- published: 04 Feb 2014
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Biagio Anthony Gazzarra (August 28, 1930 – February 3, 2012), known as Ben Gazzara, was an American film, stage, and Emmy Award winning television actor and director.
Gazzara was born in New York City, the son of Italian immigrants Angelina (née Cusumano) and Antonio Gazzarra, who was a laborer and carpenter. Gazzara grew up in New York's Kips Bay neighborhood; he lived on East 29th Street and participated in the drama program at Madison Square Boys and Girls Club located across the street. He attended New York City's 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 relented. He 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.
In 1954, Gazzara (having tweaked his original surname from "Gazzarra") made several appearances on NBC's legal drama Justice, based on case studies from the Legal Aid Society of New York. Gazzara starred in various Broadway productions around this time, including creating the role of Brick in Tennessee Williams' Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (1955) opposite Barbara BelGeddes, directed by Elia Kazan, although he lost out to Paul Newman when the film version was cast. He joined other Actors Studio members in the 1957 film The Strange One. Then came 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).
The Life and Times of Ben Gazzara | Profiles | Reserve Channel
What's My Line? - Ben Gazzara; Martin Gabel [panel] (Sep 3, 1961)
Ben Gazzara as Charles Bukowski explains "Style"
John Cassavetes, Peter Falk, Ben Gazzara Dick Cavett Show 1
JERRY LEWIS SHOW com Janet Leigh e Ben Gazzara.
BEN GAZZARA INTERVISTATO DA TRC
"A RAGE TO LIVE" Suzanne Pleshette, Bradford Dillman, Ben Gazzara. 10-20-1965.
BEN GAZZARA R.I.P. (August 28, 1930 -- February 3, 2012)
LIES BEFORE KISSES-Nick Mancuso/Jaclyn Smith & Ben Gazzara 1991
Ben Gazzara Interview at John Cassavetes Festival