LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Ben Gazzara, famous for his brooding tough-guy participation in dozens of films, radio shows and theatre productions over his prolonged career, died of pancreatic cancer on Friday during a Manhattan hospital, his counsel said. He was 81.
The New York-born performer died Friday afternoon during Bellevue Hospital Center, with members of his family during his side, according to his attorney, Jay Julien.
Born Biagio Anthony Gazzara to Italian newcomer parents, a immature actor began his career in live theater, many particularly in a purpose of Brick in a strange Broadway prolongation of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," destined by Elia Kazan.
A three-time Tony hopeful for his theatre work, Gazzara done his film entrance as a sociopathic troops academy cadet in a 1957 play "The Strange One," followed by his dermatitis purpose as an indicted torpedo in Otto Preminger's 1959 strike courtroom play "Anatomy of a Murder."
His impression in that film, Army Lieutenant Frederick Manion, claims in his invulnerability to have killed a barkeeper in a fit of fury since a plant had raped and beaten his wife. Jimmy Stewart starred as Gazzara's lawyer.
Best famous for personification emotionally formidable group and villains, Gazzara went on to work with countless high-profile Hollywood directors, including John Cassavetes, with whom he collaborated on several films, including a 1976 mafiosi play "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie."
His credits also enclosed a purpose as porn-film writer Jackie Treehorn in a Coen Brothers' 1998 cult comedy classical "The Big Lebowski" and a ancillary purpose in a 1999 reconstitute of a art-heist play "The Thomas Crown Affair," starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo.
On television, Gazzara starred for twin seasons, 1965 to 1968, on a NBC prime-time play "Run for Your Life." He played a wealthy, successful lawyer, Paul Bryan, who quits his use after training he has a depot illness and afterwards embarks on a globe-trotting query for journey before he dies.
The purpose warranted him twin Emmy nominations as best actor in a lead thespian role. He picked adult a third Emmy curtsy for his 1985 purpose in a made-for-TV film "An Early Frost," and won an Emmy for his ancillary work in a 2002 HBO radio film "Hysterical Blindness.
He warranted Tony nominations for his appearances in 3 Broadway productions of a 1970s, a reconstruction of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and his twin roles in a double check of a plays "Hughie" and "Duet."
Gazzara was married 3 times, with his initial twin marriages finale in porce. He is survived by his third wife, Elke, and daughter Elizabeth.
(Additional stating by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Steve Gorman and Peter Bohan)
(news.yahoo.com)
