Kiss of Death

Victor Mature (Actor) .. Nick Bianco

Born: January 29, 1915
Died: August 04, 1999

Trivia: The first male film star to be officially labelled a "hunk," Victor Mature was the son of Swiss immigrants. When he arrived in California to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, Mature was so broke that he lived in a pup tent in a vacant lot and subsisted on canned sardines and chocolate bars. There was speculation amongst his fellow students that Mature's spartan lifestyle was deliberately engineered to draw publicity to himself; if so, the ploy worked, and by 1938 he'd been signed to a contract by producer Hal Roach. Mature's first starring film role was as Tumack the caveman in Roach's One Million BC (1940), which enabled the fledgling actor to display his physique without being unduly encumbered by dialogue. While still under contract to Roach, Mature made his Broadway debut in the Moss Hart/Kurt Weill musical Lady in the Dark, playing a musclebound male model. In 1941, Mature was signed by 20th Century-Fox as the "beefcake" counterpart to the studio's "cheesecake" star Betty Grable; the two attractive stars were frequently cast together in Fox musicals, where a lack of clothes was de rigeur. Apparently because of his too-handsome features, the press and fan magazines went out of their way to make Mature look ridiculous and untalented. In truth, he had more good film performances to his credit than one might think: he was excellent as the tubercular Doc Holliday in John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1948), and also registered well in Kiss of Death (1947), Cry of the City (1948), The Egyptian (1954), Betrayed (1954), and Chief Crazy Horse (1955). As the slave Demetrius in The Robe (1953), Mature is more understated and credible than the film's "distinguished" but hopelessly hammy star Richard Burton. Nonetheless, and thanks to such cinematic folderol as Samson and Delilah (1949), Mature was still widely regarded as a lousy actor who survived on the basis of his looks. Rather than fight this ongoing perception, Mature tended to denigrate his own histrionic ability in interviews; later in his career, he hilariously parodied his screen image in such films as After the Fox (1966) and Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976). Semi-retired from acting in the late 1970s, Victor Mature ran a successful television retail shop in Hollywood, although in 1984 he did appear in a TV remake of Samson and Delilah, effectively portraying Samson's father.

Brian Donlevy (Actor) .. Assistant D.A. Louis D'Angelo

Born: February 09, 1889
Died: April 05, 1972

Trivia: The son of an Irish whiskey distiller, Brian Donlevy was 10 months old when his family moved to Wisconsin. At 15, Donlevy ran away from home, hoping to join General Pershing's purge against Mexico's Pancho Villa. His tenure below the border was brief, and within a few months he was enrolled in military school. While training to be a pilot at the U.S. Naval Academy, Donlevy developed an interest in amateur theatricals. He spent much of the early 1920s living by his wits in New York, scouting about for acting jobs and attempting to sell his poetry and other writings. He posed for at least one Arrow Collar ad and did bit and extra work in several New York-based films, then received his first break with a good supporting role in the 1924 Broadway hit What Price Glory?. Several more Broadway plays followed, then in 1935 Donlevy decided to try his luck in Hollywood. A frustrated Donlevy was prepared to head back to Manhattan when, at the last minute, he was cast as a villain in Sam Goldwyn's Barbary Coast. In 1936 he was signed to a 20th Century-Fox contract, alternating between "B"-picture heroes and "A"-picture heavies for the next few years. The most notable of his bad-guy roles from this period was the cruel but courageous Sgt. Markoff in Beau Geste (1939); reportedly, Donlevy deliberately behaved atrociously off-camera as well as on, so that his co-workers would come to genuinely despise his character. From 1940 through 1946, Donlevy was most closely associated with Paramount Pictures, delivering first-rate performances in such films as The Great McGinty (1940), Wake Island (1942), The Glass Key (1942) and The Virginian (1946). His own favorite role was that of the good-hearted, raffish con-artist in Universal's Nightmare (1942). In 1950, Donlevy took time off from films to star and co-produce the syndicated radio (and later TV) series Dangerous Assignment. He went on to introduce the character of Dr. Quatermass in two well-received British science fiction films, The Creeping Unknown (1955) and Enemy From Space (1957). Brian Donlevy left behind an impressive enough filmic legacy to put the lie to his own assessment of his talents: "I think I stink."

