Biography
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),...
Known For
Complete Filmography

to Crinkle their Wrist, Perfumed Splendour
2023
as Cosmo Vitelli (archive footage)
An omnium-gatherum of film, poem, and song excerpts contextually juxtaposed in an attempt to explore masculinity, alienation, and identity in a post-i...

Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age
2021
as Self
Broadway: Beyond the Golden Age explores the world of Broadway from 1959 through the early 1980s as recounted by a diverse cast of Broadway stars who ...

Giuseppe Tornatore - Ogni film un'opera prima
2014
as Self

One Day Since Yesterday: Peter Bogdanovich & the Lost American Film
2014
as Self
The grim woes that surrounded famed director Peter Bogdanovich and his film, "They All Laughed."
Ristabbanna
2012

Chez Gino
2011
as Oncle Giovanni
Gino Roma holds a pizzeria for thirty years in Brussels, purchased with money from his wife Simone. His quiet life is turned upside down when he learn...

Christopher Roth
2010
as Paul Andersen
A horror novelist begins to fear his stories may have a life of their own.

Il Volo
2010
Inspired by the experiences of some small southern Italian municipalities which chose to integrate a set of Kurdish refugees into the dwindling popula...

13
2010
as Schlondorff
A naive young man assumes a dead man's identity and finds himself embroiled in an underground world of power, violence, and chance where men gamble be...

Holy Money
2009
as Vatican's Banker
Anthony's family runs a small Italian restaurant in London. When his childhood friend, Dario, dies in a suspicious accident, Anthony inherits a vineya...

The Story of Husbands: A Tribute to John Cassavetes
2009
as Self
Producer Al Ruban, actor Ben Gazzara, and cinematographer Victor J. Kemper share their fond memories of director-actor John Cassavetes and of his film...

Eve
2008
as Joe
Kate is a young woman visiting her grandmother to talk about her mother "Eve" but instead she surprisingly ends up as both chauffeur and chaperone on ...
Empire State Building Murders
2008
as Paulie Genovese
A tribute and doc-crime-drama celebrating American film noir and the icons of the Hollywood golden age. It recaptures the time and place of New York i...

Looking for Palladin
2008
as Jack Palladin
Brash young Hollywood talent agent Josh Ross (David Moscow) is dispatched to Guatemala, where he's assigned to locate missing star Jack Palladin (Ben ...
Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans & the Movies
2008
Documentary portrays the saga of how Italian Americans went from being outsiders who were stereotyped as gangsters in American movies to insiders in H...

A Prince Called Toto
2007
as Self
Totò, the mythical comedian of Italian stage and screen, was the illegitimate child of a noble man in one of Naples's poorest neighborhoods. As a chil...

Donne sbagliate
2007
as Franco Maresco
Silvia Soriani, widow of a merchant associated with the Camorra, is arrested by the police. The commissioner and the judge Puglisi Corelli accuse her ...

Quiet Flows The Don
2006
as Secretov
With World War I, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Russian Civil War as backdrop, it's an old-fashioned, blood-and-guts narrative, filled with earthl...

Paris Je T'aime
2006
as Ben (Quartier Latin)
Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories,...

The Shore
2005
as Mr. Bob Harris
Hungering for some quality alone time with her new boyfriend, Ray, single mother Kaliope Harris leaves her young daughter, Anna, in the care of loving...
Bonjour Michel
2005
as michele Terranova

Los Angeles Plays Itself
2004
as Jackie Treehorn in The Big Lebowski (archive footage)
From its distinctive neighborhoods to its architectural homes, Los Angeles has been the backdrop to countless movies. In this dazzling work, Andersen ...

Dogville Confessions
2004
as Self
A documentary on the creation of Lars von Trier's fascinating drama Dogville starring amongst others Nicole Kidman, Paul Bettany, Stellan Skarsgård, B...

Dogville
2003
as Jack McKay
When beautiful young Grace arrives in the isolated township of Dogville, the small community agrees to hide her from a gang of ruthless gangsters, and...

