Show business people in the Big Apple are remembering one of their own; the New York actor Ben Gazzara who died Friday, Feb. 3, at the age of 81 of pancreatic cancer.
He was known as “Big Ben,” as friends of the late Ben Gazzara dubbed him due to his calm, cool, connected and charming way of acting. While not a big man in size, Gazzara – who died Feb. 3 “of pancreatic cancer at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York City, aged 81,”reported The New York Times – he was “big in talent,” said his best friend, the late actor Peter Falk. In turn, it was the three friends: Gazzara, Falk and the late John Cassavetes who were called “the other Rat Pack” because of the many plays and films these three buddies worked on together in the 1950s and 1960s, with Cassavete’s film “Husbands” from 1970 featuring the three New Yorkers as what one film critic called “just who they were, best friends.” Gazzara went on to star in other Cassavetes films in the 1970s; while it was not uncommon to spot Gazzara, Falk and Cassavetes out on the town in New York with Cassavete’s wife Gena Rowlands who also appeared in films with her husband’s two best friends. “Those three really loved each other,” said Rowlands in an interview about her late husband and his legacy that always seemed to include Gazzara, Falk and Cassavetes.
In turn, Gazzara received two Emmy nominations for “Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series,” and three Golden Globe nominations for “Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series – Drama.”
An actor’s actor raised on the mean streets
Gazzara was born Biagio Anthony Gazzara in New York City. He was the son of Italian immigrants Angelina and Antonio Gazzara, who was a laborer and carpenter.
During interviews about his career, Gazzara also noted that he grew up on the “mean streets” of New York’s tough Lower East Side. “I had to fight all of the time, and that prepared me for acting,” he joked during an interview.
Moreover, the actor often pointed to those “mean streets” as also helping him get his gritty roles in top New York based plays – that featured his trademark gravely sounding voice and knock them dead eye contact -- that also made Gazzara a standout in dozens of films where he played the good guy-bad guy role to perfection.
Gazzara was married three times; to Louise Erickson (1951–57), Janice Rule (1961–1979), and German model Elke Krivat since 1982.
Also, Gazzara said he had “a love affair” with actress Audrey Hepburn when they co-starred in two of her final films, "Bloodline" and "They All Laughed.”
Gazzara will be remembered, say film critics, for “being the real deal, always authentic.”
Image source of a young and upcoming young New York actor Ben Gazzara, from a famed 1955 photo by Carl van Vechten. Photo courtesy Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Gazzara
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