Richard Widmark (Actor) .. Tommy Udo

Born: December 26, 1914
Died: March 24, 2008
Birthplace: Sunrise, Minnesota

Trivia: The son of a traveling salesman, actor Richard Widmark had lived in six different Midwestern towns by the time he was a teenager. He entered Illinois' Lake Forest College with plans to earn a law degree, but gravitated instead to the college's theater department. He stayed on after graduation as a drama instructor, then headed to New York to find professional work. From 1938 through 1947, Widmark was one of the busiest and most successful actors in radio, appearing in a wide variety of roles from benign to menacing, and starring in the daytime soap opera "Front Page Farrell." He did so well in radio that he'd later quip, "I am the only actor who left a mansion and swimming pool to head to Hollywood." Widmark's first stage appearance was in Long Island summer stock; in 1943, he starred in the Broadway production of Kiss and Tell, and was subsequently top billed in four other New York shows. When director Henry Hathaway was looking for Broadway-based actors to appear in his melodrama Kiss of Death (1947), Widmark won the role of giggling, psychopathic gangster Tommy Udo. And the moment his character pushed a wheelchair-bound old woman down a staircase, a movie star was born. (Widmark always found it amusing that he'd become an audience favorite by playing a homicidal creep, noting with only slightly less amusement that, after the release of the film, women would stop him on the street and smack his face, yelling, "Take that, you little squirt!") The actor signed a 20th Century Fox contract and moved to Hollywood on the proviso that he not be confined to villainous roles; the first of his many sympathetic, heroic movie parts was in 1949's Down to the Sea in Ships. After his Fox contract ended in 1954, Widmark freelanced in such films as The Cobweb (1955) and Saint Joan (1957), the latter representing one of the few times that the actor was uncomfortably miscast (as the childish Dauphin). In 1957, Widmark formed his own company, Heath Productions; its first effort was Time Limit, directed by Widmark's old friend Karl Malden. Widmark spent most of the 1960s making films like The Alamo (1960) and Cheyenne Autumn (1964), so that he could afford to appear in movies that put forth a political or sociological message. These included Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Bedford Incident (1965). A longtime television holdout, Widmark made his small-screen debut in Vanished (1970), the first two-part TV movie. He later starred in a 1972 series based upon his 1968 theatrical film Madigan. And, in 1989, he was successfully teamed with Faye Dunaway in the made-for-cable Cold Sassy Tree. Richard Widmark was married for 55 years to Jean Hazelwood, a former actress and occasional screenwriter who wrote the script for her husband's 1961 film The Secret Ways (1961). Their daughter Anne married '60s baseball star Sandy Koufax. Widmark died at age 93 in 2008, of health complications following a fractured vertebra.

Coleen Gray (Actor) .. Nettie

Born: October 23, 1922

Trivia: Described by one film historian as a "hand-wringing 'Oh-Jed-don't-go'" type actress, Coleen Gray did, in all fairness, have a few roles requiring more than sidelines suffering. After graduating with honors from the drama department of Hamline University, Gray was signed by 20th Century-Fox in 1945. There she enjoyed some of her best roles, including the female lead in Kiss and Death (1947) and the dumb-but-honest girlfriend of smart-but-shifty Tyrone Power in Nightmare Alley (1947). Free-lancing in the 1950s, Gray appeared in several westerns, getting the opportunity to play an adventuress of sorts in Tennessee's Partner (1955). Always willing to give her all for her art, Gray even managed to bring some artistry to such Grade-Z efforts as The Leech Woman (1960). In 1961, Coleen Gray played Miss Wycliffe on the short-lived Robert Young TV "dramedy" Window on Main Street.

Karl Malden (Actor) .. Sgt. William Cullen

Born: March 22, 1912
Died: July 01, 2009
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois

Trivia: The son of Yugoslav immigrants, Karl Malden labored in the steel mills of Gary, Indiana before enrolling in Arkansas State Teachers College. While not a prime candidate for stardom with his oversized nose and bullhorn voice, Malden attended Chicago's Goodman Dramatic School, then moved to New York, where he made his Broadway bow in 1937. Three years later he made his film debut in a microscopic role in They Knew What They Wanted (1940), which also featured another star-to-be, Tom Ewell. While serving in the Army Air Force during World War II, Malden returned to films in the all-serviceman epic Winged Victory (1944), where he was billed as Corporal Karl Malden. This led to a brief contract with 20th Century-Fox -- but not to Hollywood, since Malden's subsequent film appearances were lensed on the east coast. In 1947, Malden created the role of Mitch, the erstwhile beau of Blanche Dubois, in Tennessee Williams' Broadway play A Streetcar Named Desire; he repeated the role in the 1951 film version, winning an Oscar in the process. For much of his film career, Malden has been assigned roles that called for excesses of ham; even his Oscar-nominated performance in On the Waterfront (1954) was decidedly "Armour Star" in concept and execution. In 1957, he directed the Korean War melodrama Time Limit, the only instance in which the forceful and opinionated Malden was officially credited as director. Malden was best known to TV fans of the 1970s as Lieutenant Mike Stone, the no-nonsense protagonist of the longrunning cop series The Streets of San Francisco. Still wearing his familiar Streets hat and overcoat, Malden supplemented his income with a series of ads for American Express. His commercial catchphrases "What will you do?" and "Don't leave home without it!" soon entered the lexicon of TV trivia -- and provided endless fodder for such comedians as Johnny Carson. From 1989-92, Malden served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Taylor Holmes (Actor) .. Earl Howser

