Patti LuPone Remembers Late Brother Robert as a 'Dancer Unparalleled' in Tribute After His Death

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Patti LuPone is honoring her late brother Robert LuPone after his death.

In a statement shared with PEOPLE on Tuesday, the Tony Award-winning actress paid tribute to her sibling — who played Tony Soprano's neighbor Dr. Bruce Cusamano on The Sopranos — after he died from pancreatic cancer over the weekend. He was 76.

"My brother Bobby was a dancer unparalleled," Patti, 73, said in the statement. "And it all started when he saw me in a dance recital wearing a hula skirt. I was 4, he was 7."

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"A life-sized picture of Bobby dancing in Jose Limon's modern ballet 'There Is a Time' hung in the photo gallery of the Juilliard School, where Bobby preceded me as a student in the dance division," the statement continued. "A few years later, as a student in the theater division, I would walk by it proudly as well as in awe."

MCC Theater, which Robert co-founded, confirmed his death from pancreatic cancer via Instagram.

"It is with heavy hearts that we announce that MCC founding Co-Artistic Director, Bob LuPone, passed away Saturday, Aug 27 after a three year battle with pancreatic cancer," the theater company shared.

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In a letter shared by MCC Theater, his co-founders Bernard Telsey and Will Cantler remembered the late star.

"While the company was ostensibly formed to create new work for the American stage, it was always Bob's fierce need for engagement with the art, the artists, and the audience that animated and inspired us," they wrote, in part.

"Bob was a force, an advocate, complex in the richest ways, overflowing with a youthful enthusiasm, and deeply wise as he looked in to our souls," the pair added. "He was our best friend."

The late actor also appeared on Sex and the City and Guiding Light. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his work on All My Children.

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He received a Tony nomination for his performance as Zach in A Chorus Line. The show won the Tony for best musical as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1976.

Under his leadership, MCC Theater produced shows including Frozen, School Girls and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit.

Robert was the director of the MFA drama program at the New School for Drama from 2005 to 2011 and served as the president of the board of directors of A.R.T./New York.

In addition to Patti, he is survived by his wife Virginia, his son Orlando, and brother William.