Great stage, TV and movie actor; gruff old bastard. One of the real New York tough-guy theater folks and star of the earliest NY-based TV shows.
I’m drinking one for Gazzara tonight. This guy was a stallion. One of my cinema heroes, to be sure.
Forgot about** Run for Your Life**…How about** Road House**!!?
I’ll have one for him tonight!!(Had a bit of a crush on him when I was young)
I thought he was dead. Which can be used with many of his generation, unfortunatey.
The dead keep adding up for me. 
My favorite, for not good reason, is Saint Jack.
I could have sworn he died a few years ago. At any rate, RIP.
There is a good reason. It’s a good movie! He was good in and I liked him in everything I saw him in, but Saint Jack is one of my favorites. Another favorite was a 2-part miniseries called QB VII. And of course The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. And his small but interesting role The Big Lebowski. Oh I’ve never not liked him in anything.
John Cassavetes, who directed Gazzara in 3 influential films, died on this same day, in 1989.
I’ve never seen Roadhouse. I know what it is but I didn’t know he was in it!
“Interactive erotic software. The wave of the future, Dude. One hundred percent electronic!”
Roadhouse was the first thing i ever saw Gazzara in.
What a fucking awful movie. Gazzara was the comically evil bad guy, and i assumed at the time that he must be some B-movie actor who was scraping by on shitty roles. It was only later that i saw some of his better movies. I never saw him on the stage, though.
QB VII was the first thing I remember seeing Gazzara in. It was a case in which the filmed version was as good as the book.
I remember him as the defendant, Lieutenant Manion, in Anatomy of a Murder. The late Lee Remick played his wife, who may or may not have been raped by the murder victim, Barney Quill. Jimmy Stewart played the defense attorney, George C. Scott the prosecutor, and Eve Arden the secretary. What a cast!
Worked with Ben Gazzara twice when he did Love Letters with Gena Rowlands. They were very close friends and I am sure she is mourning his loss.
Ben was the stereotypical gruff 50’s actor - and you never saw him without a drink in his hand. But he was also a true professional - always on time, ready to go, and gave a great performance every show. He made it look easy and could fit into a role like it was a comfortable shoe.
Here’s to you, Ben!
[Jay Sherman’s Mom from The Critic] “No, dear, you’re thinking of Barbara Stanwyck.” [/Jay Sherman’s Mom from The Critic]
Gone to join his great buddies John Cassavetes and Peter Falk. Hail and farewell, Mr Gazzara.
Funny, the only thing I remember Ben Gazzara in was the D grade film The Neptune Disaster.
Buffalo 66 and Happiness are a must-see for any Gazarra fan who hasn’t.
*Roadhouse *is the first thing I think of when I think of Ben Gazzara. It’s one of my favorite bad movies. Ironic that he and Patrick Swayze should both die of pancreatic cancer.
Gazzara, Peter Falk, and John Cassavetes hang out on the Dick Cavett Show in 1970.