Born: May 16, 1872
Died: September 30, 1959

Trivia: Actor Taylor Holmes first made a theatrical name for himself on the Keith Vaudeville Circuit. In the course of his subsequent five-decade Broadway career, Holmes starred in over 100 plays, usually in light comedy roles. Making his film debut in 1917, he played the title role in the 1918 adaptation of Ruggles of Red Gap, then made scattered screen appearances before settling down in Hollywood permanently in 1947. Most often employed by 20th Century-Fox, he showed up in such flashy roles as gullible millionaire Ezra Grindle in the Tyrone Power melodrama Nightmare Alley (1947). He also played more than his share of shyster lawyers (most memorable in 1947's Kiss of Death) and absent-minded professors. Holmes was the father of actors Phillips and Ralph Holmes. Outliving his wife and both his sons, Taylor Holmes died at the age of 85; his last assignment was the voice of King Steffan in Disney's animated feature Sleeping Beauty (1959).

Howard Smith (Actor) .. Warden

Born: August 12, 1894
Died: January 10, 1968

Trivia: An imposing presence in films of the late '40s, as well as early television shows such as The Aldrich Family (1949), New York stage actor Howard I. Smith actually made his screen debut as far back as 1918, in Young America. Relocating to Hollywood in 1946, Smith usually played overbearing politicos or other figures of authority, but is perhaps best remembered today as Uncle Charley in the 1951 screen version Death of a Salesman.

Anthony Ross (Actor) .. Williams

Born: February 23, 1909
Died: October 26, 1955

Trivia: Broadway-based actor Anthony Ross is best remembered by theatre buffs for originating the character of The Gentleman Caller in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie. Ross also appeared in Moss Hart's morale-boosting play Winged Victory, and was set to repeat his role in the 1944 20th Century-Fox screen version, when for reasons unknown his part was recast. Even so, he remained with Fox in the postwar years, playing character roles in such films as Kiss of Death (1947) and The Gunfighter (1950). Anthony Ross made his last screen appearance in The Country Girl (1954), reprising his Broadway characterization as laconic playwright Phil Cook.

Mildred Dunnock (Actor) .. Ma Rizzo

Born: January 25, 1901
Died: July 05, 1991

Trivia: Educated at Goucher College and at Johns Hopkins and Columbia University, American actress Mildred Dunnock was introduced to films in her stage role as Miss Ronsberry in The Corn Is Green (1945). Her next major assignment was as Willy Loman's long-suffering wife Linda in Arthur Miller's 1948 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Death of a Salesman, a part that she also essayed in the 1952 film version. Dunnock preferred stage work and college lecture tours to the movies, but returned before the cameras occasionally in such films as 1952's Viva Zapata (directed by the director of Salesman, Elia Kazan), Hitchcock's The Trouble with Harry (1955), and Sweet Bird of Youth (1962). One of Dunnock's most spectacular film appearances was her unbilled role in the gangster melodrama Kiss of Death (1948); she was the wheelchair-bound old lady pushed down a flight of stairs by giggling psychopath Richard Widmark!

Millard Mitchell (Actor) .. Max Schulte

Born: August 14, 1903
Died: October 13, 1953

Trivia: Born to American parents in Cuba, Millard Mitchell enjoyed moderate success as a New York-based stage and radio actor in the 1930s. His first appearances before the cameras were in a handful of Manhattan-filmed industrial shorts; his Hollywood feature-film bow was in MGM's Mr. and Mrs. North (1941). After the war, Mitchell toted up an impressive list of film credits, usually cast in sarcastic, phlegmatic roles. While he was afforded top billing in 1952's My Six Convicts, Mitchell's best screen role (at least in the eyes of MGM-musical buffs) was movie mogul R. F. Simpson in the splendiferous Singin' in the Rain (1952). Millard Mitchell died suddenly of lung cancer at the age of 50.

