Bruce Gordon (actor)
Encyclopedia
Bruce Gordon was an American actor
best known for playing Frank Nitti
in the ABC
television series The Untouchables
.
Born February 1, 1916 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts
, Gordon played alongside Boris Karloff
in the original cast of Arsenic and Old Lace
on Broadway from 1941 to 1945 as Officer Klein. He had an "Introducing" credit in the 1949 Marx Brothers
film Love Happy
. On television, he appeared in numerous episodes of such programs as The Nash Airflyte Theater, Studio One, Justice
, Kraft Television Theatre
and Robert Montgomery Presents
.
In 1957, he appeared on the ABC western
series Tombstone Territory
, starring Pat Conway
and Richard Eastham
, in the episode "Killer Without a Conscience". About this same time, he guest starred on Barry Sullivan
's adventure
/drama
series, Harbormaster, set in maritime New England
.
In 1958, Gordon appeared in a memorable bit role as one of Jean Lafitte
's pirates in Anthony Quinn
's movie spectacle The Buccaneer
, alongside a cast of stars including Yul Brynner
, Charleton Heston and Claire Bloom
.
In the 1958–59 season, Gordon hosted and starred in nine of the twenty-six episodes of NBC's docudrama
of the Cold War
, Behind Closed Doors
, based on the files and war-time experiences of Rear Admiral
Ellis M. Zacharias
.
He appeared in the syndicated
western series Man Without a Gun
starring Rex Reason
. In 1958, he guest starred on the NBC adventure
series Northwest Passage
with co-stars Keith Larsen
and Buddy Ebsen
. Gordon's role was that of a sadistic prison official. The program was based on Kenneth Roberts' 1937 novel
about Major Robert Rogers
and his efforts to help the British
during the French and Indian War
.
His subsequent frequent, energetic performances as Capone
-era mobster Frank ('The Enforcer') Nitti in Desilu Productions
' The Untouchables (1959–63) led to his being typecast
as an often darkly humorous 'heavy' for the rest of his career. Often stealing scenes from the stolid, humourless Eliot Ness
as portrayed by Robert Stack, his famous catch-phrase in The Untouchables (directed at the victims of Nitti's wrath) was "You're dead!"
In 1960–61, Gordon appeared as "Mercer" in two episodes of NBC
's Outlaws Western
series starring Barton MacLane
. He appeared that same time in the NBC anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show
.
In 1964, Gordon guest-starred in the episode "Between the Rats and the Finks" of CBS drama
, Mr. Broadway
, starring Craig Stevens
, with fellow guest stars Larry Hagman
and Dyan Cannon
.
In 1965–68, Gordon appeared in several episodes of the long-running prime-time soap opera Peyton Place
alongside actress Lee Grant
as Gus Chernak, the alcoholic and vengeful father of Grant's character Stella Chernak
. In 1966, Gordon costarred with trumpet
player Jack Sheldon
in the 16-segment CBS sitcom, Run, Buddy, Run
, about the fictitious Buddy Overstreet who is on the run from the mob after "Buddy" overhears "Mr. D", played by Gordon, plotting the murder of a fellow gangster
.
In 1968 he played the security man in the "Sour Note" episode of It Takes A Thief
.
In 1978, Gordon played the nasty Col. Waxman in Roger Corman
's cult classic
Piranha, starring alongside the late Kevin McCarthy
.
Gordon retired from acting after playing himself in the 1989 film Ernest
Goes to Splash Mountain
, though he was the Executive Producer of the Australian telefilm Feds: the Betrayal (1996) and Producer of the US/Chinese fantasy martial arts film Warriors of Virtue: the Return to Tao in 2002. For a time, he operated a dinner-and-show restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona
called "Frank Nitti's Place", and in the early '80's, a pizza restaurant in Kansas City, MO also of the same name, greeting patrons at the door in his typical pin stripe suit with a carnation in the lapel.
In 2003, he was reportedly unable to attend the funeral of Untouchables co-star Robert Stack
due to poor health. At the time of his death, he lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico
with his wife Marla.
Gordon died after a lengthy illness on January 20, 2011, two weeks shy of his 95th birthday.
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
best known for playing Frank Nitti
Frank Nitti
Francesco Raffaele Nitto , also known as Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti, was an Italian American gangster. One of Al Capone's top henchmen, Nitti was in charge of all strong-arm and 'muscle' operations...
in the ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television series The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1959 TV series)
The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
.
