BEN GAZZARA DEAD

Award winning TV and movie star BEN GAZZARA dead at age 81  from pancreatic cancer.

Born Biagio Anthony Gazzara on the East Side of Manhattan on Aug. 28, 1930, his dad was a brick layer and carpenter

Ben grew up on 29th Street and First Avenue, where, he recalled in his memoirs, he slept on the fire escape in summer.  Some nights he heard the plaintive wails from the mental patients at nearby Bellevue hospital.

In an eerie coincidence, Ben died at Bellevue Hospital Center at a hospice. 

TV fans remember him as the star of series “Run for Your Life” in which Gazarra was marked for death.  The show which ran from 1965 to 1968 earned Ben two Emmy nominations.

Teamed with Lee Remick and James Stewart and George C. Scott, Ben was unforgettable in Otto Preminger’s classic “Anatomy of a Murder” (1959). Gazzara played a military man who is on trial for killing his wife’s rapist and defended by Stewart’s piano playing small-town lawyer. 

But what really put Ben on the map as a master thesp was a series of film collaborations with the actor/director John Cassavetes. They teamed with Peter Falk in the indie improv classic “Husbands”.

 Gazzara played a collection of bitter spouses, forlorn gamblers and bottom feeders in films such as "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" , "Opening Night" and "Saint Jack".

Gazzara was perfect for the anxiety ridden late 20th Century as seen in his signature portrayals of world weary men struggling to deal with brutal emotion, mounting fears and fading hope.

R.I.P.