Bryan Batt: From Newman to Mad Men

From Newman to Mad Men

Bryan Batt grew up in a New Orleans family that ran one of the city's most beloved institutions — Pontchartrain Beach amusement park. He went to Newman School, then Tulane, and then he did something that most New Orleans kids with theater dreams do: he went to New York.

What followed was one of the more impressive Broadway careers any New Orleanian has ever had. Batt performed in Cats, Saturday Night Fever, and Beauty and the Beast, among others. His work in Saturday Night Fever earned him a caricature at Sardi's — the famous theater-district restaurant where getting your face on the wall means you've officially made it on Broadway.

But it was television that made Batt a household name. His portrayal of Salvatore Romano on AMC's Mad Men — the closeted art director at Sterling Cooper, navigating the impossible terrain of being gay in 1960s corporate America — was one of the show's most heartbreaking performances. The role earned him two Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of the ensemble cast in 2008 and 2009.

Through it all, Batt never really left New Orleans. He and his husband Tom Cianfichi own Hazelnut, a home decor store in the city that's become a destination in its own right. Batt wrote a memoir about his mother and a book on interior design, because apparently being a Broadway veteran and Emmy-worthy actor wasn't enough to keep him busy.

In a city that produces more than its share of performers, Bryan Batt stands out as someone who made it at the highest levels — Broadway, prestige television, the whole thing — and then came home. Not because his career was over, but because New Orleans is where he belongs. The kid from Pontchartrain Beach ended up on the biggest stages in the world, and he still kept a house on the lake.