L'ospite segreto
2003
as Ispettore di Polizia Solomos

Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There
2003
as Self
Broadway: The Golden Age is the most important, ambitious and comprehensive film ever made about America's most celebrated indigenous art form. Award...

Hysterical Blindness
2002
as Nick
Two friends lament their unhappy single lives while searching for Mr. Right in 1980s New Jersey.
Home Sweet Hoboken
2001
A waitress discovers a ring she thought was worthless is actually worth $10 million.

Brian's Song
2001
as Coach Halas
The story of professional football players Gale Sayes and Brian Piccolo, and how their friendship on and off the field was affected when Piccolo contr...

Jack of Hearts
2000
as Batossa
A cop looking for a chance to redeem himself comes up against a man who has built a fortune out of corruption.

The List
2000
as D.A. Bernard Salman
After being arrested for solicitation, a high-class prostitute threatens to make public a list of her best clients and someone resorts to murder to ke...

Nella terra di nessuno
2000
as L'avvocato Scalzi
Piovuto dal cielo
2000

Undertaker's Paradise
2000
as Jim
Black comedy about a young undertaker, starting his own firm in a seaside resort.

Shark in a Bottle
2000
as The Arranger
Guy Normal (probably not his real name) is clumsy, has amnesia, and has fallen into the hands of an unscrupulous man who arranges killings for hire. T...

Very Mean Men
2000
as Gino Minetti
A bartender wants rid of an obnoxious drunk but not until the drunk has left a decent tip. So the bartender tells the story of two mobster families, t...

Believe
2000
After being continually kicked out of boarding schools, Ben is sent to live with his stern Grandfather in a small town. Almost as soon as he arrives h...

Blue Moon
2000
as Frank Cavallo
Hoping to revitalize their marriage, an elderly couple from New York (Gazzara, Moreno) go on vacation to the Catskills.

Poor Liza
2000
as The Narrator
A beautiful peasant girl is romanced and abandoned by a young nobleman.

A Constant Forge
2000
as Self
One of the great mavericks of cinema, John Cassavetes has earned a reputation as the godfather of American independent movies. The actor-turned-filmma...

The Thomas Crown Affair
1999
as Andrew Wallace
Bored billionaire executive Thomas Crown entertains himself by stealing a Monet from a reputed museum with an elaborate diversion. When Catherine Bann...

Summer of Sam
1999
as Luigi
During the summer of 1977, a killer known as the Son of Sam keeps all of New York City on edge with a series of brutal murders.

Paradise Cove
1999
as Duke Mantee
A 1999 film directed by Robert Clapsadle.

Happiness
1998
as Lenny Jordan
The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts which society as a whole might fin...

Il tesoro di Damasco
1998
as Gregorio Kos
A mysterious black marble tablet is found in Syrian desert by an Arab terrorist after an attack on a UN scientific expedition.

Marilyn in Manhattan
1998
as Self
An exclusive look at Marilyn Monroe just before her tragic end. Set in New York City in the 50's - It's a surprising documentary that captures the mov...

Angelo Nero
1998
as Padre Guelfi
Jack Altieri, a young Italian-American restaurant owner, arrives at Vesta awaits him a painting of the sixteenth century that depicts the veiled face ...

Illuminata
1998
as Old Flavio
It's the start of the 20th century, and Tuccio, resident playwright of a theatre repertory company offers the owners of the company his new play, "Ill...

The Big Lebowski
1998
as Jackie Treehorn
Jeffrey 'The Dude' Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker who only wants to bowl and drink White Russians, is mistaken for another Jeffrey Lebowski, a wheelc...

Buffalo '66
1998
as Jimmy Brown
Billy is released after five years in prison. In the next moment, he kidnaps teenage student Layla and visits his parents with her, pretending she is ...

Too Tired to Die
1998
as John Sage
Kenji is a Japanese twenty-something who is followed by Death in various disguises. When he finally faces her, Death tells him that he has only 12 hou...

Valentine's Day
1998
as Joe Buddha
Detective Jack Valentine is reinstated from his desk job to go back onto the streets. His first assignment ends with the death of a mobster who was ab...

