Died at 95
male
Biagio Anthony Gazzarra (August 28, 1930 – February 3, 2012), known as Ben Gazzara, was an American film, stage, and television actor and director. His best known films include Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Voyage of the Damned (1976), Inchon (1981), Road House (1989), The Big Lebowski (1998), Happiness (1998), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Summer of Sam (1999), Dogville (2003) and Paris, je t'aime (2006). He was a recurring collaborator with John Cassavetes, working with him on Husbands (1970), The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) and Opening Night (1977). As the star of the television series Run for Your Life (1965-1968), Gazzarra was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards and two Emmy Awards. He won his first, and only, Emmy Award for his role in the television film Hysterical Blindness (2002).
Ben Gazzara
Steven Mallory
for Steven Mallory in The Fountainhead (1957)
Suggested by leostales
Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead is the controversial epic about one man's unwavering individuality and the profound effect it has on both his friends and enemies. The novel was adapted in 1949 but fell short of its visionary source material. Constrained by a short runtime and 1940s social norms, many of the novel’s most compelling scenes and character arcs were drastically shortened or omitted entirely. While still a good film by conventional standards, it was nevertheless a disappointment to the author and many fans of the original novel. I believe The Fountainhead was adapted one decade too early. By the 1950s, Hollywood was beginning to challenge conventional filmmaking just as the novel’s protagonist challenged the norms of popular architecture. A decade where films could be pulpy yet deep, entertaining yet intellectually moving. In short, it was the perfect decade for a Fountainhead adaptation. This page envisions the film that could have been. Poster by DecoEchoes