Born February 1, 1916 in Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Fitchburg is the third largest city in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,318 at the 2010 census. Fitchburg is home to Fitchburg State University as well as 17 public and private elementary and high schools.- History :...
, Gordon played alongside Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
in the original cast of Arsenic and Old Lace
Arsenic and Old Lace (play)
Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play was directed by Bretaigne Windust, and opened on January 10, 1941. On September 25, 1943, the...
on Broadway from 1941 to 1945 as Officer Klein. He had an "Introducing" credit in the 1949 Marx Brothers
Marx Brothers
The Marx Brothers were an American family comedy act, originally from New York City, that enjoyed success in Vaudeville, Broadway, and motion pictures from the early 1900s to around 1950...
film Love Happy
Love Happy
Love Happy was the 14th and last starring feature for the Marx Brothers. The film stars Harpo Marx, Chico Marx, and, in a smaller role than usual, Groucho Marx, plus Ilona Massey, Vera-Ellen, Paul Valentine, Marion Hutton, Raymond Burr, Bruce Gordon , and Eric Blore, with a walk-on by Marilyn Monroe...
. On television, he appeared in numerous episodes of such programs as The Nash Airflyte Theater, Studio One, Justice
Justice (1954 TV series)
Justice is an NBC half-hour drama television series about attorneys of the Legal Aid Society of New York, which aired from April 8, 1954 to March 25, 1956. In the 1954-1955 season, Justice starred Dane Clark as Richard Adams and Gary Merrill as Jason Tyler. In the 1955-1956 season, William Prince...
, Kraft Television Theatre
Kraft Television Theatre
Kraft Television Theatre is an American drama/anthology television series that began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J...
and Robert Montgomery Presents
Robert Montgomery Presents
Robert Montgomery Presents is an American dramatic television series which was produced by NBC from January 30, 1950 until June 24, 1957. The live show had several sponsors during its seven-year run, and the title was altered to feature the sponsor, usually Lucky Strike cigarettes, for example,...
.
In 1957, he appeared on the ABC western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series Tombstone Territory
Tombstone Territory
Tombstone Territory is an American Western series starring Pat Conway and Richard Eastham. The series' first two seasons aired on ABC from 1957 to 1959...
, starring Pat Conway
Pat Conway
Patrick Douglas Conway, known as Pat Conway , was an American actor best known for his role as young but tough Sheriff Clay Hollister on the ABC and then syndicated western television series Tombstone Territory . He was a maternal grandson of silent film star Francis X...
and Richard Eastham
Richard Eastham
Richard Eastham, born as Dickinson Swift Eastham , was an American actor of stage, film, and television and a concert singer known for his deep baritone voice.-Tombstone Territory:...
, in the episode "Killer Without a Conscience". About this same time, he guest starred on Barry Sullivan
Barry Sullivan (actor)
Barry Sullivan was an American movie actor who appeared in over 100 movies from the 1930s to the 1980s.Born in New York City, Sullivan fell into acting when in college playing semi-pro football...
's adventure
Adventure
An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
/drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
series, Harbormaster, set in maritime New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
.
In 1958, Gordon appeared in a memorable bit role as one of Jean Lafitte
Jean Lafitte
Jean Lafitte was a pirate and privateer in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century. He and his elder brother, Pierre, spelled their last name Laffite, but English-language documents of the time used "Lafitte", and this is the commonly seen spelling in the United States, including for places...
's pirates in Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Antonio Rodolfo Quinn-Oaxaca , more commonly known as Anthony Quinn, was a Mexican American actor, as well as a painter and writer...
's movie spectacle The Buccaneer
The Buccaneer (1958 film)
The Buccaneer is a 1958 War film, made by Paramount Pictures like the 1938 version and shot in Technicolor and VistaVision. It takes place during the War of 1812, and tells a heavily fictionalized version of how the pirate Jean Lafitte helped in the Battle of New Orleans and how he had to choose...
, alongside a cast of stars including Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner was a Russian-born actor of stage and film. He was best known for his portrayal of Mongkut, king of Siam, in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor for the film version; he also played the role more than 4,500 times on...
, Charleton Heston and Claire Bloom
Claire Bloom
Claire Bloom is an English film and stage actress.-Early life:Bloom was born in the North London suburb of Finchley, the daughter of Elizabeth and Edward Max Blume, who worked in sales...
.
