Ben Piazza (July 30, 1933 – September 7, 1991) was an American actor.

Life and career

Piazza made his film debut in Sidney J. Furie's Canadian film '' A Dangerous Age'' (1959) followed by his Hollywood debut in '' The Hanging Tree'' (1959). Though he signed contracts with

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

and

Gary Cooper Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; May 7, 1901May 13, 1961) was an American actor known for his strong, silent screen persona and understated acting style. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice and had a further three nominations, ...

's production companies for five years, he did not make another film until ''

No Exit ''No Exit'' (, ) is a 1944 existentialist French play by Jean-Paul Sartre. The play was first performed at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier in May 1944. The play centers around a depiction of the afterlife in which three deceased characters a ...

'' (1962). A prolific television and film character actor, Piazza is perhaps most widely recognized as the wealthy restaurant patron in

John Landis John David Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for directing comedy films such as ''The Kentucky Fried Movie'' (1977), ''Animal House, National Lampoon's Animal House'' (1978), The Blues Brothers (f ...

' 1980 comedy hit ''

The Blues Brothers The Blues Brothers (formally, The Fabulous Blues Brothers’ Show Band and Revue) are an American blues and soul music, soul revue band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who met and began collaborating as original cast ...

'' from whom Jake (

John Belushi John Adam Belushi ( ; January 24, 1949 – March 5, 1982) was an American comedian, actor, singer and musician. He was one of seven ''Saturday Night Live'' cast members of the first season. He was arguably the most popular member of the ''Satur ...

) offers to purchase his wife and daughter. Prior to that, he also played the violent boyfriend who scars

Liza Minnelli Liza May Minnelli ( ; born March 12, 1946) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. Known for her commanding stage presence and powerful alto singing voice, Minnelli has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, ...

's character's face in

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( ; ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian Americans, Austrian-American film and theatre director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the the ...

's '' Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon'' (1970). Piazza's other film appearances include '' The Candy Snatchers'' (1973); Piazza played a dramatic role in an episode of'' Barnaby Jones'', titled “Bond of Fear” (04/15/1975),''

The Bad News Bears ''The Bad News Bears'' is a 1976 American sports comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie and written by Bill Lancaster. It stars Walter Matthau as an alcoholic ex-baseball pitcher who becomes a coach for a youth baseball team known as the Bear ...

'' (1976), '' I Never Promised You a Rose Garden'' (1977), ''

Nightwing Nightwing is a superhero alias used by multiple characters in American comic books published by DC Comics. The most prominent bearer is Dick Grayson, the original Robin, who adopts the Nightwing identity to assert his independence from Batman. ...

'' (1979),

Peter Bogdanovich Peter Bogdanovich (July 30, 1939 – January 6, 2022) was an American director, writer, actor, producer, critic, and film historian. He started out his career as a young actor studying under Stella Adler before working as a film critic for ''Fi ...

's ''

Mask A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment, and often employed for rituals and rites. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes, ...

'' (1985), '' Clean and Sober'' (1988), and '' Guilty by Suspicion'' (1991), in which he portrayed

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

film director/mogul

Darryl F. Zanuck Darryl Francis Zanuck (; September 5, 1902December 22, 1979) was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. Best known as a co-founder of 20th Century Fox, he played a ...

. In 1986, Piazza had a three-month stint on the daytime soap opera '' Santa Barbara'' as Dr. A.L. Rawlings. Piazza also played the role of Walt Driscoll in the sixth season of ''

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

'', between 1982 and 1983. Piazza also wrote plays and a novel, ''The Exact and Very Strange Truth'' (1964), a coming-of-age story about an Italian-American boy in Little Rock, Arkansas, which was Piazza's hometown. However, Piazza wrote in the book's introduction that any resemblance between the characters and real people was “irrelevant”, although the parallels to his own life were unmistakable. Piazza dedicated the book to openly gay

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes play (theatre), plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between Character (arts), characters and is intended for Theatre, theatrical performance rather than just Readin ...

Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III ( ; March 12, 1928 – September 16, 2016) was an American playwright known for works such as ''The Zoo Story'' (1958), ''The Sandbox (play), The Sandbox'' (1959), ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' (1962), ''A Delicat ...

, who was a close friend.

Personal life and death

Piazza was married to actress

Dolores Dorn Dolores Dorn (March 3, 1934 – October 5, 2019) was an American film and television actress, who was the co-star of ''The Bounty Hunter (1954 film), The Bounty Hunter'' (1954), ''Uncle Vanya (1957 film), Uncle Vanya'' (1957), ''Underworld U.S. ...

from 1967 until 1979. He was in a committed relationship with Wayne Tripp from 1973 until Piazza died of AIDS-related cancer in 1991.

Filmography

References

Demetria Fulton; reviewed Piazza in Barnaby Jones episode “Bond of Fear”.

External links

* * * (juvenile credits) *
Ben Piazza
at the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

'
Actors Studio audio collection
1933 births 1991 deaths American male film actors American male television actors Male actors from Little Rock, Arkansas American LGBTQ male actors AIDS-related deaths in California 20th-century American male actors Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Little Rock Central High School alumni LGBTQ people from Arkansas 20th-century American LGBTQ people {{US-screen-actor-1930s-stub