Ben Gazzara's screen career began with two critically acclaimed roles as heavies in the late fifties. He turned to television in the sixties but made a big screen comeback with roles in three John Cassavetes films in the seventies. The 1980s and 1990s saw Gazzara work more frequently than ever before in character parts. If he never became the leading man his early films and stage work promised he has had a career notable for its longevity.

He was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City in 1930. The son of a Sicilian immigrant labourer, he grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. After seeing Laurette Taylor in "The Glass Menagerie", Gazzara decided he wanted to become an actor. He studied engineering (unhappily) but quit after receiving an acting scholarship (he worked under well-known coach Erwin Piscator).

He then joined the Actors' Studio where a group of students improvised a play from Calder Willingham's novel End as a Man. The tale of a brutal Southern Military academy reached Broadway slightly changed in 1953 but with Gazzara still in the principal role. It was a star making part (he won a Theatre World award) and he then played leads in the original productions of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (1955) and "A Hatful of Rain" (1955) (he was nominated for a Tony). Bigger names Paul Newman and Don Murray played those last two roles on the big screen but Gazzara made his movie debut in The Strange One the film version of "End as a Man". The film was a critical but not commercial success. His next role was as the defendant in Anatomy of a Murder which was a big hit.

He followed this with an Italian venture co-starring Anna Magnani, Risate di gioia, two Hollywood films The Young Doctors and Convicts 4 and then another Italian film Conquered City. None of these did much for his career and he turned to television. He appeared in the successful shows Arrest and Trial and Run for Your Life. In between, he made A Rage to Live, a film version of John O'Hara's novel.

He returned to films in The Bridge at Remagen and with a cameo appearance in _If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium (1968)_ . His buddy in the cameo was John Cassavetes who directed and co-starred with him in Husbands, a critical success. Gazzara made two more well-received films with his good friend Cassavetes: The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Opening Night.

Gazzara's other films in the 1970s were undistinguished apart from the sprawling Voyage of the Damned and a rare leading role in director Peter Bogdanovich's Saint Jack. Bloodline and They All Laughed (also directed by Bogdanovich) were only notable because of Gazzara's offscreen relationship with co-star Audrey Hepburn (ironically, Gazzara had declined to make his screen debut in War and Peace starring Hepburn).

Tales of Ordinary Madness was another lead for Gazzara but it received a mixed critical reception. Other big screen roles in the eighties were scarce apart from Road House, a Patrick Swayze vehicle which Gazzara believed out of all his films has been the most repeated on television. He worked much on the small screen, including the ground-breaking telemovie An Early Frost, playing the father of an AIDS victim.

The 1990s saw Gazzarra working like never before, appearing in 38 films! Most were for free-to-air television or cable but he also worked on the big screen in The Spanish Prisoner, The Big Lebowski, Happiness and Summer of Sam. His TV work included a guest appearance as an executive assistant attorney in a 2001 episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - a nice touch since Arrest and Trial was the predecessor of Law & Order and its spinoff shows.

Gazzara has often returned to the stage throughout his career - in "The Night Circus" (1958) (where he met second wife Janice Rule), "Strange Interlude" (1963), "Traveller Without Luggage" (1964), Hughie/Duet (1975) (nominated for a Tony), "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1976) (again Tony nominated) and "Shimada" (1992).

He has also worked as a director on episodes his series Run for Your Life and The Name of the Game. He also helmed the telemovies Columbo: A Friend in Deed and Columbo: Troubled Waters featuring his friend Peter Falk. The unreleased Beyond the Ocean (which he also wrote) is his final film as a director to date.

Now in his seventies, Gazzara is still acting. In 2003 he appeared in the indie Dogville adding Lars von Trier to the list of interesting and acclaimed directors with whom he has worked. There can't be many actors who can boast that they have acted in films by Otto Preminger (Anatomy of a Murder), John Cassavetes, Joel Coen (_Big Lebowksi, The (1998)_ ), Spike Lee (Summer of Sam) and Lars von Trier among others!


Father of Elizabeth Gazzara. Lived with Elaine Stritch for two years. He and his good friend John Cassavetes made 5 movies together: Husbands (1970), Capone (1975), If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969), Opening Night (1977) and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) Shared a "purist's" approach to acting and choosing roles with Road House (1989) co-star Sam Elliott. Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1999. He lost more than 40 pounds during treatment.