Burt Young – Italian American Actor

Burt Young – Italian American Actor

by | Sep 29, 2020 | Blog, Film, Television

Gerald Tommaso DeLouise was born in Queens, New York, the son of Josephine and Michael, both of Italian descent. DeLouise served a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps from 1957 to 1959. While in the Marine Corps, he won 32 of 34 boxing bouts. He later turned pro and compiled a 17–0 record under three different aliases. 

DeLouise went by his stage name, Burt Young, and made his name playing rough-edged working class Italian-American characters, the best-known example being his signature role as Rocky Balboa’s friend (and future brother-in-law) Paulie in Rocky (1976), for which he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He is one of four actors (the other three being Sylvester Stallone, Stu Nahan and Tony Burton) who have appeared in all of the first six Rocky films. 

He has played similar roles in Chinatown, Convoy, Back to School, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Once Upon a Time in America, Last Exit to Brooklyn, and Downtown: A Street Tale. Young has also appeared in many television programs, including The Rockford Files, Baretta, Law & Order, Walker, Texas Ranger, and M*A*S*H. 

In 2017, Burt Young returned to the stage as an aged mob boss in The Last Vig, a play written by Dave Varriale. The show ran from January 14 to February 19, 2017, in Los Angeles. 

Young is also a painter; his art has been displayed in galleries throughout the world. As an artist, he has collaborated with the writer Gabriele Tinti, for whom he designed the cover for the poetry collection All Over, as well as contributing the illustrations for the art book A Man.

Young is also a published author whose works include two filmed screenplays and a 400-page historical novel called Endings. Young is a widower and has one daughter and one grandson. He lives in Port Washington, New York.

John Saxon – Italian American Actor

John Saxon – Italian American Actor

by | Sep 24, 2020 | Blog, Film, Television

John Saxon, was born Carmine Orrico in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian Immigrants Antonio Orrico, a dock worker, and Anna Protettore. He started acting in films during the mid-1950s, playing teenage roles. Agent Henry Willson saw Saxon’s picture on the cover of a detective magazine and immediately contacted the boy’s family in Brooklyn. With his parents’ permission, the 17-year-old Orrico contracted with Willson, and he was given the stage name John Saxon. Saxon was proficient in Judo and Shotokan Karate.

Saxon spent 18 months at Universal before the studio first used him in a film. His first significant role was a juvenile delinquent in Running Wild (1955), co-starring Mamie Van Doren. In 1956, Saxon had the lead in a low budget teen film, Rock, Pretty Baby, which became an unexpected success and established Saxon as a teen idol. Saxon quickly reprised his Rock, Pretty Baby role in a sequel, Summer Love (1958). By now he was getting about 3,000 fan letters a week. He then made Teach Me How to Cry with Sandra Dee, which was retitled The Restless Years (1958).

He would go on to appear in more than 200 projects during a span of 60 years. During the 1970s and 1980s, he established himself as a character actor, frequently portraying law enforcement officials in horror films such as Black Christmas (1974), Dario Argento’s Tenebrae (1982), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

In addition to his roles in horror films, Saxon co-starred with Bruce Lee in the martial arts film Enter the Dragon (1973), and he had supporting roles in the westerns The Appaloosa (1966; for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture), Death of a Gunfighter (1969) and Joe Kidd (1972), as well as the made-for-television thriller Raid on Entebbe (1977). 

Saxon died of pneumonia in Murfreesboro, Tennessee on July 25, 2020, shortly before his 84th birthday.

Annette Funicello

Annette Funicello

by | Sep 22, 2020 | Blog, Film, Television

Annette Funicello was born in 1942, in Utica, New York to Italian Americans Virginia and Joseph. Annette grew up with a love of dancing and entertaining. When she was just 12 years old, she was cast as the lead in a local production of the ballet Swan Lake. Walt Disney saw her perform and immediately invited her to audition for a new series he was casting for Mickey Mouse Club. Seeing her potential, Disney hired her right on the spot. In October the same year Mickey Mouse Club premiered and became a huge hit. Annette quickly became a fan favorite.

After Mickey Mouse Club was canceled, Annette continued to appear in a variety of television shows including Zorro, American Bandstand, The Ed Sullivan Show, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Growing Pains, and Full House. She also went on to record a number of hit songs and albums. In 1963 Annette made the jump to the big screen and starred alongside her friend Frankie Avalon in the first of several beach party movies.

