Obituary: Vincent Gardenia

Vincent Scognamiglio (Vincent Gardenia), actor, born Naples Italy 7 January 1922, died Philadelphia Pennsylvania 9 December 1992.

VINCENT GARDENIA was one of Hollywood's third or fourth generation of character actors - never so readily identifiable as such predecessors as Ed Brophy or Allen Jenkins; but, similarly, he played tough guys, good-natured slobs, rough diamonds with hearts of gold.

Gardenia's roles invariably found him as an obdurate, kindly, disorganised man. He was, after all, Italian, born in Naples into a theatrical family. He was taken to the United States when he was two and was involved in the theatre in some way from then on, notably so when serving in the Army during the Second World War. But it wasn't till 1958 that he made his Broadway debut, in Durrenmatt's The Visit with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. He made his first movie two years later, Murder Inc., and thereafter divided his time equally between films, television and the theatre. His most memorable work in television was in All in the Family, the Americanisation of Till Death Do Us Part, which starred Carroll O'Connor in the Alf Garnett role. It ran from 1971 to 1979, bringing in Gardenia and Betty Garrett as a friendly married couple living next door, for just a year in 1973. He also did a fine job as J. Edgar Hoover in Kennedy (1983), with Martin Sheen in the title role. In 1972 he had won a Tony Award for his performance in Neil Simon's Broadway play The Prisoner of Second Avenue.

In only a dozen of his score of movies is Gardenia memorable: Mad Dog Coll (1961), as the mobster Dutch Schultz; Robert Rossen's The Hustler (1961), as the bartender; Sidney Lumet's version of Arthur Miller's play A View from the Bridge (1962); Carl Reiner's Where's Poppa? (1970); Alan Arkin's Little Murders (1971), as Elliott Goulds's expected slob of a father; Francesco Rossi's Lucky Luciano (1973); Death Wish (1974), as the police inspector hunting down the self-appointed vigilante killer Charles Bronson - one of his biggest screen roles; Billy Wilder's The Front Page (1974), as the sheriff; and Warren Beatty's Heaven Can Wait (1978), as a police inspector.

He was also twice nominated for the Oscar for the Best Supporting Actor - the second time as Cher's father in Moonstruck (1987), who is cheating on Olympia Dukakis, who did pick up the gold statuette. The first time was for John Hancock's Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), in which Robert De Niro was a baseball-player dying of Hodgkin's disease. For obvious reasons, Paramount decided not to release it in this country, which was a pity, since De Niro and Gardenia were both on formidable form. The American critic John Simon wrote:

A bravura performance is also given by Vincent Gardenia, an impeccable character actor, as Dutch Schnell, the epitome of the tough but lovable manager. 'Tough but Lovable' is no longer a cliche after Gardenia gets through with it. He shows it up for what it really is: not some glorious American amalgam of virility and kindliness but shrewd stubborness laced with wise- cracking indifference to all but one's narrow, immediate concerns.