Michael V. Gazzo

Michael V. Gazzo was an American playwright who later became a screen and television actor. Born in Hillside in 1923, he served in the Army Air Forces during World War II. He belonged to the Actors Studio and went on to train performers including Debra Winger, Henry Silva and Tony Sirico. Gazzo wrote A Hatful of Rain, a Broadway play that had 389 performances in 1955 and 1956, with Ben Gazzara and Shelley Winters in the principal roles; Fred Zinnemann directed a film adaptation in 1957, and a 1968 television version starred Peter Falk, Sandy Dennis and Michael Parks. He also wrote the Broadway play The Night Circus, which again featured Ben Gazzara, and received a screenwriting credit on King Creole (1958). As an actor, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing Frank Pentangeli in The Godfather Part II (1974), a prize that went to Robert De Niro.