Vale – Ben Gazzara

Emmy-winning US actor Ben Gazzara has passed away.

Ben Gazzara - 1930-2012

Emmy-winning US actor Ben Gazzara has passed away. Mr Gazzara made a name for himself initially on stage, in the Broadway production of Cat On A Hit Tin Roof, and while he went for the role of Brick in the film version, he lost out to Paul Newman. Gazzara would make a number of film and television appearances in his near-60 year career, including Husbands (with John Cassavettes), They All Laughed (for Peter Bogdanovich), Road House (alongside the white-hot Patrick Swayze), The Bridge At Ramagen (with Robert Vaughn), The Big Lebowski, The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Capone, The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie, Dogville (for Lars von Trier) and 13 (2010).

In 1999 Mr Gazzara was diagnosed with throat cancer, and passed away on February 3rd from pancreatic cancer.

 

 

Who wrote this?

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Rodney Twelftree

“Some people say I like films. Those people are wrong. I *love* films.” – Me. I said this.

Rodney has been writing about films for well over two decades, appreciates a good wine, the love of his wife and kids, and the affection of his dog and cats. He has a fondness of cheesy 90’s action and classic Hollywood, hates that physical media is disappearing, and wishes somebody would make a high-budget series of The Neverending Story.

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1 thought on “Vale – Ben Gazzara”

  1. Gazzara played a variation on Charles Buchowski in Tales of Ordinary Madness circa 1981. Goodness me he was funny – there was a scene when these NY corporate publishing types had him over for breakfast. His dialogue went something like: "No thank you, I can't hold anything down at this time in the morning," when they were offering him food while he was pouring himself a glass of red. Admittedly the film became a sort of Betty Blue, but a great performance nevertheless.

    The Bridge at Remagan is also a funny film – Ben, a nazi corpse thief, plays George Siegal's sidekick. Also memorable for Bradford Dillman's performance as an uppity officer.

    Anyone with an interest in 70s cinema should, without a doubt, watch Cassevettes' Chinese Bookie. It's on DVD

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