Jack Hofsiss (left) and Richard Rodgers at the Tony Award presentations in New York, June 4, 1979. Photo: Richard Drew/AP

Stage and screen director Jack Hofsiss, who won a Tony Award in his first outing on Broadway while helming The Elephant Man and kept working despite an accident that left him without the use of his arms and legs, has died aged 65. Hofsiss died at his home in Manhattan.

“He fell asleep and slipped away from us,” producer and longtime friend Elizabeth McCann said.

Hofsiss also directed several TV films, including a 1982 adaptation of The Elephant Man, a version of Cat On a Hot Tin Roof starring Jessica Lange and The Oldest Living Graduate with Henry Fonda.

He was best known for shepherding The Elephant Man to Broadway from off-Broadway and, in 1979, at 28, became the youngest man at the time to win the Tony for best direction.

The play was based on the actual case history of John Merrick, a Victorian-era freak show outcast whom a London surgeon, Frederick Treves, protected and encouraged. In the play, Philip Anglim played Merrick without the aid of make-up or special costuming.

McCann, who produced the play, called Hofsiss a gregarious and witty man and said she considered him the smartest director she ever worked with. “He was a total man of the theatre,” she said.

Hofsiss’s career was interrupted on July 20, 1985, when he dived into the shallow end of a swimming pool and broke his neck. He ended up in hospital for nearly eight months.

The accident made him confront his physical limitations as a director.

“Not being able to jump up and get in the middle of things forced me to be more articulate. Now I have an assistant who jumps up and shoves people around instead of me,” he said.

His first job after the accident would be directing Philip Barry’s Paris Bound.

“It didn’t stop him,” said McCann. “He went every place he could. He went to the theatre all the time.”

Hofsiss also served as a Tony nominator and on the board of directors of the Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts for several years.

He is survived by three sisters.