Temple Texas (Actor) .. Blondie

Born: January 01, 1923
Died: January 01, 1987

Jack Smart (Actor) .. Skeets

Wendell Phillips (Actor) .. Pep Magone

John Kullers (Actor) .. Prisoner

Born: December 30, 1911

Trivia: American actor John Kullers appeared occasionally in films, particularly those of John Cassavetes, but he primarily worked on the New York stage.

Anne Grey (Actor)

Born: January 01, 1907

Robert Keith (Actor) .. Judge

Born: February 10, 1896
Died: December 22, 1966

Trivia: As a youth in his Indiana home town, Robert Keith picked up eating money as an illustrated-slide singer in movie houses. On stage from age 16, Keith worked in stock and on Broadway, taking time out from acting to write the 1927 play The Tightwad, a critical if not financial success. On the strength of The Tightwad, Keith was brought to Hollywood by Universal to write dialogue in the first years of the talkies; among his credits was the 1932 Tom Mix version of Destry Rides Again. He returned to Broadway to write another play, 1932's Singapore, then switched back to acting. Alternating between the films and the stage, Keith scored a personal triumph in the role of the philosophical Doc in the original 1947 Broadway production of Mister Roberts. He returned to Hollywood full time in 1949, etching such memorable screen characterizations as the weakling father of potential suicide Richard Basehart in Fourteen Hours (1951) and gimlet-eyed Inspector Brannigan in Guys and Dolls. Robert Keith was the father of actor Brian Keith, who during his own early years on stage billed himself as Robert Keith Jr.

Victor Thorley (Actor) .. Sing Sing Guard

Rollin Bauer (Actor) .. Sing Sing Guard

Arthur Foran Jr. (Actor) .. Sing Sing Guard

James Doody (Actor) .. Sing Sing Guard

Bernie Sell (Actor)

William Zuckert (Actor) .. Sing Sing Guard

Born: December 18, 1915

Paul Lilly (Actor) .. City Jail Guard

Herbert Holcombe (Actor) .. City Jail Guard

Jack Rutherford (Actor) .. Policeman

Born: January 01, 1892
Died: January 01, 1982

Steve Roberts (Actor) .. Guard

Born: January 01, 1917
Died: October 26, 1999

Dennis Bohan (Actor) .. Guard

George Smith (Actor) .. Policeman

Gregg Martell (Actor) .. Guard

Born: May 23, 1918

Pat Malone (Actor) .. Policeman

Richard Midgley (Actor) .. Guard

Iris Mann (Actor) .. Congetta

Marilee Grassini (Actor) .. Rosaria

Norman McKay (Actor) .. Capt. Dolan

Harry Cooke (Actor) .. Taxi Driver

Richard Taber (Actor) .. Taxi Driver

Born: January 01, 1884
Died: January 01, 1957

Trivia: Born in 1884, character actor (and sometime playwright) Richard Taber began his career on-stage during the first decade of the twentieth century. In his first year on Broadway, 1908, he was in two musicals, Three Twins and The American Idea. Taber (who was sometimes credited as "Tabor") amassed 30 more credits on the Great White Way over the ensuing four decades, on top of whatever work he picked up in stock and touring companies, and co-authored (with actor James Gleason) one play, Is Zat So? (1928), which was later filmed twice. The best-known of his Broadway credits was Tomorrow The World, starring Ralph Bellamy, Shirley Booth, and a young Skip Homeier, which ran for over a year. In between, he did occasional film work from 1915 on. As a New York-based actor, he didn't have many opportunities for screen work, and his credits are separated across decades, in roles of wildly varying prominence. A stout but muscular man with rough features, in a manner similar to Brad Sullivan, Taber was ideal for rough-hewn working-class roles -- he was barely visible as a cab driver in Henry Hathaway's Kiss Of Death (1947), but three years later, in George Sherman's The Sleeping City (1950), he was a co-star alongside Richard Conte, Colleen Gray, and John Alexander, playing an eccentric hospital employee whose simple-minded demeanor masks a murderous streak. Taber made his last screen appearance in 1956, with a small role in Born Yesterday, and retired that year. He passed away in 1957 at age 73.

