Frank Puglia Overview:

Character actor, Frank Puglia, was born on Mar 9, 1892 in Sicily, Italy. Puglia died at the age of 83 on Oct 25, 1975 in South Pasadena, CA .

MINI BIO:

Sharp-featured, hawk-like, Italian-born actor with dark hair, a stern player who looked hard-put to raise a smile in most of his roles as bad guys of sundry nationalities. Equally serious as chiefs of police and the occasional priest, he only rarely turned to comedy, and even played a Japanese diplomat in Blood on the Sun. He had come to America at 13, already experienced in his native Sicily as a member of a travelling light opera group. A year later, he had joined an Italian theatre company in New York's Bowery area and begun a lifetime of acting. D.W. Griffith brought him to Hollywood to play the "good" brother in Orphans of the Storm, but he didn't really settle until the early 1930s, working steadily in exotic roles and only easing up when he passed 65. Just before his death, Puglia described himself as a "lucky nobody." Most buffs, though, wouldn't agree.

(Source: available at Amazon Quinlan's Film Character Actors: an Illustrated Directory).

HONORS and AWARDS:

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A Double Bill

By Caftan Woman on Jan 15, 2010 From Caftan Woman

March 9, 1892 - October 25, 1975 was born in Sicily and began his theatrical career at 15 years of age when he joined an opera company. Emigrating to the United States in 1907 he appeared in Italian language theatrical productions and learned his English from newspapers. D.... Read full article


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Frank Puglia Quotes:

[last lines]
Dr. Judson Uhl: Why is it always, always so costly for Man to move from the present to the future?


Police Chief Juan Rodriguez: [arguing with Case on the phone] After a good night's sleep a man doesn't mind being shot, but during siesta?
[a pause while he listens]
Police Chief Juan Rodriguez: All right, all right! Si, senor. We... we give him a permanent siesta - we shoot him right away.


Dr. Judson Uhl: You better tell them we're in a hurray and to roll up the red tape and put it into a drawer until this thing is over!


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Frank Puglia Facts
Had a memorable bit as a Morroccan rug merchant who marks down prices to friends of Rick (Humphrey Bogart) in the classic film Casablanca (1942).

Claimed to have learned English primarily from reading the newspapers.

Was performing as Pierre Forchard in a stage revival of "The Two Orphans" when he was noticed by D.W. Griffith. He hired Puglia to repeat his role in the film version retitled Orphans of the Storm (1921) starring the Gish sisters. His character dies in the original story, but audiences were so negative that Griffith had him retake the fade-out in which he survives.

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