Michael Vincente Gazzo (April 5, 1923 – February 14, 1995) was a
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
playwright who later in life became an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film and television actor.
He was a member of the
Actors StudioThe Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947 by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who taught...
, (and would later go on to train such actors as
Debra Winger-Early life:Winger was born Mary Debra Winger in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the daughter of Ruth , an office manager, and Robert Winger, a meat packer. She was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family. In the early 1970s, she spent several weeks at Beit Zera, a kibbutz in Israel...
,
Henry SilvaHenry Silva is an American actor who has played a wide variety of movie roles.Silva was born in Brooklyn, New York of Sicilian and Spanish descent...
and
Tony SiricoGenaro Anthony "Tony" Sirico, Jr. is an American character actor who is most famous for his role as Paulie Gualtieri in the television series The Sopranos.- Background and career :...
) and was author of the notable
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
play on drug addiction
A Hatful of RainA Hatful of Rain is a 1957 dramatic film. It stars Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa, Lloyd Nolan and Henry Silva.The movie was adapted by Michael V. Gazzo, Alfred Hayes and Carl Foreman from the play by Gazzo. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann and features a strong musical score by...
, which ran for 389 performances in 1955 and 1956 - starring
Ben GazzaraBiagio Anthony “Ben” Gazzara is an American actor in television and motion pictures.-Early life:Gazzara was born in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E...
and
Shelley WintersShelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television.-Early life:...
in the two lead roles.
Michael Vincente Gazzo (April 5, 1923 – February 14, 1995) was a
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
playwright who later in life became an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film and television actor.
He was a member of the
Actors StudioThe Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights at 432 West 44th Street in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded October 5, 1947 by Elia Kazan, Cheryl Crawford, Robert Lewis and Anna Sokolow who taught...
, (and would later go on to train such actors as
Debra Winger-Early life:Winger was born Mary Debra Winger in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, the daughter of Ruth , an office manager, and Robert Winger, a meat packer. She was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family. In the early 1970s, she spent several weeks at Beit Zera, a kibbutz in Israel...
,
Henry SilvaHenry Silva is an American actor who has played a wide variety of movie roles.Silva was born in Brooklyn, New York of Sicilian and Spanish descent...
and
Tony SiricoGenaro Anthony "Tony" Sirico, Jr. is an American character actor who is most famous for his role as Paulie Gualtieri in the television series The Sopranos.- Background and career :...
) and was author of the notable
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
play on drug addiction
A Hatful of RainA Hatful of Rain is a 1957 dramatic film. It stars Eva Marie Saint, Don Murray, Anthony Franciosa, Lloyd Nolan and Henry Silva.The movie was adapted by Michael V. Gazzo, Alfred Hayes and Carl Foreman from the play by Gazzo. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann and features a strong musical score by...
, which ran for 389 performances in 1955 and 1956 - starring
Ben GazzaraBiagio Anthony “Ben” Gazzara is an American actor in television and motion pictures.-Early life:Gazzara was born in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer. Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He actually lived on E...
and
Shelley WintersShelley Winters was an American actress who appeared in dozens of films, as well as on stage and television.-Early life:...
in the two lead roles. He subsequently adapted it as a
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
in 1957. The film was then nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Anthony Franciosa).
Later a 1968 made-for-television version (as a filmed play) starred
Sandy DennisSandra Dale “Sandy” Dennis was an American theater and film actress.-Early life:Dennis was born in Hastings, Nebraska, the daughter of Yvonne, a secretary, and Jack Dennis, a postal clerk. She had a brother, Frank. A high school classmate of Dick Cavett, she attended the Nebraska Wesleyan...
, Michael Parks, and
Peter FalkPeter Michael Falk is an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo. He appeared in numerous films and television guest roles, and has been nominated for an Academy Award twice, and won the Emmy Award on five occasions and the Golden Globe award...
in the main roles.
He was also co-screenwriter of the
Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as Elvis and is also sometimes referred to as The King of Rock 'n' Roll or The King....
film
King CreoleKing Creole is an American motion picture directed by Michael Curtiz, released by Paramount Pictures on July 2, 1958. The film stars Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, and Walter Matthau...
(1958).
As an actor, Gazzo was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting ActorPerformance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
for his role as
Frank PentangeliFrank "Frankie Five Angels" Pentangeli is a fictional character from the film The Godfather Part II. In the film, he was portrayed by Michael V...
in
The Godfather Part IIThe Godfather Part II is a 1974 American thriller film directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a script co-written with Mario Puzo...
