Ben Gazzara
Branded the toast of Broadway for his incendiary performances in such theatrical milestones of the 1950s as Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and Michael V. Gazzo's "A Hatful of Rain," Ben Gazzara came a long way from his upbringing in Manhattan's Gashouse District during the Great Depression, becoming in the course of only a few years of his burgeoning career, the nation's preeminent Italian-American actor, 20 years ahead of Al Pacino and Robert De Niro. After making an indelible impression in Otto Preminger's "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), he was resigned to the middling career of a jobbing actor through the Sixties, until the following decade, when his craft was revived through a partnership with filmmaker John Cassavetes on the controversial films "Husbands" (1970) and "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" (1976). He would go on to impress audiences with his roles in "Capone" (1975), "They All Laughed" (1981), "Buffalo '66" (1998) and "Dogville" (2003). Rediscovered at the turn of the century by a new generation of indie filmmakers, Gazzara remained an in-demand character actor and a surviving link to both the Golden Age of Broadway and live television and the birth of the American independent film movement.
Photos
Ben Gazzara
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Giuseppe Tornatore: Every Film My First Film | Self | - | 2012 |
No Score Yet |
|
Christopher Roth | Unknown (Character) | - | 2011 |
7% |
|
13 | Schlondorff (Character) | - | 2010 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Holy Money | Unknown (Character) | - | 2009 |
22% |
|
Looking for Palladin | Jack Palladin (Character) | - | 2008 |
No Score Yet |
|
Chez Gino | Unknown (Character) | - | 2008 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Empire State Building Murders | Paulie Genovese (Character) | - | 2008 |
86% |
|
Paris, je t'aime | Ben (Character) | $4.9M | 2006 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Shore | Unknown (Character) | - | 2005 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Bonjour Michel | Michele Terranova (Character) | - | 2004 |
70% |
|
Dogville | Jack McKay (Character) | $1.5M | 2003 |
75% |
|
Hysterical Blindness | Nick (Character) | - | 2002 |
No Score Yet |
|
Brian's Song | Coach Halas (Character) | - | 2001 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Home Sweet Hoboken | Unknown (Character) | - | 2001 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Nobody's Heart | L'avvocato Scalzi (Character) | - | 2001 |
No Score Yet |
|
The List | D.A. Bernard Salman (Character) | - | 2000 |
No Score Yet |
|
Believe | Ellicott Winslowe (Character) | - | 2000 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Very Mean Men | Gino Minetti (Character) | - | 2000 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Out of the Blue | Unknown (Character) | - | 2000 |
20% |
|
Blue Moon | Frank Cavallo (Character) | $76.1K | 2000 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Poor Liza | The Narrator (Character) | - | 2000 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Out of the Blue 2 | Unknown (Character) | - | 2000 |
69% |
|
The Thomas Crown Affair | Andrew Wallace (Character) | $69.3M | 1999 |
50% |
|
Summer of Sam | Luigi (Character) | $19.3M | 1999 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Jack of Hearts | Bartossa (Character) | - | 1999 |
46% |
|
Illuminata | Old Flavio (Character) | $836.6K | 1998 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Valentine's Day | Joe Buddha (Character) | - | 1998 |
No Score Yet |
|
Too Tired to Die | John Sage (Character) | - | 1998 |
77% |
|
Buffalo 66 | Jimmy (Character) | $2.4M | 1998 |
85% |
|
Happiness | Lenny Jordan (Character) | $3.0M | 1998 |
89% |
|
The Spanish Prisoner | Mr. Klein (Character) | $9.6K | 1998 |
80% |
|
The Big Lebowski | Jackie Treehorn (Character) | $17.4M | 1998 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Protector | Unknown (Character) | - | 1998 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Il tesoro di Damasco | Gregorio Kos (Character) | - | 1998 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Shark in a Bottle | The Arranger (Character) | - | 1998 |
7% |
|
Shadow Conspiracy | Vice President Saxon (Character) | $2.3M | 1997 |
40% |
|
Stag | Frank Grieco (Character) | - | 1997 |
No Score Yet |
|
Vicious Circles | March (Character) | - | 1997 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Dogfighters | Dick Althorp (Character) | - | 1996 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Ladykiller | Lt. Jack "Jigsaw" Lasky (Character) | - | 1996 |
No Score Yet |
|
Convict Cowboy | Warden (Character) | - | 1995 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Farmer & Chase | Farmer (Character) | - | 1995 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Bandits | Amos (Character) | - | 1995 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Fatal Vows: The Alexandra O'Hara Story | Papa (Character) | - | 1994 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Never Love a Thief | Raphael de Pietro (Character) | - | 1994 |
No Score Yet |
|
