Actor. He is best remembered as a character actor whose more than 200 movie and television appearances over his nearly 50-year career spanned a variety of ethnic roles. Born in San Francisco, California to Italian parents, he spent his early years in Naples, Italy where he developed an interest in the Italian theater. In 1925 his family returned to the US, living in New York City, New York, where his mother was well known in the theater circles. He performed at night clubs as a stand-up magician and pantomime, and by the early 1950s he had worked his way into movies and television. In 1953 he replaced actor J. Carrol Nash in the role of Luigi Basco, an Italian immigrant who ran an antique store in Chicago, Illinois on the television version of "Life with Luigi," and continued to receive television character actor roles throughout the 1950s. In 1963 he played the Italian Farmer Vincenzo Perugia in the episode "The Tenth Mona Lisa" of the CBS anthology series "GE True," hosted by actor Jack Webb. His big-screen credits include "Two Weeks in Another Town" (1962), "Von Ryan's Express" (1965), "What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?" (1966), "How Sweet It Is!" (1967), "The Caper of the Golden Bulls" (1967), "The Secret War of Harry Frigg" (1968), "Cactus Flower" (1969) "The Godfather" (1972), "I Wonder Who's Killing Her Now?" (1976), "Chu Chu and the Philly Flash" (1981), and "Get Shorty" (1995, his last film appearance). He also appeared in the popular television series episodes of "How to Marry a Millionaire," "The Rifleman," "Gilligan's Island," "Bewitched," "Stoney Burke," "The Wide Country," "Dr. Kildare," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "The Addams Family," "Gunsmoke," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "The Wild Wild West", "The Monkees," "The Flying Nun," "Get Smart," "Hogan's Heroes," "Batman," The Bionic Woman," and "Columbo." His voice was cast in the part of the Italian Cat on the Walt Disney animated film "The Aristocats" (1970) and appeared with actress Lindsay Wagner on her 1977 television special "Another Side of Me." He was also fond of cooking, especially the recopies of his mother and grandmother, and was highly regarded as a chef. He died of lung cancer in Woodland Hills, California, at the age of 78.