Jon Rivera, actor from Middle Island who starred in 'Dracula,' dies at 48

Monday night at 8, the lights will dim at four theaters — CM Performing Arts Center in Oakdale, Cultural Arts Playhouse in Syosset, Theatre Three in Port Jefferson and the Smithtown Performing Arts Center — all to honor actor Jon Rivera, whom colleagues and family describe as the soul of Long Island community theater.

"I don't think that's ever happened on Long Island, where theaters have united to do that," said Marc Hollid-Ausset, chief executive officer and president of CM, Rivera’s home base. "It's a Broadway tradition that when someone from Broadway dies, they dim the lights. So we are doing that Monday at all four theaters. The fact that all of them wanted to participate just shows you how much Jon affected so many people."

Rivera, of Middle Island — who died of a heart attack Monday at Patchogue’s NYU Langone Hospital-Suffolk at age 48, while hospitalized for a procedure following COVID and pneumonia — had starred in community plays and musicals since the 2000s. One early role, Simon Stride in "Jekyll & Hyde" at Theatre Three in 2005, earned him immediate critical kudos, with one critic calling him "dashingly handsome with a great presence and a strong voice."

Those kinds of notices followed him throughout his career, including his last role as Gabriel John Utterson in "Jekyll & Hyde" at CM in October. "The devotion that Rivera so utterly sadly portrayed to the very end," wrote one critic, "was the most poignant heartbreak of Jekyll’s transformation into Hyde."

"Even when he was playing a less likable character, like Glen in ‘The Wedding Singer,’ who's a jerk, he had this wonderful charm and warmth and he was genuine," said Theatre Three executive artistic director Jeffrey Sanzel. "The last thing he did for me was ‘Dracula, the Musical.’ He played the title character and brought humanity to it."

In a 2010 review of the show, Newsday's Daniel Bubbeo wrote, "As the count who never drinks ... wine, Jon Rivera, with dark, flowing tresses (think Meat Loaf with Latin seasoning) and a rich basso profundo, is one hot-blooded vampire."

Rivera also drew raves from those with whom he worked. A medical-sales representative as his regular career, he transitioned to theater administration in 2023 when hired as office manager at CM — quickly getting promoted to director of operations.

"When we interviewed him," recalled Hollid-Ausset, "I remember asking my colleagues, ‘Is he really this nice? Or is he putting on an act for us?’ And I have to tell you, day in and day out, that same guy who came for the interview was the guy who came to work every day. He was that nice."

"He loved everybody," said his brother and roommate, Charlie Rivera, himself an actor and stand-up comic. "Growing up, he was kind of obsessed with Superman, and that idea of community first and people first and finding the beauty in everybody. It was his superpower. ... He would have wanted everyone to know he loved them just as much as they thought he might have. It was so genuine how he felt about people."

Jon Raymond Rivera was born Sept. 6, 1976, in New York City, the elder of two sons of the late Ramon "Raymond" Rivera, a printer, and Maria Dolores "Nancy" Rivera, a retired nurse. Living in Queens initially, the family, which valued art and literature, moved to Shirley in the late 1980s. Jon Rivera graduated from William Floyd High School in Mastic Beach, and obtained a bachelor’s degree in English and theater arts from St. Joseph’s College, now St. Joseph’s University, in Patchogue.

A devoted reader of fiction — from Cervantes to Stephen King to comic books — Rivera was, as well, "obsessed with the Mets," his brother said. "And he was a big Giants fan, Rangers fan, Knicks fan."

He moved away from Long Island for a time, living in Manhattan and in Weehawken, New Jersey, before moving to Middle Island in 2023. "But every now and then he would do a small show on the Island," his brother said. "I remember plenty of times where he would have a crazy commute from Jersey to his office in Central Islip to rehearsal and back again. He never had his feet all the way out of performing."

And writing and directing: He mounted his one-act play "The Confession" in Manhattan Repertory Theatre’s Winterfest in December 2014.

He is survived by his mother, of Shirley, and his brother.

Visitation will be Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. at Roma Funeral Home in Shirley. A service will be held Monday at 10:45 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist in Center Moriches, following by burial at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in that hamlet.