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More sad news out of the world of entertainment, following yesterday's announcement of the suicide of Don Cornelius: Veteran actor of stage, screen and television Ben Gazzara has died of pancreatic cancer at 81 at New York's Bellevue Hospital. An obituary for him in The New York Times can be found here.
Mr. Gazzara made an early impression on Your Humble when he appeared in ABC's first "Novel for Television," the precursor of what we know today as the perennially mislabeled "mini-series." It was a 1974 adaptation of the late Leon Uris' best-selling novel QB VII, in which Mr. Gazzara played Abraham Cady, a reporter and one of the two protagonists, more than holding his own opposite a not-yet-knighted Sir Anthony Hopkins as a former Nazi concentration-camp doctor who sues Cady for libel. It was a powerful performance in a lavishly-executed 6.5 hours of television, which established the template for all the similar "major television events" that would follow on ABC and other networks.
Of course, this was hardly the only distinguished entry in a resumé that spans an entire half-century; he also won the Emmy Award and was several times nominated for the Golden Globe Awards; he attended the famous Actors' Studio and studied under the legendary Lee Strasberg; and worked with five decades' worth of some of the biggest names in filmmaking, from John Cassavetes to Spike Lee. He also co-starred in the first made-for-TV movie dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis, NBC's 1985 film An Early Frost, at a time when doing such a film was still a bit of a risk for any actor's career and reputation. And he was no less adept at comedy, from If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium to The Big Lebowski.
Heartfelt sympathies to his three wives and the rest of his family, friends, colleagues and fans. And thanks to the man himself for many years of extraordinary, gutsy thespianship.
Mr. Gazzara made an early impression on Your Humble when he appeared in ABC's first "Novel for Television," the precursor of what we know today as the perennially mislabeled "mini-series." It was a 1974 adaptation of the late Leon Uris' best-selling novel QB VII, in which Mr. Gazzara played Abraham Cady, a reporter and one of the two protagonists, more than holding his own opposite a not-yet-knighted Sir Anthony Hopkins as a former Nazi concentration-camp doctor who sues Cady for libel. It was a powerful performance in a lavishly-executed 6.5 hours of television, which established the template for all the similar "major television events" that would follow on ABC and other networks.
Of course, this was hardly the only distinguished entry in a resumé that spans an entire half-century; he also won the Emmy Award and was several times nominated for the Golden Globe Awards; he attended the famous Actors' Studio and studied under the legendary Lee Strasberg; and worked with five decades' worth of some of the biggest names in filmmaking, from John Cassavetes to Spike Lee. He also co-starred in the first made-for-TV movie dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis, NBC's 1985 film An Early Frost, at a time when doing such a film was still a bit of a risk for any actor's career and reputation. And he was no less adept at comedy, from If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium to The Big Lebowski.
Heartfelt sympathies to his three wives and the rest of his family, friends, colleagues and fans. And thanks to the man himself for many years of extraordinary, gutsy thespianship.