During the filming of the 1987 movie Back to the Beach, which reunited her with Frankie Avalon, she first began to notice symptoms of multiple sclerosis. She was diagnosed with the disease a few months later. After years of courageously fighting, Annette passed away on April 8, 2013.

In 1993 Annette was recognized by the Sons of Italy Foundation at the National Education & Leadership Awards Gala. She was presented with the National Education and Leadership Award in Washington, D.C. At the ceremony Joanne Strollo (then OSIA First National Vice President) said of Annette: “She is one of the most widely known and loved Hollywood personalities, and her dedication to her family and her strength in this time of adversity are true marks of a woman of extraordinary character.” 

 SOURCES: ANNETTE FUNICELLO OFFICIAL SITE, PEOPLE MAGAZINE, DISNEY LEGENDS, ANNETTE FUNICELLO RESEARCH FUND FOR NEUROLOGICAL DISEASES, OSIA

Dom DeLuise – Italian American Actor

Dom DeLuise – Italian American Actor

by | Sep 18, 2020 | Blog, Comedy, Film, Television

Dominick DeLuise was born in 1933 in Brooklyn, New York, to Italian American parents Vincenza DeStefano and John DeLuise. DeLuise graduated from Manhattan’s High School of Performing Arts and later attended Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts where he majored in biology. 

In 1961, DeLuise played in the Off-Broadway musical revue Another Evening with Harry Stoons, which lasted nine previews and one performance. Another member of the cast was 19-year-old Barbra Streisand. DeLuise generally appeared in comedic parts, although an early appearance in the movie Fail-Safe as a nervous USAF technical sergeant showed a broader range. His first acting credit was as a regular performer in the television show The Entertainers in 1964. He gained early notice for his supporting turn in the Doris Day film The Glass Bottom Boat (1966). 

TV producer Greg Garrison hired DeLuise to appear as a specialty act on The Dean Martin Show. DeLuise ran through his “Dominick the Great” routine, a riotous example of a magic act gone wrong. Dom’s catch phrase, with an Italian accent, was “No Applause Please, Save-a to the End.” The show went so well that DeLuise was soon a regular on Martin’s program, participating in both songs and sketches. 

DeLuise was probably best known as a regular in Mel Brooks’ films. He appeared in The Twelve Chairs, Blazing Saddles, Silent Movie, History of the World, Part I, Spaceballs, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Brooks’ late wife, actress Anne Bancroft, directed Dom in Fatso (1980)

In the 1970s and 1980s, he often co-starred with his real-life friend Burt Reynolds, in films like The Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit II. DeLuise was the host of the television show Candid Camera from 1991 to 1992. He was a mainstay of Burke’s Law, an American television series that aired on CBS in the mid 1990’s.

An avid cook and author of several books on cooking, he appeared as a regular contributor to a syndicated home improvement radio show, On The House with The Carey Brothers, giving listeners tips on culinary topics. 

DeLuise died of kidney failure on May 4, 2009 at age 75. He had been battling cancer for more than a year prior to his death.

Source: Wiki 

Jimmy Durante – Italian American Actor

Jimmy Durante – Italian American Actor

by | Sep 16, 2020 | Blog, Comedy, Film, Television

James Francis Durante was born in 1893 on the Lower East Side of New York City. He was the youngest of four children born to Rosa (Lentino) and Bartolomeo Durante, both of whom were immigrants from Salerno, Italy. Durante dropped out of school in seventh grade to become a full-time ragtime pianist. He first played with his cousin, whose name was also Jimmy Durante. He continued working the city’s piano bar circuit and earned the nickname “ragtime Jimmy”, before he joined one of the first recognizable jazz bands in New York, the Original New Orleans Jazz Band. His routine of breaking into a song to deliver a joke, with band or orchestra chord punctuation after each line, became a Durante trademark. In 1920 the group was renamed Jimmy Durante’s Jazz Band.

By the mid-1920s, Durante had become a vaudeville star and radio personality in a trio named Clayton, Jackson and Durante. By 1934, Durante had a major record hit with his own novelty composition, “Inka Dinka Doo”. It became his theme song for the rest of his life. 

