Tom Viola, longtime executive director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA), will receive the 2013 Patrick Quinn Award for Distinguished Service to Actors, presented by the Actors' Equity (AEA) Foundation.

BC/EFA is one of the nation's leading industry-based not-for-profit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations, raising more than $225 million since its founding for much-needed services for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families and other critical health issues nationwide.

The award was established with a bequest from Quinn’s will. A founding member of BC/EFA and a longtime AEA member and leader, Quinn served as Actors' Equity president from 2000 until his death in 2006. Martin Casella, Quinn's partner and a member of the award selection committee, says:

Through his singular dedication to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, Tom's life for the past 25 years has been focused on raising and distributing money worldwide to help stop and treat not only HIV/AIDS but also supporting women's health issues, important social concerns, emergency relief efforts and anything that will improve not only the lives of actors, but people everywhere.

Viola, who earned his AEA card in 1978 and has worked as an actor, writer, producer and administrator, began his work with the then Equity Fights AIDS Committee in 1988. He says:

The accomplishments of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS are not something I've done; they are something I've been fortunate to be a part of.

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