English was the second language for Ben Gazzara but that didn't stop the son of Sicilian immigrants in New York from joining the Actor's Studio and pursuing an acting career on-stage in acclaimed productions of A Hatful of Rain and in the role of Brick in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Gazzara, according to The Hollywood Reporter, passed today at age 81 from pancreatic cancer at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital Center.
Gazzara made his film debut in the 1957 movie End as a Man but became best known for his role in Otto Preminger's 1959 courtroom drama Anatomy of a Murder. Gazzara worked with the independent filmmaker John Cassavetes on three films, Husbands, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Opening Night.
Gazzara reached his largest audience on the small screen playing a lawyer with only a short time to live in the '60s series Run for Your Life.
While Gazzara played in plenty of mainstream movies like Road House opposite Patrick Swayze and the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair with Pierce Brosnan, as well as Spike Lee's Summer of Sam, he stayed true to the indie roots he cultivated with his acting school classmate Casavetes and worked for Vincent Gallo in Buffalo 66, Todd Solondz in Happiness and John Turturro in Illuminata as well as one of the segments in the multi-story movie Paris Je T'aime.
Gazzara married actress Elke Krivat in 1982 after previous marriages to actresses Louise Erickson and Janice Rule. In addition to Krivat, Gazzara leaves behind two daughters and a brother.