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Lugar y fecha de nacimiento. Michael V. Gazzo (1923 - 1995) Actor, playwright, screenwriter, stage director Born As: Michael Vincente Gazzo Born: April 5, 1923, Hillside, NJ Died: February 14, 1995, Los Ángeles, CA Education: Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research; Actors Studio (acting) A broad-playing, gravel-voiced character player best known as Frankie Pentangeli, capo of the old neighborhood, in EL PADRINO 2 (1974), Gazzo was also a renowned acting teacher and award-winning playwright. He began working simultaneously as a stage director and actor at the Great Neck (NY) Playhouse. From 1946-49, while studying at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School for Social Research, he directed several shows and acted in numerous productions, including The Little Foxes and Juno and the Paycock. After graduating, Gazzo began a life-long association with the Actors Studio out of which developed his acclaimed play A Hatful of Rain (1955), a portrait of a lower-middle-class man attempting to break his addiction to drugs. It was filmed in 1957, co-written by Gazzo, with a cast that included Don Murray as the addict, Eva Marie Saint as his pregnant wife and Anthony Franciosa (repeating his stage role) as his brother. His second play, Night Circus, was produced in New York in 1958, with less stellar results. That same year he also wrote KING CREOLE (1958), a movie starring Elvis Presley. Gazzo began his film acting career in the '50s with a small role in Elia Kazan ON THE WATERFRONT, but he turned his attention to writing and teaching until 1971, when he returned to the big screen in THE GANG THAT COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT (1971). But few in the movie audience had heard of him until he burst onto the screen as Pentangeli, the subordinate who tells Michael Corleone, Your father never trusted Hyman Roth in Francis Ford Coppola EL PADRINO 2 (1974). Gazzo received an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his work, and while he would go on to be a kingpin in KING OF THE GYPSIES (1978), Mike in RETO EN LA NOCHE (1984) and play a memorable role in EL ULTIMO GRAN HEROE (1993), none of his subsequent feature film roles equaled his GODFATHER II impact. Gazzo was also much in demand on TV, and performed in numerous episodes as well as longforms. Often his parts were of mobsters, such as Salina, the gangster held hostage in BLOOD TIES (Showtime, 1986). He also received much applause for his work in BRINKS: THE GREAT ROBBERY (CBS, 1976) and as Marullo in the adaptation of John Steinbeck's THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT (CBS, 1983).
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