Ben Gazzara

A New York native of Sicilian heritage, Ben Gazzara was a strongly masculine, subtly menacing screen presence with a gravelly voice that one writer described as "saloon-cured" and another said could strip paint at 50 paces. The veteran actor, who died Friday in New York City, found fame on Broadway in the 1950s, starred in the TV series "Run for Your Life" in the 1960s and was closely identified on the big screen with independent filmmaker John Cassavetes. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer, said his attorney Jay I. Julien.

Rather than concentrate on the execution of the crime, this week's DVDs focus on what comes afterward: first the trial, then, for the unlucky, time behind bars. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture, 1959's “Anatomy of a Murder” is one of the great American courtroom dramas. Directed by Otto Preminger, it features Jimmy Stewart as a small-town lawyer defending Ben Gazzara against a murder charge brought by George C. Scott's hard-driving prosecutor. Archetypes don't get more archetypal than this, with a great Duke Ellington score thrown in for good measure.

Ben Gazzara had a front-row seat for the birth of the cool. Born to Sicilian immigrants in New York City in 1930, he was there for the glory days of jazz and Abstract Expressionism, and as a young man worked with the likes of Tennessee Williams, Duke Ellington and Elia Kazan.

A New York native of Sicilian heritage, Ben Gazzara was a strongly masculine, subtly menacing screen presence with a gravelly voice that one writer described as "saloon-cured" and another said could strip paint at 50 paces. The veteran actor, who died Friday in New York City, found fame on Broadway in the 1950s, starred in the TV series "Run for Your Life" in the 1960s and was closely identified on the big screen with independent filmmaker John Cassavetes. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer, said his attorney Jay I. Julien.

Sayonara : "Shimada," the Broadway drama starring Ben Gazzara, Ellen Burstyn and Mako, closed Saturday night after only four regular performances. The play, which opened last Thursday in the Broadhurst Theater, was written by Jill Shearer and set in Australia with flashbacks to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. It was the first Broadway show to offer theatergoers a simultaneous Japanese translation.

The Century City law firm of Dern, Mason & Floum has sued actor Ben Gazzara, claiming he owes more than $97,000 in legal fees and interest from the handling of his divorce. In a suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the law firm claims it began representing Gazzara in his divorce in May, 1980, and that he promised to pay the fees. Gazzara, 58, who lives in New York, made payments until February, 1986, leaving an unpaid balance of $97,397, the suit said.

Rather than concentrate on the execution of the crime, this week's DVDs focus on what comes afterward: first the trial, then, for the unlucky, time behind bars. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture, 1959's “Anatomy of a Murder” is one of the great American courtroom dramas. Directed by Otto Preminger, it features Jimmy Stewart as a small-town lawyer defending Ben Gazzara against a murder charge brought by George C. Scott's hard-driving prosecutor. Archetypes don't get more archetypal than this, with a great Duke Ellington score thrown in for good measure.

With all the Japan bashing lately, one might be forgiven for thinking "Shimada"--a drama about a Japanese purchase of an Australian bicycle factory--might have something useful to say about the queasy relations between Japan and the West today. Considering that the $1.

There is nothing like an authentic phenomenon to pep up the idea of theatergoing, and A. R. Gurney's "Love Letters" is an authentic, no-question-about-it phenomenon and hit. It reaches its 100th performance this week at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills, with Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry as the latest in a long procession of couples who have read Gurney's mail.

Ben Gazzara had a front-row seat for the birth of the cool. Born to Sicilian immigrants in New York City in 1930, he was there for the glory days of jazz and Abstract Expressionism, and as a young man worked with the likes of Tennessee Williams, Duke Ellington and Elia Kazan.

Sayonara : "Shimada," the Broadway drama starring Ben Gazzara, Ellen Burstyn and Mako, closed Saturday night after only four regular performances. The play, which opened last Thursday in the Broadhurst Theater, was written by Jill Shearer and set in Australia with flashbacks to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. It was the first Broadway show to offer theatergoers a simultaneous Japanese translation.

With all the Japan bashing lately, one might be forgiven for thinking "Shimada"--a drama about a Japanese purchase of an Australian bicycle factory--might have something useful to say about the queasy relations between Japan and the West today. Considering that the $1.

There is nothing like an authentic phenomenon to pep up the idea of theatergoing, and A. R. Gurney's "Love Letters" is an authentic, no-question-about-it phenomenon and hit. It reaches its 100th performance this week at the Canon Theatre in Beverly Hills, with Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry as the latest in a long procession of couples who have read Gurney's mail.

The Century City law firm of Dern, Mason & Floum has sued actor Ben Gazzara, claiming he owes more than $97,000 in legal fees and interest from the handling of his divorce. In a suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the law firm claims it began representing Gazzara in his divorce in May, 1980, and that he promised to pay the fees. Gazzara, 58, who lives in New York, made payments until February, 1986, leaving an unpaid balance of $97,397, the suit said.

For a fleeting moment in an early frame of CBS' miniseries "Love, Honor and Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage," the real Rosalie Bonanno can be seen at her 1956 wedding to Bill Bonanno, who would become his father's consigliere. Amid clinking of good crystal and toasting of the young couple led by Ben Gazzara--who plays Joe Bonanno, Mafia chieftain and boss of bosses--the trimly elegant reddish-haired woman gazes respectfully as he shouts, "A la Famiglia. " To the Family.