Actors Aidan Quinn, John and Joan Cusack, Lili Taylor and scores of other players owe their first bows to Byrne Piven.

For 30 years, Piven and his wife, Joyce, directed the Piven Theatre Workshop in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St. Piven also was a founding member of the Playwright’s Theatre Club, a forerunner of Chicago’s Second City.

Piven died Monday at St. Francis Hospital, 355 Ridge Ave., after a 4-month battle with lung cancer. He was 72.

“He saw talent in you when you didn’t know you had it,” said Quinn, 42, who received a scholarship from Piven to take classes at the Theatre Workshop 23 years ago. “He loved his students and we felt that love and blossomed from it.”

Quinn’s brother and sister, who now work as directors, also got their start in the Theatre Workshop. “Our life’s work came from this place, from this man.”

Northwestern University Sociology Professor Bernard Beck met Piven in 1967 in a theater games workshop. Since then, he has starred in plays with Piven and been directed by Piven. Beck continues to teach classes at the Theatre Workshop.

“He was an extremely creative and brilliant actor,” Beck said.

Beck said he remembers sitting on the board of the Evanston Arts Council and watching Piven speak before the panel about a grant. He said the board was confused because Piven had spent more money than the theater took in.

“Well, Piven knew that the theatre had to go on,” Beck said, laughing. “And if there wasn’t any money left, it came out of his pocket.”

Piven also taught his two children, Shira and Jeremy, how to act and direct. Shira Piven works as an actress in New York and Jeremy Piven recently appeared in “Black Hawk Down.” Piven’s family and friends gathered at his Evanston home after he died.

He was a role model for the theater community and his family as well, said Piven’s younger sister Miriam Piven Cotler.

“He was the best big brother,” said Cotler, who is six years younger than Piven and teaches at California State University, Northridge.

“I remember him bringing home stray animals and writing,” she said. “He was a poet.”

He swam every day and played tennis twice a week until the day he was diagnosed with lung cancer in November, she said.

Many in the North Shore theater community said they will miss Piven, who last summer starred as King Lear in the Theatre Workshop’s Shakespeare production.

“He was an amazing professional,” said Stephanie Tackett, the business manager at The Next Theatre, which also has an office in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St. “And he has been a great leader for the tenants here.”

The theater’s classes and production will continue without Piven, said Jennifer Sultz, Piven Theatre Workshop’s director of development.

“Byrne would not want the theater to stop,” Sultz said.

The theater has established a fund to provide scholarships for students.

Donations should be sent to the Byrne Piven Memorial Fund, 927 Noyes St., Evanston, Ill., 60201.

A private memorial will be held today.