Nick Apollo Forte, the actor and cruise-ship singer best known for playing the over-the-hill crooner Lou Canova in Woody Allen’s 1984 movie “Broadway Danny Rose,” died on Feb. 26 in Waterbury, Conn., where he was born. He was 81.

His death, at a hospital, was confirmed by his daughter Lynn Coleman.

Mr. Forte had a very brief acting career, appearing in “Broadway Danny Rose” as a burly (6 foot 1, 235 pounds) has-been musician with a big ego and a drinking problem who becomes a client of Danny Rose (Woody Allen), a bottom-feeding small-time agent and personal manager whose stable of talent includes skating penguins, a balloon act and a woman who plays melodies on water glasses.

With Danny coaching him (“Don’t forget to do ‘My Funny Valentine’ with the special lyrics about the moon landing!”) Lou finesses his way out of the Catskills and into the Waldorf Astoria, where they get caught in a love triangle with a brassy blonde named Tina Vitale (Mia Farrow).

“Mr. Forte, who was himself a singer of the ruffled-shirt school when recruited for the movie, is an absolute natural,” Janet Maslin wrote in her review in The New York Times. “He blusters through his role with the absolute confidence that is the essential — perhaps the only — ingredient in Lou’s mystique.”