The Spanish Prisoner
1997
as Mr. Klein
An inventor of a secret process suddenly finds himself alone as both his friends and the corporation he works for turn against him.

Stag
1997
as Frank Grieco
An accidental death at a bachelor party spurs a night of shooting, kidnapping and murder in the host's home.

Shadow Conspiracy
1997
as Vicepresident Saxon
Bobby Bishop is a special assistant to the President of the United States. Accidentally, he meets his friend professor Pochenko on the street. Pochenk...

Farmer & Chase
1997
as Farmer
A career thief forms a partnership with his reluctant son.

Vicious Circles
1997
as March
When a young man is arrested for dealing drugs, his girlfriend tries to help him out by making some big money as a member of an exclusive group of pro...

Ladykiller
1996
as Lt. Jack 'Jigsaw' Lasky
A string of murders begin occurring on a campus by an embittered husband betrayed by his wife, who now punishes those he sees as being guilty of sins ...
John Cassavetes: To Risk Everything to Express It All
1996
as Self

The Zone
1995
as Dick Althorp
Former Gulf War hero Rowdy Welles is framed for murder by unscrupulous CIA boss Dick Althorp. As his price of freedom, Welles is ordered to undertake ...

Convict Cowboy
1995
as Warden Ferguson
New inmate Clay Treyton, doing time for fisticuffs, is sent to a Montana ranch where prisoners spend time working with horses. Encouraged by the warde...

Bandits
1995
as Amos
Amos, a watchmaker, loses his wife due to post-surgery complications. Destroyed by grief, he joins old friends Karl and Maner, former revolutionaries,...

Parallel Lives
1994
as Charlie Duke
A college reunion turns into a tangled web of passion, romance and intrigue as old friends and enemies catch up with each other's lives. Includes a lo...

Swallows Never Die in Jerusalem
1994
as Moshe
Both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are sensitively explored in the Tunisian-French drama. Richard, a French TV journalist has been assigne...

Nefertiti: Daughter of the Sun
1994
as Amenophis III
Tadushepa grows from a young princess from the Mitanni kingdom to the legendary Queen Nefertiti of Egypt. The film starts with the discovery of her bu...

Anything for John
1993
as Self
An intimate portrait of actor-writer-director John Cassavetes and a loving tribute to his genius for studying and depicting the human character. In-de...

Love, Honor & Obey: The Last Mafia Marriage
1993
as Joseph Bonanno
The story of Rosalie Bonnano, the daughter of a powerful New York Mafia boss who married the son of her father's rival, another powerful New York Mafi...

Blindsided
1993
as Ira Gold
An ex-cop is temporarily blinded when he steals cash from a money laundering operations. While recuperating in Mexico, the thief falls in love with a ...

The Window Over the Way
1993
Directed by Jesús Garay

Forever
1991
as Marcelo
Marked by her father's strong presence, since he is a rich and powerful businessman, the beautiful Berenice investigates his love life, to feel closer...

Lies Before Kisses
1991
as Grant Sanders
A wealthy publisher is accused of murdering a prostitute he had once spent the night with. The accusations appear false until his own son testifies ag...

People Like Us
1990
as Gus Bailey
When a wealthy scriptwriter and socialite's daughter is murdered, he feels let down by the courts, and so decides to use his powerful position to enab...

Beyond the Ocean
1990
as John Tana
A big-time businessman throws in the towel on his company and high-tails it out to Bali just as its stock is about to be publicly offered. There, he t...

Beyond the Ocean
1990
Writer, Director
A big-time businessman throws in the towel on his company and high-tails it out to Bali just as its stock is about to be publicly offered. There, he t...

Quicker Than the Eye
1989
as Ben Norell
An expert magician is hired to entertain world leaders at a peace summit. Unfortunately, he finds himself hopelessly entangled in an elaborate terrori...

Road House
1989
as Brad Wesley
The Double Deuce is the meanest, loudest and rowdiest bar south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and Dalton has been hired to clean it up. He might not look l...
Arena - John Cassavetes
1989
as Self
Tribute to actor and director John Cassavetes who died in February 1989. Friends, associates and fellow directors remember the man and his work.

