By Lee Pfeiffer
Ben Gazzara, who was born in poverty in a New York slum and rose to be a major star of stage and screen, has succumbed to cancer at age 81. Gazzara was part of a new generation of method actors that emerged in the 1950s and he studied at the fabled Actors Studio under the direction of Lee Strasberg in the company of other up-and-coming stars as Marlon Brando, James Dean and Paul Newman. The competitiveness of that talented group often meant that roles created by one actor later proved to be star-making vehicles for another actor. For example, it was Gazzara who originated the role of Brick, the hunk who is confused about his own sexuality in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, earning one of three Tony nominations Gazzara would achieve in his career. However, it was Newman who was cast in the hit big screen version of the play. Nevertheless, Gazzara did find stardom in Hollywood through acclaimed performances in films such as The Strange One and Anatomy of a Murder. In the mid-1960s he earned two Emmy nominations for his lead role in the series Run For Your Life in which he played a terminally ill rich man determined to live his life's dreams before the end comes.
Gazzara also became part of John Cassavetes' group of friends and actors who appeared in his off-beat art house movies such as Husbands, Opening Night and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. He also had the starring role in Peter Bogdanovich's acclaimed film Saint Jack. Gazzara also appeared in major entertainment productions such as The Bridge at Remagen, Convicts 4, They All Laughed, The Neptune Factor and the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair. He also starred in the infamous Korean War epic Inchon, a major flop that caused controversy when it was revealed that it had been financed by the scandal-plagued Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
On a personal level, I would sometimes run into Gazzara at New York's Players club, where we were both members. Several years ago, the club hosted a black tie event in his honor and Gazzara came to the podium holding his beloved dog that he took literally everywhere he went. Suffering from cancer of the mouth, he nonetheless spoke eloquently and displayed his characteristic wit. A couple of years later, we invited him to speak at a similar dinner that Cinema Retro hosted in honor of his old friend Robert Vaughn. Gazzara told some fascinating stories about how he and Vaughn had to literally use cloak and dagger methods to escape from Czechoslovakia during the filming of The Bridge at Remagen when the Soviets invaded Prague in 1968.
Ben Gazzara was a "actor's actor"- the kind of talent that is not easy to replicate and we join the members of his profession in mourning his passing.
Click here for tribute from Peter Bogdanovich