✎ About Michael V. Gazzo

Michael V. Gazzo was born on April 05, 1923 in Hillside, New Jersey, United States, is Actor, Writer, Soundtrack. Michael Vincente Gazzo was born in Hillside, New Jersey, on April 5, 1923. He attended Erwin Piscator's Dramatic Workshop at the New School on the GI Bill after being demobilized from the US Army Air Force after World War II.Gazzo's first major success was as a playwright. His play about drug addiction, "A Hatful of Rain," was a success on Broadway, running for 389 performances in 1955 and 1956 and winning Ben Gazzara and Anthony Franciosa Tony award nominations as Best Actor and Best Featured Actor, respectively. However, his second (and what would prove to be his last) Broadway play, "The Night Circus," also starring Gazzara, was a flop, lasting just 7 performances in 1958,"A Hatful of Rain" was made into a successful film by Oscar-winning director Fred Zinnemann in 1957. Franciosa won an Oscar nomination for reprising his role in the film. Gazzo turned to screenwriting, penning the Elvis Presley hoses-opera King Creole (1958). Eventually he turned back to acting, where his stocky physique and unique screech of a voice made him a first-rate character actor by the 1970s.His biggest and best acting gig came to him when Richard S. Castellano refused to appear in Bo Gia Phan II (1974) due to a money dispute. Castellano's character Clemenza was killed off and Gazzo was cast as Clemenza's successor in the Corleone crime family in New York. Gazzo was outstanding as the old-fashioned, unsophisticated mafioso who, believing he has been betrayed and marked for death by his don, turns state's evidence against him, only to honor the Mafia code of "omerta" in the end. Gazzo won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod for his performance.Gazzo continued to work in films until his death, mostly assaying Mafia bosses and other criminal types. On film, though, he was able to break out of typecasting in his frequent television appearances and play good guys. He died of a stroke on February 14, 1995 in his hometown of Hillside, New Jersey, at the age of 71.
Michael V. Gazzo is a member of Actor

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Biography/Timeline

1923

Gazzo was born on April 5, 1923. He was a member of the Actors Studio and would later go on to train such actors as Debra Winger, Henry Silva and Tony Sirico. He authored the gritty Broadway play about drug addiction A Hatful of Rain, which ran for 389 performances in 1955 and 1956. It starred Ben Gazzara and Shelley Winters in the two lead roles, and subsequently was adapted into a film by Oscar-winning Director Fred Zinnemann in 1957. The movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Anthony Franciosa). A 1968 made-for-television version (as a filmed play) starred Peter Falk, Sandy Dennis and Michael Parks. Gazzo's other screen writing credits include the Elvis Presley American musical drama King Creole in 1958. Gazzo authored the Broadway play The Night Circus starring Ben Gazzara.

1995

Gazzo died on February 14, 1995 at age 71 due to complications from a stroke. He was buried in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

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1923 births 1995 deaths People from Hillside, New Jersey American dramatists and playwrights American male screenwriters American male film actors American male television actors American people of Italian descent Male actors of Italian descent Writers from New Jersey Disease-related deaths in California Burials at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century male writers