Jesse White (Actor) .. Taxi Driver

Born: January 03, 1919
Died: January 08, 1997

Trivia: A self-described "household face," character actor Jesse White made his first stage appearance as a teenager in his adopted hometown of Akron, OH. Supporting himself with a variety of civilian jobs, White worked the nightclub circuit in Cleveland, then moved on to what was left of vaudeville in the late '30s. White's first Broadway role was in 1942's The Moon is Down; two years later he scored his biggest success as the acerbic sanitarium attendant in Mary Chase's Harvey, a role he would repeat for the 1950 film version (though Harvey is often listed as White's film debut, he can be seen in a bit role as an elevator operator in 1947's Gentleman's Agreement). While he has appeared in some 60 films, White is best known for his TV work, which allowed him to play Runyon-esque gangsters, theatrical agents, neurotic TV talk show hosts, art connoisseurs, toy manufacturers, and whatever else suited his fancy. Two of his longest professional associations were with satirist Stan Freberg (White was featured in several of Freberg's commercials and comedy albums) and comedian/TV mogul Danny Thomas (White played agent Jesse Leeds during the first few seasons of Make Room for Daddy). In the 1970s, White became established as the "lonely" Maytag repairman in a series of well-circulated TV commercials; when he stepped down from this role in the late '80s, the event received a generous amount of press coverage. Jesse White was still in harness into the 1990s. In 1992, he was memorably cast as a sarcastic, cigar-chomping theater chain owner in Joe Dante's Matinee. He passed away at age 79 following complications from surgery on January 8, 1997.

Robert Karnes (Actor) .. Hoodlum

Born: January 01, 1916
Died: January 01, 1979

Harry Carter (Actor) .. Detective

Born: January 01, 1879

Trivia: Not to be confused with the later 20th Century-Fox contract player of the same name, silent screen actor Harry Carter had appeared in repertory with Mrs. Fiske and directed The Red Mill for Broadway impresario Charles Frohman prior to entering films with Universal in 1914. Often cast as a smooth villain, the dark-haired Carter made serials something of a specialty, menacing future director Robert Z. Leonard in The Master Key (1914); playing the title menace in The Gray Ghost (1917); and acting supercilious towards Big Top performers Eddie Polo and Eileen Sedgwick in Lure of the Circus (1918). In addition to his serial work, Carter played General Von Kluck in the infamous propaganda piece The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin (1918). It was back to chapterplays in the 1920s, where he menaced Claire Anderson and Grace Darmond in two very low-budget examples of the genre: The Fatal Sign (1920) and The Hope Diamond Mystery (1921).

Robert Adler (Actor) .. Detective

Born: December 04, 1913

Charles McClelland (Actor) .. Detective

Yvonne Rob (Actor) .. Customer

Carl Milletaire (Actor) .. Customer

Born: June 21, 1912
Died: May 04, 1994

Trivia: Character actor Carl Milletaire specialized in playing gangsters. Fans of the television show The Untouchables may remember him for playing Frank Nitti's number one stooge. Milletaire made his screen debut with a tiny role in Double Life (1947).

Gloria O'Connor (Actor) .. Girl

Consuela O'Connor (Actor) .. Girl

Harold Crane (Actor) .. Mr. Moremann

Mel Ruick (Actor) .. Moremann's Assistant

John Marley (Actor) .. Al

Born: January 01, 1907
Died: May 22, 1984

Trivia: John Marley's craggy face, cement-mixer voice and shock of white hair were familiar to stagegoers from the 1930s onward. Marley started out as one-half of a comedy team, but soon found that his true metier was drama. In films on an infrequent basis since 1941, Marley stepped up his moviemaking activities in the mid-1960s, playing such sizeable roles as Jane Fonda's father in Cat Ballou (1965). He won a Venice Film Festival award for his performance as a miserable middle-aged husband in John Cassavetes' Faces (1968), and was Oscar-nominated for his portrayal of Ali MacGraw's blue-collar dad in Love Story. Arguably Marley's most unforgettable assignment was The Godfather (1972), in which, as movie mogul Lou Woltz, he wakes up to find himself sharing his bed with a horse's head. John Marley's television work included a regular role on the obscure NBC daytime drama Three Steps to Heaven.

