Frank Campanella, the towering (6'5") Italian-American character actor who was always dependable when directors needed some New York grit for their films, died on December 30 in his home Toluca Lake, a suburb just north of Los Angeles, of natural causes. He was 87.

Born in New York City on March 12, 1919, he worked as a civilian analyst in World War II interpreting Italian and Sicilian dialects for the United States government. He drifted into acting after the war, and began acting in the low-budget sci-fi television series, Captain Video in 1949. He stuck with television, and in the '50s, progressed to some respectable appearances in live anthology shows like Studio One and The United States Steel Hour. Eventually, he entered the movie industry playing authority figures in many films: Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Stage Struck (1958), Parrish (1961), Who Killed Teddy Bear? (1965); and he had some inspired moments playing the bartender in Mel Brooks' classic The Producers (1968); and the bemused police captain in the quirky anti-establishment satire about a happy virus in What's So Bad About Feeling Good? (1968).

By the '70s, Campanella found his way back to television playing stern, "don't mess with me" types in many shows: Ironside, Mannix, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and Kojak. In 1973, he was hired to help Robert De Niro with his Sicilian dialog in The Godfather Part II (1974). He was solid as Big Jim Colosimo in the Ben Gazarra vehicle Capone (1975), and was funny as a mobster in the Disney feature The North Avenue Irregulars (1979).

Yet most film buffs will remember him in a string of Garry Marshall films: Young Doctors in Love (1982), The Flamingo Kid (1984), Nothing In Common (1986), Overboard (1987), Frankie the wisecracking doorman in Beaches (1988), Pretty Woman (1990), and the endearing retiree in Frankie and Johnny (1991). He made his last film appearance for Marshall again in a small cameo for the Kate Hudson comedy Raising Helen (2004). He is survived by his brother, the actor Joseph Campanella.

by Michael T. Toole