In the 1958–59 season, Gordon hosted and starred in nine of the twenty-six episodes of NBC's docudrama
Docudrama
In film, television programming and staged theatre, docudrama is a documentary-style genre that features dramatized re-enactments of actual historical events. As a neologism, the term is often confused with docufiction....
of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, Behind Closed Doors
Behind Closed Doors (1958 TV series)
Behind Closed Doors is an American drama series set during the Cold War hosted by and occasionally starring Bruce Gordon in the role of Commander Matson. The series, which aired on NBC from October 2, 1958, to April 9, 1959, focuses, among other themes, on how the former Soviet Union stole American...
, based on the files and war-time experiences of Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
Rear admiral is a naval commissioned officer rank above that of a commodore and captain, and below that of a vice admiral. It is generally regarded as the lowest of the "admiral" ranks, which are also sometimes referred to as "flag officers" or "flag ranks"...
Ellis M. Zacharias
Ellis M. Zacharias
Ellis Mark Zacharias, Sr. was a Rear admiral and naval attaché to Japan, who served in World War I and World War II...
.
He appeared in the syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
western series Man Without a Gun
Man Without a Gun
Man Without a Gun is a western television series produced by 20th Century Fox television and presented in first-run syndication in the United States from 1957 to 1959...
starring Rex Reason
Rex Reason
Rex Reason is an American actor.He is the brother of actor Rhodes Reason, who is two years younger...
. In 1958, he guest starred on the NBC adventure
Adventure
An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
series Northwest Passage
Northwest Passage (TV series)
Northwest Passage is a 26-episode half-hour adventure television series produced by Metro Goldwyn Mayer about Major Robert Rogers during the time of the French and Indian War . The show derived its title and the main characters Rogers, Towne, and Marriner from the 1937 novel of the same name by...
with co-stars Keith Larsen
Keith Larsen
Keith Larsen was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer who starred in three short-lived television series between 1955 and 1961.-Background:...
and Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen was an American character actor and dancer. A performer for seven decades, he had starring roles as Jed Clampett in the long-running television series The Beverly Hillbillies and as the title character in the 1970s detective series Barnaby Jones, and played Barnaby Jones in the movie...
. Gordon's role was that of a sadistic prison official. The program was based on Kenneth Roberts' 1937 novel
Northwest Passage (novel)
Northwest Passage is a historical novel by Kenneth Roberts, published in 1937. Told through the eyes of primary character Langdon Towne, much of this novel centers around the exploits and character of Robert Rogers, the leader of Rogers' Rangers, who were a colonial force fighting with the British...
about Major Robert Rogers
Robert Rogers (soldier)
Robert Rogers was an American colonial frontiersman. Rogers served in the British army during both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution...
and his efforts to help the British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
during the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
.
His subsequent frequent, energetic performances as Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
-era mobster Frank ('The Enforcer') Nitti in Desilu Productions
Desilu Productions
Desilu Productions was a Los Angeles, California-based company jointly owned by actors Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, who were married to each other from 1940 to 1960....
' The Untouchables (1959–63) led to his being typecast
Typecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
as an often darkly humorous 'heavy' for the rest of his career. Often stealing scenes from the stolid, humourless Eliot Ness
Eliot Ness
Eliot Ness was an American Prohibition agent, famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois, and the leader of a legendary team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables.- Early life :...
as portrayed by Robert Stack, his famous catch-phrase in The Untouchables (directed at the victims of Nitti's wrath) was "You're dead!"
In 1960–61, Gordon appeared as "Mercer" in two episodes of NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
's Outlaws Western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series starring Barton MacLane
Barton MacLane
Barton MacLane was an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. Although he has appeared in many classic films from the 1930s through the 1960s, he was known for his role as Gen...
. He appeared that same time in the NBC anthology series, The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show is an American anthology drama television series which ran on NBC from September 1960 to September 1961. Barbara Stanwyck served as hostess, and starred in all but four of the half-hour productions. The four she did not star in were actually pilot episodes of potential...
.
In 1964, Gordon guest-starred in the episode "Between the Rats and the Finks" of CBS drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
, Mr. Broadway
Mr. Broadway
Mr. Broadway is a 13-episode CBS adventure and drama television series starring Craig Stevens , formerly of Peter Gunn, as New York City public relations specialist Mike Bell. The program aired at 9 p.m. Eastern time Saturdays from September 26 to December 26, 1964...
