Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

Ben Gazzara

Actor

Born - 28 August 1930, New York City, USA
Died - 3 February 2012

Dark, dangerously good-looking actor of hawk-like intensity and grating tones, a star on Broadway in his mid twenties in such plays as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Hatful of Rain. Although acclaimed in his first (admittedly uncommercial) film, Gazzara's movie career was a thing of much promise but limited fulfillment; he later labelled himself 'a fool' for turning down so many good roles and accepting so many insignificant ones. On TV as early as 1952, his films began with The Strange One/End As a Man (1957) and he was again notable in Anatomy of a Murder (1959). Later work, often in gangster thrillers but also in films by his friend John Cassavetes, included The Young Doctors (1961), Convicts Four/Reprieve! (1962), A Rage to Live (1965), The Bridge at Remagen (1968), Husbands (1970), The Family Rico (1972), the title role in Capone (1975), Opening Night (1977), Bloodline (1979), They All Laughed (1981), Boogie Woogie (1983), Don Bosco (1988), Beyond the Ocean (1990), Nefertiti (1992), Shadow Conspiracy (1996), The Spanish Prisoner (1997), The Big Lebowski (1998), Summer of Sam (1999), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Blue Moon (2000), Dogville (2003), Paris Je t'Aime (2006), 13 (2010) and Chez Gino (2011), his last. The second of his three wives was actress Janice Rule. He died from pancreatic cancer.