Parallel Lives | Charlie Duke (Character) | - | 1994 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Love, Honor & Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage | Joseph Bonanno (Character) | - | 1993 |
No Score Yet |
|
Blindsided | Ira Gold (Character) | - | 1993 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Lies Before Kisses | Grant Sanders (Character) | - | 1991 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Forever | Marcello Rondi (Character) | - | 1991 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Beyond the Ocean |
John Tana (Character), Director, Screenwriter |
- | 1990 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Oltre l'oceano |
Unknown (Character), Director |
- | 1990 |
44% |
|
Road House | Brad Wesley (Character) | $27.4M | 1989 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Quicker Than the Eye | Ben Norrell (Character) | - | 1988 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Secret Obsession | Paul Rivière (Character) | - | 1988 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Control | Mike Zella (Character) | - | 1987 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Downpayment on Murder | Harry Cardell (Character) | - | 1987 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Police Story: The Freeway Killings | Capt. Tom Wright (Character) | - | 1987 |
No Score Yet |
|
Il Camorrista | Il Professore (Character) | - | 1986 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | A Letter to Three Wives | Porter Holloway (Character) | - | 1985 |
No Score Yet |
|
An Early Frost | Nick Pierson (Character) | - | 1985 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | A Question of Honor | Detective Joe DeFalco (Character) | - | 1982 |
50% |
|
They All Laughed | John Russo (Character) | - | 1981 |
60% |
|
Tales of Ordinary Madness | Charles Serking (Character) | - | 1981 |
0% |
|
Inchon! | Maj. Frank Hallsworth (Character) | - | 1981 |
No Score Yet |
|
Bloodline | Rhys Williams (Character) | - | 1979 |
72% |
|
Saint Jack | Jack Flowers (Character) | - | 1979 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Death of Richie | George Werner (Character) | - | 1977 |
96% |
|
Opening Night | Manny Victor (Character) | $10.5K | 1977 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald | Anson "Kip" Roberts (Character) | - | 1977 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Richie | George Werner (Character) | - | 1977 |
No Score Yet |
|
High Velocity | Clifford Baumgartner (Character) | - | 1977 |
83% |
|
Voyage of the Damned | Morris Troper (Character) | - | 1976 |
79% |
|
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie | Cosmo Vitelli (Character) | - | 1976 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Sicilian Connection | Joseph Coppola (Character) | - | 1976 |
No Score Yet |
|
Capone | Al Capone (Character) | - | 1975 |
No Score Yet |
|
QB VII | Abe Cady (Character) | - | 1974 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Neptune Factor | Cmdr. Adrian Blake (Character) | - | 1973 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Maneater | Nick Baron (Character) | - | 1973 |
No Score Yet |
|
Pursuit | Steven Graves (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The Family Rico | Eddie Rico (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Fireball Forward | Maj. Gen. Joe Barrett (Character) | - | 1972 |
No Score Yet |
|
When Michael Calls | Doremus Connelly (Character) | - | 1972 |
68% |
|
Husbands | Harry (Character) | - | 1970 |
20% |
|
The Bridge at Remagen | Sgt. Angelo (Character) | - | 1969 |
No Score Yet |
|
A Rage to Live | Roger Bannon (Character) | - | 1965 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Rapture at 2:40 | Paul Bryan (Character) | - | 1965 |
No Score Yet |
|
Carol for Another Christmas | Fred (Character) | - | 1964 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Tell It Like It Is | Narrator | - | 1964 |
No Score Yet |
|
Convicts Four | John Resko (Character) | - | 1963 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Conquered City | Capt. George Stubbs (Character) | - | 1962 |
No Score Yet |
|
The Young Doctors | Dr. David Coleman (Character) | - | 1961 |
100% |
|
The Passionate Thief | Lello (Character) | $30.8K | 1960 |
100% |
|
Anatomy of a Murder | Lt. Frederick Manion (Character) | - | 1959 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | You'll Never See Me Again | Jim Mason (Character) | - | 1959 |
50% |
|
The Strange One | Jocko De Paris (Character) | - | 1957 |
TV
Credit | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
78% | 83% | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Executive Assistant Attorney (Guest Star) | 2001 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | People Like Us | Unknown (Character) | 1990 |
No Score Yet | 80% | Columbo | Director | 1974-1975 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Run for Your Life | Unknown (Character) | 1965-1968 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | What's My Line? | Guest | 1961 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | I've Got a Secret | Guest | 1959 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | The United States Steel Hour | Richard Elgin Jr. (Character) | 1954 |