# Was Ben Gazzara An Underrated Actor? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859 "2013-09-14T19:39:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/1 "2013-09-14T19:39:25Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/2 "2013-09-14T19:49:34Z")
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_. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/3 "2013-09-14T19:54:14Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/4 "2013-09-14T22:36:30Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/5 "2013-09-14T23:08:08Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/6 "2013-09-15T01:59:06Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/7 "2013-09-15T02:15:59Z")
[I’m fascinated that you could craft an entire play around Yogi Berra and tour with it for 2 years.](http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-02-04/entertainment/35442758_1_ben-gazzara-three-films-film-and-tv-actor) > [@](#): > > Mr. Gazzara won an Emmy Award for best supporting actor for the 2002 HBO drama “Hysterical Blindness,” in which he played a widowed suitor of Gena Rowlands. From 2003 to 2005, he toured in a one-man play about baseball star and quipster Yogi Berra. > > In his 2004 autobiography, “In the Moment,” Mr. Gazzara admitted to occasional problems with alcohol and depression and that he’d had affairs with many women, including actresses Audrey Hepburn, Eva Gabor and Elaine Stritch. ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/8 "2013-09-15T14:52:43Z")
Gazzara was absolutely underrated. Check out the aforementioned **Chinese Bookie** for arguably his greatest performance. A close second is [Saint Jack](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079843/?ref_=sr_2), which I think of as a companion piece, though directed by Peter Bogdanovich. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/9 "2013-09-15T15:37:06Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/10 "2013-09-15T16:37:17Z")
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.” ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/11 "2013-09-19T21:01:07Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/12 "2013-09-19T22:26:17Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/13 "2013-09-19T23:22:55Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2013, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/14 "2013-09-19T23:53:17Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2013, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/15 "2013-09-20T00:35:16Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > 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! ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2013, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-ben-gazzara-an-underrated-actor/668859/16 "2013-09-20T04:53:37Z")
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.