, which he lost to
Robert De NiroRobert Mario De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director, and producer.De Niro is well-known for his method acting and portrayals of conflicted, troubled characters and for his enduring collaboration with director Martin Scorsese...
for the same film.
Michael Gazzo died from a stroke in 1995. He was buried in the
Westwood Village Memorial Park CemeteryThe Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles, California....
in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
.
Filmography
- L.A. Law
L.A. Law is an American television legal drama that ran from 1986 to 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights, homophobia, sexual harassment, AIDS, and...
(1994)
- Last Action Hero
Last Action Hero is a 1993 action comedy cult film directed by John McTiernan. The film is a satire of the action genre and its clichés. The film includes within it several parodies of action films, in the form of films within the film....
(1993)
- Cannonball Run II
See also Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy DashCannonball Run II is a 1984 comedy film featuring Burt Reynolds and an all-star cast, released by Warner Bros. and Golden Harvest...
(1984)
- Sudden Impact
Sudden Impact is a 1983 crime thriller and the fourth film in the Dirty Harry series, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood...
(1983)
- Magnum, P.I.
Magnum, P.I. is an American television show starring Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator living on Oahu, Hawaii. The series ran from 1980 to 1988 in first-run broadcast on the American CBS television network....
(1981)
- Body and Soul (1981)
- Cuba Crossing (1980)
- Sizzle (1980)
- Alligator
Alligator is a 1980 monster movie, directed by Lewis Teague with a screenplay by John Sayles. It stars Robert Forster, Robin Riker, and Michael V. Gazzo...
(1980)
- Taxi
Taxi is an American sitcom that originally aired from 1978 to 1982, on ABC, and from 1982 to 1983, on NBC. The series, which won 18 Emmy Awards, including three for "Outstanding Comedy Series," focuses on the everyday lives of a handful of New York City taxi drivers and their abusive dispatcher...
(1979)
- Fantasy Island
This article is about the television series. For the amusement park, see Martin's Fantasy Island or Fantasy Island UKFantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:Before it became a...
(1979)
- Columbo (1978)
- Starsky and Hutch
Starsky and Hutch is a 1970s US television series that consisted of a 90-minute pilot movie and 92 episodes of 60 minutes each; created by William Blinn, produced by Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and broadcast between April 30 1975 and May 15 1979 on the ABC network; distributed by...
(1977)
- Kojak
Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the eponymous, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973 to March 18, 1978 on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
(1975)
- The Godfather Part II
The Godfather Part II is a 1974 American thriller film directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a script co-written with Mario Puzo...
(1974)
- On the Waterfront
On the Waterfront is a American drama film about mob violence and corruption among longshoremen. The film was directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb. The soundtrack score was composed by Leonard...
(1954)
- Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971)
- Black Sunday (1977)
- Gangsters (1979)
- The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh is an American sports/fantasy comedy film that was released in 1979. The movie was directed by Gilbert Moses and co-produced by David Dashev and Gary Stromberg. It was produced by Lorimar and distributed by United Artists. The rights to the film are currently owned by...
(1979)
- Fingers
Fingers is a 1978 drama film directed by James Toback. It features Harvey Keitel as a pianist who also works for his loan shark father as a "collector". He is a conflicted soul, torn between his art, his loyalty to his father, his sexuality, and his past...
(1978)
- Barnaby Jones
Barnaby Jones is a television detective series starring Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether as father and daughter-in-law, who are also both private investigators in Los Angeles, which ran on CBS from January 28, 1973 to April 3, 1980, as a midseason replacement, which bumped the long-running detective...
(1977)
- Baretta
Baretta is a American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma...
(1977)
- King of the Gypsies
King of the Gypsies is a 1978 Paramount motion picture drama starringEric Roberts, Sterling Hayden, Shelley Winters, Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields, Annette O'Toole, and Judd Hirsch....
(1978)
- The Winter of Our Discontent
The Winter of Our Discontent is a 1983 made-for-TV movie based on the novel by John Steinbeck.-Plot:The story is about a Long Islander named Ethan Allen Hawley who works as a clerk in a grocery store he used to own, but is now owned by an Italian immigrant...
(1983)
- Fear City (1984)
- Cookie
Cookie is a 1989 comedy film released on August 23, 1989 by Warner Brothers.-Plot:Cookie Voltecki is the illegitimate daughter of mobster Dino Capisco , who has just finished thirteen years in prison...
(1989)
- Beyond the Ocean (1990)
- Forever (1991)
- Ring of Musketeers (1994)
Further reading
- Bacarella, Michael, ItalActors: 101 Years of Italian Actors in U.S. Entertainment, The National Italian American Foundation, ISBN: N/A