During the early 1930s, Durante alternated between Hollywood and Broadway. His early motion pictures included an original Rodgers & Hart musical The Phantom President (1932), which featured Durante singing the self-referential Schnozzola. Durante went on to appear in The Wet Parade (1932), Broadway to Hollywood (1933), The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942, playing Banjo, a character based on Harpo Marx), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and many more. 

Durante had a half-hour variety show – The Jimmy Durante Show – on NBC from 1954 to 1956. His television work also included a series of commercial spots for Kellogg’s Corn Flakes cereals in the mid-1960s, which introduced Durante’s gravelly growl and narrow-eyed, large-nosed countenance to millions of children. “Dis is Jimmy Durante, in puy-son!” was his introduction to some of the Kellogg’s spots. One of his last appearances was in a memorable television commercial for the 1973 Volkswagen Beetle, where he proclaimed that the new, roomier Beetle had “plenty of breathin’ room… for de old schnozzola!”

In 1963, Durante recorded the album of pop standards September Song. The album became a best-seller and provided Durante’s re-introduction to yet another generation, almost three decades later. From the Jimmy Durante’s Way of Life album came the gravelly interpretation of the song “As Time Goes By”, which accompanied the opening credits of the romantic comedy hit Sleepless in Seattle, while his version of “Make Someone Happy” launched the film’s closing credits. Durante also recorded a cover of the well-known song “I’ll Be Seeing You”, which became a trademark song on his 1960s TV show. This song was featured in the 2004 film The Notebook.

Jimmy Durante is known to most modern audiences as the character who narrated and sang the 1969 animated special Frosty the Snowman. Durante died in 1980 in his home in Santa Monica, California, and was 86 years old.

 

Source: Wiki

Walter Lantz – Italian American Animator

Walter Lantz – Italian American Animator

by | Sep 9, 2020 | Film, Television

Walter Benjamin Lantz was born in 1899 in New Rochelle, New York, to Italian immigrant parents, Francesco Paolo Lantz (formerly Lanza) and Maria Gervasi from Calitri. Lantz’s father was given his new surname by an immigration official. At the age of 15, Lantz was hired as an office boy in the art department of The New York American newspaper where he washed paint brushes for legendary illustrator Winsor McCay. Lantz attended art school at night while working at the newspaper.

By the age of 16, Lantz was working in the animation department. Lantz then worked at the John R. Bray Studios on the Jerry On The Job series. In 1924, Lantz directed, animated, and even starred in his first cartoon series, “Dinky Doodle”, which included the popular fairy tale animated shorts Cinderella (1925) and Little Red Riding Hood (1925). He also worked briefly for director Frank Capra and was a gag writer for Mack Sennett comedies.

In 1929, Lantz began producing “Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit” cartoons. Later he used Oswald in Universal’s first major musical, “The King of Jazz”. When Oswald had worn out his welcome, Lantz needed a new character. After creating multiple characters, one character, Andy Panda, stood out and soon became Lantz’s headline star for the 1939–1940 production season.

In 1940, Lantz married actress Grace Stafford. The same year, Woody Woodpecker made his debut, along with his iconic laugh, in an Andy Panda short entitled “Knock Knock”. According to Lantz, he came up with the character during his honeymoon, when he and his wife kept hearing a woodpecker incessantly pecking on their roof. Woody Woodpecker became an instant hit and got his own series during 1941. Grace Stafford would later become one of those who supplied Woody Woodpecker’s voice. In 1948, the Lantz studio created a hit Academy Award-nominated song titled “The Woody Woodpecker Song”, featuring Woody’s iconic laugh. 

In 1979, Mr. Lantz received an Academy Award for life achievement and for contributions to the art of animation. In 1982, Lantz donated 17 artifacts to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, among them a wooden model of Woody Woodpecker from the cartoon character’s debut in 1941. In 1990, Woody Woodpecker was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Walter Lantz died in Burbank, California from heart failure in 1994, at age 94.

Some characters in the Walter Lantz cartoons (both cartoons and comics) are Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Andy Panda, The Beary Family, Maggie & Sam, Maw and Paw, Space Mouse, Woody Woodpecker, Inspector Willoughby, Homer Pigeon, Chilly Willy, Lil’ Eightball, Charlie Chicken, Wally Walrus, and many more.