Anthony (Tony) McGrath, of Martha’s Vineyard, Palm Springs, and New York city, a pioneer in New York city street theatre, died in his New York city home at the age of 90.

He fell short of his theory that he and all people should live until 140. He based this theory on the premise that living creatures should live to seven times their age of maturity. People mature at 20, therefore they should live to 140.

He lived in the Highlands section of Oak Bluffs since 1964 and was an original member of Motley Crew’s “The Brain Trust” at Mocha Mott’s since 2001.

He produced the Frederick Douglass speech What To The Slave Is The Fourth Of July? on the beach in Oak Bluffs for the past 15 years as well as lectures, plays and children’s theatre.

The late Dorothy West immortalized him in her novel The Wedding, which was about an interracial marriage. She based the characters on Mr. McGrath and his wife of 50 years, Abigail McGrath, who was her niece.

A graduate of Balboa High School in San Francesco, he went to St. Mary’s College of California with a basketball and football scholarship.

Mr. McGrath founded the Off Center Theatre in 1968 and was producing performances through 2017. The Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham said: “My work with Off Center Theatre keeps me in touch with honesty.”

Mr. McGrath was also a student of Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio and a veteran of the Broadway stage. He created the part of Big Eddie Stover in Truman Capote’s original 1952 production of The Grass Harp, directed by Robert Lewis. He also created the part of The Stranger in the original 1955 production of The Cherry Orchard, directed by David Ross, and was in the acclaimed Joel Friedman’s New York Shakespeare Festival production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Central Park. Mr. Friedman also directed him in The Odd Couple.

He was featured in the film Better Than Ever opposite Bill Hickey, The Luckiest Man In the World by Frank Gilroy, and Au Pair Chocolat directed by his son, Benson McGrath.

He was also featured in many early television shows such as Route 66, 77 Sunset Strip and Death Valley Days.

In 1968, he created Off Center Theatre in order to give new playwrights a platform and to promote out of the box concepts within a proscenium setting. He was inspired by his street theatre experiences in the Bread and Puppet Theatre.

His first theatre was in the Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church on 66th street. Lincoln Center was doing the excavation for their performing space at the time. When people would ask where his theatre was located, he would say “Off Lincoln Center,” hence the name Off Center which was doubly fitting given the type of political and social plays associated with it.

Playwrights such as Trevor Griffen, Barry Keefe, Neall Bell, Norman Wexler, and Tom Labar all had their works produced there. Christine Baranski, Peter Boyle, Dominic Chianese, Ron McLarty and a host of others performed there.

Off Center also produced plays for children. It was located near a low income housing project and children could not afford the tickets. As a result, the children’s plays were performed on the streets, for free. “Theatre is a right, not a privilege,” Mr. McGrath said.

The theatre performed zany and irreverent versions of children’s classics. The actor John Leguizamo got his start as Jack in Jack in the Beanstalk. S. Epatha Merkerson was the third pig in Three Little Pigs, and F. Murray Abraham who was quite well known when he joined the company as the prince in Cinderella. The children’s theatre company used fairy tales to emphasize women’s rights, diversity and social issues in a way that was an alternative to Disney.

Under Mr. McGrath’s direction, Biting The Apple, street theatre done in comic book style about the worm of apathy in the Big Apple, toured city streets. The performance Hope For Life featured a different episode every week for those who missed their soap opera. It asked the question, can a girl from a small Latin-American island find happiness as a secretary on Wall Street?

He is survived by Abigail McGrath, his son Benson McGrath, and his stepson Jason Rosen.

A memorial will be announced at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Off Center Theater, Inc., 484 West 43rd St., #37E, New York, N.Y. 10036 or paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=D377DF94U5594