Jose Quintero

Mr. Quintero was born in Panama but came of age in the theaters of New York.

Mr. Robards, considered by many critics to be the quintessential O'Neill actor, recalled how Mr. Quintero, an avid gambler, picked horses. ''Jose said, 'I always bet on a horse with an Irish name and a Panamanian jockey,' '' Mr. Robards said, drawing hearty laughs.

Mr. Robards also recounted how Mr. Quintero's eye for detail helped add to actors' performances. During rehearsals for the 1956 production of ''The Iceman Cometh,'' Mr. Robards said, he snapped his fingers into an open palm in a moment of frustration over forgetting a line. Mr. Quintero noticed the gesture and asked Mr. Robards to add it to his portrayal of his character, the unhinged salesman Theodore Hickman.

''He said it was like the rattle on a snake,'' Mr. Robards said. ''It's the only note I never forgot.''

One by one, speakers told of Mr. Quintero's piercing eyes, deep, rumbling laugh, and his almost psychic connection to O'Neill.

Barbara Gelb, an O'Neill biographer, said the parallels between Mr. Quintero's life and O'Neill's were so ingrained that Mr. Quintero's sister had once berated her brother after seeing a performance of O'Neill's ''Long Day's Journey Into Night.''

''She screamed at Jose: 'How could you write such a terrible play about our family?' '' Mrs. Gelb said. (Mr. Quintero patiently explained that he was not the author, but was flattered.)

Mrs. Gelb also said Mr. Quintero swore he had been visited by O'Neill's ghost during his production of the playwright's ''Moon for the Misbegotten'' and that cutting O'Neill's writing caused him ''nightmares.''

Several acting and directing students who had studied with Mr. Quintero also spoke of his influence, a fact that Mr. Albee took note of. ''All of the rest of what Jose has done is extraordinary, but I don't know many other people that can claim that profound effect,'' Mr. Albee said.
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