Biagio Anthony "Ben" Gazzara (né Gazzarra; August 28, 1930 – February 3, 2012) was an American actor and director of film, stage, and television. He received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Drama Desk Award, in addition to nominations for three Golden Globe Awards and three Tony Awards.
Born in New York City, Gazzara studied at The New School and began his professional career with the Actors Studio, of which he was a lifelong member. His breakthrough role was in the Broadway play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955–56), which earned him widespread acclaim. A memorable performance as a soldier on trial for murder in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959) transitioned Gazzara to an equally successful screen career. As the star of the television series Run for Your Life (1965–68), he was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and two Emmy Awards. He won his only Emmy Award for the television film Hysterical Blindness (2002).
Gazzara was a recurring collaborator of John Cassavetes, working with him on Husbands (1970), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) and Opening Night (1977). His other best-known films include The Bridge at Remagen (1969), Capone (1975), Voyage of the Damned (1976), Saint Jack (1979), Road House (1989), The Spanish Prisoner (1997), The Big Lebowski, Buffalo '66, Happiness (all 1998), The Thomas Crown Affair, Summer of Sam (both 1999), Dogville (2003) and Paris, je t'aime (2006). He also had a successful and prolific film career in Europe, particularly Italy, where he worked with eminent directors including Giuseppe Tornatore, Giuliano Montaldo, Marco Ferreri, and Lars von Trier.
Gazzara was known for his gritty, naturalistic portrayals of intense, often amoral characters. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Gazzara positioned himself for 'creative elbow room,' seeking edgy characters in non-mainstream productions or infusing mainstream productions with idiosyncratic supporting turns."
Early life and education
Gazzara was born to Sicilian immigrant parents in New York City in 1930. He grew up in Manhattan's Kips Bay neighborhood; living on East 29th Street. He participated in the drama program at Madison Square Boys & Girls Club located across the street. He attended Stuyvesant High School but finally graduated from Saint Simon Stock in the Bronx. Years later, he said that the discovery of his love for acting saved him from a life of crime during his teen years.
He went to City College of New York to study electrical engineering. After two years, he abandoned the subject and took classes in acting at the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with the influential German director Erwin Piscator and afterward joined the Actors Studio.
Early career
Gazzara guest-starred in shows including Treasury Men in Action and Danger. He received acclaim for his off-Broadway performance in End as a Man in 1953. The production was transferred to Broadway and ran until 1954.
In 1954, Gazzara (having modified his original surname from "Gazzarra") made several appearances in NBC's legal drama Justice, based on case studies from the Legal Aid Society of New York. He also guest-starred on shows including Medallion Theatre and The United States Steel Hour.
Broadway success
Gazzara became a Broadway sensation when he portrayed the role of Brick in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955–56) opposite Barbara Bel Geddes, directed by Elia Kazan. Gazzara turned down the role in the film version. The studio planned to offer the role to James Dean, but the part was given to Paul Newman after Dean's death.
He followed it with another long run in A Hatful of Rain (1956). Gazzara was in the 1963 Actors Studio production of Strange Interlude on Broadway.
Film work
He joined other Actors Studio members in the 1957 film The Strange One produced by Sam Spiegel. He had a Broadway flop with The Night Circus (1958) and continued to guest-star on shows like Playhouse 90, Kraft Television Theatre, Armchair Theatre and DuPont Show of the Month. His second film was a high-profile performance as a soldier on trial for avenging his wife's rape in Otto Preminger's courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder (1959).
Gazzara told Charlie Rose in 1998 that he went from being mainly a stage actor who often would turn up his nose at film roles in the mid-1950s to, much later, a ubiquitous character actor who turned very little down. "When I became hot, so to speak, in the theater, I got a lot of offers", he said. "I won't tell you the pictures I turned down, because you'll say, 'You are a fool'—and I was a fool." He went to Italy to make a comedy, The Passionate Thief (1960), with Anna Magnani and Totò.
Back in the US he did a TV movie, Cry Vengeance!, and was second-billed in The Young Doctors (both 1961). He was also the mystery guest on What's My Line? (September 6, 1961). He starred in Convicts 4 (1962). He returned to Italy to make The Captive City (1962) with David Niven. Gazzara was the male lead in A Rage to Live (1965) with Suzanne Pleshette.
Television star
Gazzara became well known in several television series, beginning with Arrest and Trial, which ran from 1963 to 1964 on ABC. He also appeared in the TV special A Carol for Another Christmas (1964) and had a short Broadway run in A Traveller without Luggage in 1964. He also guest-starred on Kraft Suspense Theatre.
He gained fame in the TV series Run for Your Life which ran from 1965 to 1968 on NBC, in which he played a terminally ill man trying to get the most out of the last two years of his life. For his work in the series, Gazzara received two Emmy nominations for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series" and three Golden Globe nominations for "Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama." When the series ended Gazzara had a cameo in If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969) and a lead in the wartime action film The Bridge at Remagen (1969).
John Cassavetes
Some of the actor's most formidable characters were those he created with his friend John Cassavetes in the 1970s. They collaborated for the first time on Cassavetes's film Husbands (1970), in which he appeared alongside Peter Falk and Cassavetes. Gazzara starred in a television movie, Pursuit (1972), the directorial debut of Michael Crichton. He also made the television movies When Michael Calls (1972), Fireball Forward (1972), and The Family Rico (1972). He acted in The Sicilian Connection (1972) in Italy, and did a science fiction film The Neptune Factor (1973). There were more television films, You'll Never See Me Again (1973) and Maneater (1973).
He starred in the television miniseries QB VII (1974), which won six primetime Emmy Awards. The six-and-a-half-hour series was based on a book by Leon Uris and co-starred Anthony Hopkins. He then played gangster Al Capone in the biographical film Capone (1975). Cassevetes was in the support cast. Gazzara appeared on Broadway in Hughie (1975) then worked again for Cassavetes as director in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976), in which Gazzara took the leading role of the hapless strip-joint owner, Cosmo Vitelli. He starred in an action movie, High Velocity (1976), and was one of many stars in Voyage of the Damned (1976).
Gazzara returned to Broadway for a production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Colleen Dewhurst in 1976. A year later, he starred in yet another Cassavetes-directed movie, Opening Night, as stage director Manny Victor, who struggles with the mentally unstable star of his show, played by Cassavetes' wife Gena Rowlands. He made an acclaimed TV movie The Death of Richie (1977).
Peter Bogdanovich
Gazzara's career received a boost when Peter Bogdanovich cast him in the title role of Saint Jack (1979). His increased profile helped him be cast in the male lead of Bloodline (1979) and the Korean War epic Inchon (1980) co-starring Laurence Olivier and Richard Roundtree.
He made another movie for Bogdanovich, They All…