Lee Sanford (Actor) .. Chips Cooney

John Stearns (Actor) .. Harris

Eda Heinemann (Actor) .. Mrs. Keller

Eva Condon (Actor) .. Nun

Irene Shirley (Actor) .. Nun

Mary Morrison (Actor) .. Mother Superior

Alexander Campbell (Actor) .. Train Conductor

Born: October 12, 1888
Died: January 01, 1970
Birthplace: United Kingdom

Trivia: Made his screen debut in a 2001 episode of The Bill. In 2005, nominated for the Manchester Evening News Best Studio Performer Award for his role in Private Peaceful. In 2007, nominated by The Stage as Best Solo Performer in Private Peaceful. Starred as Vindice in a 2016 production of The Revenger's Tragedy. Nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2018 Offies for his role in Br-er Cotton.

George Shelton (Actor) .. Waiter

David Fresco (Actor) .. Waiter

Born: December 05, 1909

Harold Gary (Actor) .. Doorman

Born: January 01, 1906
Died: January 01, 1984

Dort Clark (Actor) .. Man in Car

Born: January 01, 1917
Died: January 01, 1989

Trivia: American character actor Dort Clark is best known for his television work, but he has also appeared in feature films. In addition, he has also appeared in many Broadway musicals and touring troupes. On television, he had a role on the ABC soap opera General Hospital for many years and also made guest appearances on shows ranging from Daniel Boone to The Monkees and Bewitched.

Arthur Kramer (Actor) .. Mr. Sulla

Perc Launders (Actor) .. Lieutenant

Born: January 01, 1904
Died: October 02, 1952

Trivia: A busy Hollywood studio musician, Perc Launders eased into acting in 1941, when he played the brakeman in Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels. Until his retirement in 1952, Launders worked at Paramount, Universal and RKO as a general-purpose actor. With such rare exceptions as "Zolton" in RKO's The Falcon in Hollywood (1945), the actor's screen characters were nameless, and often lineless. One of the unsung legion of Tinseltown bit players, Perc Launders played countless bartenders, clerks, cops, onlookers and pedestrians.

Nina Borget (Actor) .. Cashier

Don Giovanni (Actor) .. Gangster

Tito Vuolo (Actor) .. Luigi

Born: March 22, 1873
Died: September 14, 1962

Trivia: Very few people remember Tito Vuolo's name, but in more than 40 movies and dozens of television shows -- ranging from comedy to film noir -- the Italian-born actor graced audiences with his presence. With his thick accent, short stature, and open, honest features, Vuolo was for many years the epitome of the ethnically identifiable, usually genial Italian, at a time when such portrayals were routine and encouraged in cinema. He could play excitable or nervous in a way that stole a scene, or move through a scene so smoothly that you scarcely noticed him. Vuolo's movie career began in 1946 with an uncredited appearance as a waiter in Shadow of the Thin Man, and he quickly chalked up roles in two further crime movies, the film noir classics Michael Gordon's The Web and Henry Hathaway's Kiss of Death. He was also part of the cast of Dudley Nichols' Mourning Becomes Electra, RKO's disastrous attempt to bring serious theater to the screen, but much of Vuolo's work turned up in films of a grittier nature, such as Anthony Mann's T-Men and The Enforcer, directed by Bretaigne Windust and Raoul Walsh -- the latter film afforded Vuolo one of his most prominent roles in a plot, as the hapless cab driver whose witnessing (with his little girl) of a murder sets in motion a series of events that brings about a dozen murders and ultimately destroys an entire criminal organization. Vuolo's short, squat appearance could also be used to comical effect in a specifically non-ethnic context, as in King Vidor's The Fountainhead, when he turns up at the home of Dominique Francon (Patricia Neal), in place of the expected arrival of tall, lean Howard Roarke (Gary Cooper), in response to her calculated request for repairs to the stone-work in her home. And sometimes he just stole a scene with his finely nuanced use of his accent and an agitated manner, as in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House -- his character goes into an excruciatingly funny explanation to Cary Grant about why he has to blast part of the proposed building site ("Thas-a no rock -- thas-a ledge"). Baby boomers may also remember Vuolo from his role in the 1953 Adventures of Superman episode "My Friend Superman," in which he portrayed a well-meaning luncheonette owner whose claim that Superman is a personal friend of his sets in motion a plot to kidnap Lois Lane. Vuolo's final film appearance was in the Ray Harryhausen science fiction thriller 20 Million Miles to Earth, playing the police commissioner. The beloved character actor died of cancer in 1962. Published dates of birth on Vuolo vary by as much as 19 years (1873 or 1892), so he was either 70 years old or 89 years old at the time of his death.

Billy O'Leary (Actor) .. Policeman

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