Don Bosco
1988
as Don Giovanni Bosco
This film depicts the life of Saint John Bosco, who dedicated his life to rescuing abandoned and exploited street children in Turin.

Police Story: The Freeway Killings
1987
as Capt. Tom Wright
Thriller/Drama about LAPD detectives tracking down two serial killers who are murdering hookers.

James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
1987
as Self (archive footage)
Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.

Control
1987
as Mike Zella
An experiment of psychological effects under stressful conditions in a shelter. When fifteen strangers are put into a nuclear shelter to see how long ...

Downpayment on Murder
1987
as Harry Cardell
About an estranged husband who, in an explosive rage, decides to have his wife murdered by a hired killer.

The Professor
1986
as 'O Professore di Vesuviano
An imprisoned murderer carries out a violent bid for control of Naples' underworld crime syndicate.

Bitter Champagne
1986
as Paul Rivière
In North Africa, a father and his illegitimate son are in love with the same woman.

A Letter to Three Wives
1985
as Porter Holloway
Three women are going on a trip that leaves them incommunicado with the rest of the world, but before they leave, a woman who either has a history or ...

My Dearest Son
1985
as Antonio Morelli
A respectable lawyer finds out his son is a heroin addict. Heartbroken, he'll do anything to help his only child, even if it means sharing his hell.

Woman of Wonders
1985
as Alberto
In a straightforward yet unexceptional rendering of the life and loves of Alberto (Ben Gazzara), a writer/director approaching the hill though not yet...

An Early Frost
1985
as Nick Pierson
Successful lawyer Michael Pierson is gay, but he has always hidden this part of his life from his mother, Katherine, father, Nick, and grandmother Bea...

Night of 100 Stars II
1985
as Self
This special is the second "Night of 100 Stars" to benefit The Actors Fund of America. Edited from a seven-hour live entertainment marathon that was t...

Uno scandalo perbene
1984
as The man with no memory
Based on a real-life mystery in the newspapers after World War I, this conventional, straightforward story is about a poorly-dressed man who is brough...

The Girl from Trieste
1982
as Dino Romani
A middle-aged artist (Ben Gazarra) sketching on the beach witnesses a young woman (Ornella Muti) being rescued from drowning. He loans her a blanket. ...

A Question of Honor
1982
as Detective Joe DeFalco
Television account of an honest New York narcotics cop who becomes unwillingly involved in a plan to uncover corruption in his department.

Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers!
1982
as Self (archive footage)
A collection of bloopers and outtakes from an enormous selection of Hollywood classic productions spanning from the 1930s through the 1980s.

Droit de Réponse
1981
as Self
"Droit de Réponse" (Right of Reply) is a French debate program broadcast between December 12, 1981 and September 19, 1987 on the TF1 channel, presente...

They All Laughed
1981
as John Russo
New York's Odyssey Detective Agency is hired by two different clients to follow two women suspected of infidelity. Ladies' man John Russo trails Angel...

Tales of Ordinary Madness
1981
as Charles Serking
Poet/lecturer Charles Serking awakens from his alcoholic haze long enough to take a bus back to L.A. and plunge into an orgy of drink and sexual depra...

Inchon
1981
as Maj. Frank Hallsworth
Gen. Douglas MacArthur leads a Korean War campaign, and the war tests a married couple's relationship.

Bloodline
1979
as Rhys Williams
A pampered heiress inherits her father's pharmaceutical empire when he dies in a suspicious accident, and soon finds herself surrounded by ruthless bo...

Saint Jack
1979
as Jack Flowers
Jack Flowers is an American hustler trying to make his fortune in 1970s Singapore in small time pimping. His dreams of building a fortune by running a...

Opening Night
1977
as Manny Victor
Actress Myrtle Gordon is a functioning alcoholic who is a few days from the opening night of her latest play, concerning a woman distraught about agin...

The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald
1977
as Anson 'Kip' Roberts
The bizarre story behind the man accused of assassinating John F. Kennedy and what might have happened had he been brought to trial.

The Death of Richie
1977
as George Werner
A sensitive but confused teenager feels pressure from all directions and turns to drugs, which causes problems for him in school and at home.

