MARC ANTHONY - ANTHONY'S FATHER CARED FOR LAVOE

ANTHONY'S FATHER CARED FOR LAVOE

Actor/singer MARC ANTHONY had some invaluable insight into the last days of tragic salsa great HECTOR LAVOE as he prepared to play him in biopic EL CANTANTE - his father nursed the legend to his death. Anthony insists he was the only person who could have played Lavoe because the man and his music were such important parts of his life. The Latino superstar says, "His music was almost a soundtrack to my life. I remember listening to his music when the Puerto Rican parade would go by and he was ever present. "My dad worked in the kitchen at Terence Cardinal Cook, which is a nursing home for people with AIDS on 106th and Fifth Avenue (in New York) and my dad took care of him the last two years of his life. "He spoke a lot about his glory days and he said, 'Tell your son he could control this not happening and I wish I would've known.' My dad passed that onto me." Lavoe died in 1993 after losing his battle with AIDS and depression.