I think so-I have been watching his old show (“Run For Your Life”); he was pretty good in this role. he seems to have been an “also ran” type actor-was his career stalled ? Can someone recommend some good movies of his?
A lot of people love John Cassavetes movies (I’m not a big fan myself). Gazzara was a friend of Cassavetes and he was the lead in The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.
I worked at a theater where Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands did the play Love Letters - there were there together in that show a couple of times.
Both were quite good - and you could see the years of talent right there on stage in front of you.
That said, Ben certainly did like his cocktails - he literally had one in his hand from the minute he got to the theater until he would set the glass down and get in the car to drive home. My guess is functioning alcoholic - as it never seemed to affect his performance, nor can I ever say I saw him swaying or acting even the slightest bit drunk - but boy did he slug them puppies down. Not sure if this had anything whatsoever with him getting work in his later years - producers and directors know who to avoid hiring - but he was most certainly living the life of a Rat Pack 50’s hard drinkin’ dude.
He acted in, directed, and wrote a lot of films and TV shows. The main thing keeping him from being a bigger star was that he didn’t want to be a Hollywood star. He wanted to write, direct, and act in his own productions. I haven’t seen many of his films (just Husbands, A Woman under the Influence, and The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, among those he directed, and Rosemary’s Baby, which he didn’t), and I’ve seen almost nothing of his television work. He made the films that he wanted to make, although not nearly as many of them as he would have like to make.
To avoid any confusion, I’ll point out the “he” you’re talking about is John Cassavetes not Ben Gazzara.
Gazzara was primarily an actor. He directed only one feature film, Beyond the Ocean (1990), and some TV shows.
My apologies. I managed to lose track of what the thread was about. I saw John Cassavetes mentioned in the second post and promptly forgot the title of the thread.
Gazzara was absolutely underrated. Check out the aforementioned Chinese Bookie for arguably his greatest performance. A close second is Saint Jack, which I think of as a companion piece, though directed by Peter Bogdanovich.
I saw him in the first run of the one-man show portraying Yogi Berra, in a tiny theater just off Broadway. I could have reached out and tapped the toe of his shoe when he was stage front.
I never had much of an opinion one way or the other about him on film, but this performance was electrifying, especially the later passages where he is arguing on the phone with (Steinbrenner?) about his son’s drug problems.
He was great in Road House. How can you not love a performance in which he unironically delivers a line like, “I see you found my trophy room, Dalton, the only thing that’s missing is your ass.”
I suppose it depends who you have doing the rating…but among actors of his generation, he was always highly praised. I remember watching the talk shows of the time and when the subject of good actors came up, he would always be mentioned.
Gazzara was outstanding as the lead in the TV version of QB VII, which (even though it was a mediocre adaptation of the book) was quite powerful.
The word underrated is really abused about actors. I just saw a list of underrated actresses, which included Glenn Close. Her description started “six time Academy Award nominated…” The term seems to mean “I think they should be even more famous!” regardless of the person’s achievements.
I would describe Gazzarra as a respected actor, rather than underrated.
I suppose he was well regarded in his day. But I had a friend whose aunt lived near him so he was always talking about Gazzara and that clouds things. Looking at his filmography, it’s hard to connect him to a lot of well-known movies. “Anatomy of a Murder”? My memories are of Jimmy Stewart and Lee Remick. Apparently he wasn’t good at choosing roles.
I respectfully disagree. That ensemble cast was so perfectly put together, I can’t imagine anyone else playing even the minor roles: George C Scott; Arthur O’Connell; Orson Bean; Eve Arden; and yes, Ben Gazzara … absolute perfection!
No wonder it’s still one of my all-time favorite movies!
Guess I shouldn’t be surprised multiple posters beat me to The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, but he really is undeniably great in it.