Biagio Anthony Gazzara (August 28, 1930 – February 3, 2012), known in Hollywood as Ben Gazzara, was an American actor and director of film, stage, and television. He received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Drama Desk Award, in addition to nominations for three Golden Globe Awards and three Tony Awards.
Born to Italian immigrants in New York City, Gazzara studied at The New School and began his professional career with the Actors Studio, of which he was a lifelong member. His breakthrough role was as Brick Pollitt in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955–56), which earned him widespread acclaim. A memorable performance as a soldier on trial for murder in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959) transitioned him to an equally successful screen career. As the star of the drama series Run for Your Life (1965–1968), Gazzara was nominated for three Golden Globes and two Emmy Awards. He won his only Emmy for the television film Hysterical Blindness (2002).
Works with pages on TV Tropes:
- Anatomy of a Murder (1959) as Lieutenant Frederick Manion
- The Bridge at Remagen (1969) as Sergeant Angelo
- The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) as Cosmo Vittelli
- Bloodline (1979) as Rhys Williams
- Inchon (1981) as Major Frank Hallsworth
- Road House (1989) as Brad Wesley
- Stag (1997) as Frank Grieco
- The Spanish Prisoner (1997) as Klein
- The Big Lebowski (1998) as Jackie Treehorn
- Buffalo '66 (1998) as Jimmy Brown
- Happiness (1998) as Lenny Jordan
- Summer of Sam (1999) as Luigi
- The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) as Andrew Wallace
- Dogville (2003) as Jack McKay
- Paris, je t'aime (2006) as Ben (segment: "Quartier Latin")
- 13 (2009) as Schlondorff
- Playhouse 90 (1957–58) as Stanley Carr (episode: "The Troublemakers") / M. Paul (episode: "The Violent Heart")
- Kraft Suspense Theatre (1965) as Paul Bryan (episode: "Rapture at Two-Forty") note
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2001) as E.A.D.A. (episode: "Wrath")
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955) as Brick Pollitt
- Strange Interlude (1963) as Edmund Darrell
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1976) as George
- Columbo (1974–75) episodes: "A Friend in Deed" and "Troubled Waters"