Voyage of the Damned
1976
as Morris Troper
A luxury liner carries Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany in a desperate fight for survival.

High Velocity
1976
Ben Gazzara and Paul Winfield play Vietnam veterans turned mercenaries who are hired to rescue a kidnapped executive.

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
1976
as Cosmo Vittelli
Cosmo Vittelli, the proprietor of a sleazy, low-rent Hollywood cabaret, has a real affection for the women who strip in his peepshows and the staff wh...

Capone
1975
as Al Capone
Young Al Capone catches the eye of Johnny Torrio, a criminal visiting New York from Chicago. Torrio invites Capone to move to Illinois to help run his...

Maneater
1973
as Nick Baron
Two couples on a camping trip are hunted by two tigers set upon them by a crazed animal trainer.

The Neptune Factor
1973
as Cmdr. Adrian Blake
When an underwater ocean lab is lost in a earthquake, an advanced submarine is sent down to find it and encounters terrible danger.

The Sicilian Connection
1972
as Joseph Coppola
A small time hood smuggles drugs from Turkey to Italy in an effort to make it into the big time, but along the way everyone has to have their cut.

Pursuit
1972
as Steven Graves
What begins as a routine investigation quickly escalates into a heartstopping race to save millions from certain death in this taut and gripping thril...

The Family Rico
1972
as Eddie Rico
A Mafia chief is torn between his brother, who has defected from the family, and his loyalty to the organization.

Fireball Forward
1972
as Maj. Gen Joe Barrett
A hard-nose general takes over a division with a bad combat record.

When Michael Calls
1972
as Doremus Connelly
A woman begins to receive ominous phone calls from her nephew, who died 15 years earlier. With each phone call, a family member dies. Will she be the ...

The Making of 'Husbands'
1971
as Self
A documentary behind the scenes of John Cassavetes' 'Husbands' (1970).

Husbands
1970
as Harry
A common friend's sudden death brings three men, married with children, to reconsider their lives and ultimately leave the country together. But mindl...

King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
1970
as Self (archive footage)
Constructed from a wealth of archival footage, the documentary follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from 1955 to 1968, in his rise from regional activi...

The Bridge at Remagen
1969
as Sgt. Angelo
In March of 1945, as the War in Europe is coming to a close, fighting erupts between German and American troops at the last remaining bridgehead acros...

If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium
1969
as Card Player
A group of travelers from the United States race through seven European countries in 18 days.

A Rage to Live
1965
as Roger Bannon
Grace Caldwell, a young Pennsylvania newspaper heiress living with her widowed mother, has trouble restraining herself when it comes to the amorous at...

Carol for Another Christmas
1964
as Fred
Daniel Grudge, a wealthy industrialist and fierce isolationist long embittered by the loss of his son in World War II, is visited by three ghosts on C...

Conquered City
1962
as Captain George Stubbs
Filmed in 1962 but not released in the US until 1966 (with 20 of its 108 minutes removed), Conquered City is an all-star World War II drama financed i...

Convicts 4
1962
as John Resko
After his death sentence is commuted to life in prison, John Resko is transferred from Sing-Sing to Dannemora where, with the help of a humane prison ...

The Young Doctors
1961
as Dr. David Coleman
An aging doctor's resentment of his young assistant could lead to tragedy.

The Passionate Thief
1960
as Lello
On New Year's Eve, a young woman and an out-of-work actor complicate a pickpocket's plans to ply his trade.

Anatomy of a Murder
1959
as Lt. Frederick Manion
Semi-retired Michigan lawyer Paul Biegler takes the case of Army Lt. Manion, who murdered a local innkeeper after his wife claimed that he raped her. ...

Three Plays by Tennessee Williams
1958
as Moony (Segment "Moony's Kid Don't Cry")
A presentation of Tennessee Williams' three one-act plays: "Moony's Kid Don't Cry", "The Last of My Solid Gold Watches", and "This Property Is Condemn...

The Strange One
1957
as Jocko de Paris
A military school student develops a destructive power over his fellow cadets.