Anthony Caruso (actor)

Anthony Caruso
Anthony Caruso in Asphalt Jungle.jpg
Anthony Caruso in The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Born(1916-04-07)April 7, 1916
DiedApril 4, 2003(2003-04-04) (aged 86)
OccupationFilm, television actor
Years active1940–1990
Spouse(s)
Tonia Valente
(m. 1940)
Children2

Anthony Caruso (April 7, 1916 – April 4, 2003) was an American character actor in more than one hundred American films, usually playing villains and gangsters, including the first season of Walt Disney's Zorro as Captain Juan Ortega.

Life and career

Caruso was born in Frankfort, Indiana, While acting at the Pasadena Playhouse, he met Alan Ladd, beginning a friendship that continued as they made 11 films together.

Caruso's early acting experience included performing with The Hart Players, a stock theater company that presented tent shows. He also acted with the Federal Theatre Project and was a star in plays at the Hollywood Playhouse.

He made his film debut in Johnny Apollo (1940).

In some of his television roles, Caruso played sympathetic characters, like "Ash", on an early episode of CBS's Gunsmoke, as again in 1960 as “Gurney”, a murdering, yet ultimately sympathetic cowboy. He also played “Lone Wolf” in a 1961 episode entitled “Indian Ford”.

In 1954, Caruso played Tiburcio Vásquez in an episode of the western series Stories of the Century. He appeared in the first Brian Keith series, Crusader. Among Caruso's other Western credits was 1954's Cattle Queen of Montana. In 1957, he appeared in the fourth episode of the first season of the TV western, Have Gun – Will Travel titled "The Winchester Quarantine".

In 1956 Caruso appeared as Disalin with war hero Audie Murphy, Charles Drake and Anne Bancroft in Walk the Proud Land.

In 1957, Caruso appeared in episode "The Child" of NBC's The Restless Gun. In 1959, he was cast as George Bradley in the episode "Annie's Old Beau" on the NBC children's western series, Buckskin.

That same year, he portrayed Matt Cleary on CBS's Wanted: Dead or Alive episode "The Littlest Client", with Steve McQueen. Also 1959, he also guest-starred on the ABC/Warner Brothers western series, Sugarfoot, in the episode "The Extra Hand", along with guest stars Karl Swenson and Jack Lambert and the series star, Will Hutchins.[citation needed] The same year he appeared in the 'Syndicate Sanctuary' episode of The Untouchables.

In 1960, Caruso played a Cherokee Indian, Chief White Bull, in the episode "The Long Trail" of the NBC western series, Riverboat, starring Darren McGavin.[citation needed]

Also in 1960, he returned to Gunsmoke playing a murderous cowboy named “Gurney” in S6E5’s “Shooting Stopover”. Again his character was a hard man, but thru the character’s death, Caruso successfully made him sympathetic.

In 1961, he appeared twice on the ABC/Warner Brothers drama series, The Roaring 20s, including the role of Lucky Lombardi in "The Maestro". He was also cast with Will Hutchins in a second The Roaring 20s episode entitled, "Pie in the Sky."[citation needed] Early in 1961, he was cast as Velde in the episode "Willy's Millionaire" of the short-lived ABC adventure series, The Islanders, with Diane Brewster.

Anthony Caruso as Bela Oxmyx in Star Trek: "A Piece of the Action"

Caruso guest-starred in an episode of the ABC western series, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, based on a Robert Lewis Taylor novel of the same name. Caruso guest-starred three times on CBS's Perry Mason. In 1962, he played Keith Lombard in "The Case of the Playboy Pugilist." Also in 1962, Caruso played Cody Durham in "Cody's Code" on Gunsmoke. In 1965, he made two appearances, both times as the murder victim: first as title character Enrico Bacio in "The Case of the Sad Sicilian," then as Harvey Rettig in "The Case of the Runaway Racer."

In 1964, he guest-starred in the Bonanza episode "The Saga of Squaw Charlie" playing a Native American man shunned by almost everybody and with only two friends, Ben Cartwright and a little girl named Angela. In 1969 he starred alongside Ricardo Montalban in Desperate Mission, a fictionalized telling of the life of Joaquin Murrieta. From 1966 to 1970 he guest-starred three times on the long-running NBC western The Virginian, starring James Drury. In 1965 he guest-starred on ABC's The Addams Family as Don Xavier Molinas.

Some of his other roles were that of the alien gangster "Bela Oxmyx" in the classic Star Trek episode "A Piece of the Action", Chief Blackfish on the NBC series Daniel Boone, Mongo in the film Tarzan and the Leopard Woman, Sengo in Tarzan and the Slave Girl, and Louis Ciavelli (the "box man" or safecracker) in The Asphalt Jungle. Caruso played the comical character of the Native American "Red Cloud" on the 1965 Get Smart episode "Washington 4, Indians 3," and Chief Angry Bear in the episode "You Can't Scalp a Bald Indian" of Rango.

In 1970, Caruso made a guest appearance on the ABC crime drama The Silent Force in the episode "A Family Tradition." In 1974, he appeared in the final episode, entitled "The Fire Dancer," of the ABC police drama Nakia. Anthony Caruso also had a memorable, recurring roll as “El Lobo” on The High Chaparral.

Family, personal life, and death

Caruso met his future wife, Tonia at the Alcazar Theater in 1939 in San Francisco, when the play she was in was closing and the play he was in was opening.[clarification needed] Caruso was married for 63 years. He enjoyed gardening and cooking. He was the father of son Tonio.

On April 4, 2003, Caruso died at age 86 at his home in Los Angeles, California, three days before his 87th birthday.

Selected filmography


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