Gabriel Dell (born Gabriel Marcel Dell Vecchio; October 8, 1919 – July 3, 1988) was an American actor and one of the members of what came to be known as the
Dead End Kids, then later the
East Side Kids and finally
The Bowery Boys.
Acting career
Born in New York City, Dell almost made his stage debut a few years before ''Dead End'' when he and his sister were slated for roles in ''
The Good Earth'' with
Alla Nazimova and
Claude Rains
William Claude Rains (10 November 188930 May 1967) was a British and American actor whose career spanned almost seven decades. He was the recipient of numerous accolades, including four Academy Award nominations for Academy Award for Best Supp ...
. Dell served in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II. He appeared in numerous films as a Dead End Kid/East Side Kid/Bowery Boy. In the 1944 East Side Kids film ''
Million Dollar Kid'', Dell appeared as a criminal villain, pitted against the boys, who gets brought to justice in the end.
Dell appeared in the play ''The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window'', written by
Lorraine Hansberry
Lorraine Vivian Hansberry (May 19, 1930 – January 12, 1965) was an American playwright and writer. She was the first African-American female author to have a play performed on Broadway theatre, Broadway. Her best-known work, the play ''A Raisin ...
. The production opened on Broadway at the
Longacre Theatre on October 15, 1964, and was directed by
Peter Kass. Jack Blackman designed scenery,
Jules Fisher
Jules Fisher (born November 12, 1937) is an American lighting designer and producer. He is credited with lighting designs for more than 300 productions over the course of his 50-year career of Broadway and off-Broadway shows, as well extensiv ...
designed lighting, and Fred Voelpel designed costumes. The original cast featured Dell as Sidney Brustein and
Rita Moreno as Iris Parodus Brustein. The play received mixed reviews and closed on January 10, 1965.
Dell starred in Lamppost Reunion as Fred Santora, which opened October 16, 1975. As a result of this performance, he was nominated for a
Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play
The Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play is an honor presented at the Tony Awards, a ceremony established in 1947 as the Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, to actors for quality supporting roles in a Broadway theatre, Broa ...
.
His other non-Dead End Kids/Bowery Boys films included ''
The 300 Year Weekend'' (1971), ''
Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? '' (1971), ''
Earthquake
An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...
'' (1974), and ''
Framed'' (1975). He also appeared in ''
The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery'' (1975), and ''
The Escape Artist'' (1982). Dell also made several appearances on television shows during the 1960s and 1970s. including ''
Ben Casey'', ''
The Fugitive'', ''
Mannix
''Mannix'' is an American detective television series that originally aired for eight seasons on CBS from September 16, 1967, to March 13, 1975. The show was created by Richard Levinson and William Link, and developed by executive producer ...
'', ''
Then Came Bronson'', ''
I Dream of Jeannie
''I Dream of Jeannie'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy sitcom television series created by Sidney Sheldon and starring Barbara Eden as a beautiful but guileless 2,000-year-old Jinn, genie and Larry Hagman as an astronaut with whom s ...
'', ''
McCloud'', ''
Sanford and Son'', and ''
Barney Miller
''Barney Miller'' is an American sitcom television series set in a New York City Police Department police station on East 6th Street in Greenwich Village (Lower Manhattan). The series was broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from Janu ...
''.
According to differing sources, either
Don Francks,
Charles Bronson, or Dell
Archived
from the original on May 26, 2018. was the uncredited actor providing the voice of
Boba Fett, a
Mandalorian bounty hunter, in the ''
Star Wars Holiday Special''.
Death
Dell died in North Hollywood of leukemia in 1988 at age 68.
Film
Film
Television
See also
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References
External links
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dell, Gabriel
1919 births
1988 deaths
20th-century American male actors
American male child actors
American male stage actors
American people of Italian descent
American male television actors
Deaths from leukemia in California