, starring Craig Stevens
Craig Stevens (actor)
Craig Stevens was an American motion picture and television actor.-Early and personal life:Born Gail Shikles, Jr., in Liberty, Missouri, his father was a high school teacher....
, with fellow guest stars Larry Hagman
Larry Hagman
Larry Martin Hagman is an American film and television actor, producer and director known for playing J.R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson in the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.-Early life and career:Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas...
and Dyan Cannon
Dyan Cannon
Dyan Cannon is an American film and television actress, director, screenwriter, editor, and producer.-Early life:...
.
In 1965–68, Gordon appeared in several episodes of the long-running prime-time soap opera Peyton Place
Peyton Place (TV series)
Peyton Place is an American prime-time soap opera which aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964 to June 2, 1969.Based upon the 1956 novel of the same name by Grace Metalious, the series was preceded by a 1957 film adaptation. A total of 514 episodes were broadcast, in...
alongside actress Lee Grant
Lee Grant
Lee Grant is an American stage, film and television actress, and film director. She was blacklisted for 12 years from film work beginning in the mid-1950s, but worked in the theatre, and would eventually win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Felicia Carp in the...
as Gus Chernak, the alcoholic and vengeful father of Grant's character Stella Chernak
Stella Chernak
Stella Chernak is a fictional character on the television drama Peyton Place. She was portrayed in over 60 episodes by Lee Grant, between 1965 and 1966.-Character history:...
. In 1966, Gordon costarred with trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
player Jack Sheldon
Jack Sheldon
Jack Sheldon is an American bebop and West Coast jazz trumpeter, singer, and actor. He is a trumpet player and was a comedian on The Merv Griffin Show, as well as the voice heard on several episodes of the educational music television series Schoolhouse Rock.-Biography:Sheldon was born in...
in the 16-segment CBS sitcom, Run, Buddy, Run
Run, Buddy, Run
Run, Buddy, Run is a 16-episode situation comedy starring Jack Sheldon, which ran on CBS television from September 12, 1966, until January 2, 1967. Sheldon, also a trumpet player, portrayed Buddy Overstreet, an "ordinary guy", an accountant, on the run from a group of comical gangsters. As the plot...
, about the fictitious Buddy Overstreet who is on the run from the mob after "Buddy" overhears "Mr. D", played by Gordon, plotting the murder of a fellow gangster
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....
.
In 1968 he played the security man in the "Sour Note" episode of It Takes A Thief
It Takes a Thief
It Takes a Thief is an American action-adventure television series that aired on ABC for two and a half seasons between January 9, 1968, and March 24, 1970. It starred veteran movie actor Robert Wagner in his television debut as sophisticated thief Alexander Mundy, who works for the U.S. government...
.
In 1978, Gordon played the nasty Col. Waxman in Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
's cult classic
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...
Piranha, starring alongside the late Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy (actor)
Kevin McCarthy was an American stage, film, and television actor, who appeared in over two hundred television and film roles. For his role in the 1951 film version of Death of a Salesman, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won a Golden Globe Award for New Star of...
.
Gordon retired from acting after playing himself in the 1989 film Ernest
Ernest P. Worrell
Ernest P. Worrell is a fictional character most principally portrayed by the late American actor Jim Varney in a series of television commercials, and later in a television series as well as a series of feature films. Ernest was created by the Nashville advertising agency Carden and Cherry and was...
Goes to Splash Mountain
Splash Mountain
Splash Mountain is a themed log flume attraction at Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort, based on the characters, stories and songs from the 1946 Disney film Song of the South...
, though he was the Executive Producer of the Australian telefilm Feds: the Betrayal (1996) and Producer of the US/Chinese fantasy martial arts film Warriors of Virtue: the Return to Tao in 2002. For a time, he operated a dinner-and-show restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
called "Frank Nitti's Place", and in the early '80's, a pizza restaurant in Kansas City, MO also of the same name, greeting patrons at the door in his typical pin stripe suit with a carnation in the lapel.
In 2003, he was reportedly unable to attend the funeral of Untouchables co-star Robert Stack
Robert Stack
Robert Stack was an American actor. In addition to acting in more than 40 films, he was the star of the 1959-1963 ABC television series The Untouchables and later served as the host of Unsolved Mysteries.-Early life:...
due to poor health. At the time of his death, he lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
with his wife Marla.
Gordon died after a lengthy illness on January 20, 2011, two weeks shy of his 95th birthday.