Biography
Actor Frank Campanella's physical form almost single-handedly defined his Hollywood typecasting. A 6' 5" barrel-chested Italian with a great, hulking presence and memorably stark facial features, Campanella excelled as a character player, almost invariably appearing as toughs and heavies. Born to a piano builder father who played in the orchestras of
Eddie Cantor,
Jimmy Durante, and
Al Jolson, Campanella studied music exhaustively as a young man, and trained as a concert pianist, but discovered a rivaling passion for drama and entered Manhattan College as an acting major.
Campanella's career as an actor began somewhat uncharacteristically, on a light and jovial note, by playing Mook the Moon Man during the
first season of the Dumont network's infamous and much-loved kiddie show
Captain Video and his Video Rangers (1949-1954). One- and two-episode stints on many American television programs followed for Campanella, most on themes of crime and law enforcement, including Inside Detective (1952), The Man Behind the Badge (1954),
Danger (1954), and episodes of the anthology series
Playwrights '56 (1956),
Studio One (1956), and
Suspicion (1957) that called for gritty, thuggish, urban types.
During the 1960s, Campanella sought out the same kinds roles in feature films -- a path he pursued for several decades. Turns included
John Frankenheimer's 1966
Seconds (as the Man in the Station);
Mel Brooks' 1968
The Producers (as a bartender); 1970's
The Movie Murderer (as an arson lieutenant); the
Steve Carver-directed,
Roger Corman-produced gangster film
Capone (1975, as Big Jim Colosimo); Ed Forsyth's 1976 Chesty Anderson -- U.S. Navy (as the Baron); Conway in
Warren Beatty's 1978
Heaven Can Wait; and Judge Neal A. Lake in
Michael Winner's 1982
Death Wish 2. Campanella teamed with director
Garry Marshall seven times: as Col. Cal Eastland in
The Flamingo Kid (1984), Remo in
Nothing in Common (1986), Captain Karl in
Overboard (1987), Frank the Doorman in
Beaches (1988), Pops in
Pretty Woman (1990), a retired customer in
Frankie and Johnny (1991), and a Wheelchair Walker in
Exit to Eden (1994). Campanella re-teamed with
Warren Beatty for the first time since 1978 as Judge Harper in
Dick Tracy (1990) and again as the Elevator Operator in
Love Affair (1994).
Additional series in which Campanella appeared during the 1970s and '80s included
Maude, Hardcastle & McCormick, Quincy, M.E.,
The Love Boat,
Barnaby Jones,
The Rockford Files,
The Fall Guy, St. Elsewhere, and many others.
In middle age, Campanella parlayed his early musical training into two career choices that blended music and drama: a part on a commercial that required him to play the piano and a job as co-host of a musical program on KCSN Radio called "Offbeat Notes on Music." He also appeared on Broadway in such musicals as Guys and Dolls and Nobody Loves an Albatross. After many years of inactivity, Frank Campanella ultimately died at his home in the San Fernando Valley, of unspecified causes. He was 87. Survivors included his brother, actor
Joseph Campanella, his sister-in-law, and 13 nephews and nieces. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide