a tumor the size of a softball on this side and a tumor the size of a golf ball here,’ Mr. Vaccacio recalled, patting his flat lower belly. He felt no pain then, except to his pride: he should have known better.”