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Nationality ItalieBirth 8 march 1892 at Sicily (
Italie)
Death 26 october 1975 (at 83 years) at South Pasadena (
USA)
Frank Puglia (9 March 1892 – 25 October 1975) was an Italian film actor. Puglia had small, but memorable roles in films including Casablanca (a Moroccan rug merchant), Now, Voyager and The Jungle Book.
He was originally cast as the undertaker, Bonasera, in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), even participating in Marlon Brando's infamous screen test, but he fell ill before filming could begin. He was replaced by Sicilian actor Salvatore Corsitto, thus losing out on delivering one of the most famous opening lines ("I believe in America... America has made me my fortune") in film history.
Born in Sicily, the actor started his career as a teen on stage in Italian operas. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1907 and worked in a laundry before joining an Italian language theatre group in New York. While appearing on stage, he was discovered by D. W. Griffith, which began an acting career spanning over 150 films. He usually played ethnic types in films, and claimed to have learned English from reading newspapers. Biography
Installé aux États-Unis dès 1907, Frank Puglia est remarqué au théâtre par D. W. Griffith qui l'engage pour le rôle de Pierre Frochard dans Les Deux Orphelines (1921), aux côtés de Dorothy et Lillian Gish. Ce film muet — il en tournera seulement six, dont un second avec Griffith en 1924 — est le premier d'une carrière qui se poursuit au cinéma jusqu'en 1975. L'acteur apparaît surtout dans des petits rôles de caractère, souvent sans être crédité au générique (ainsi, comme marchand de tapis dans le mythique Casablanca de 1942), au long de 167 films recensés par l'IMDB.
À partir des années 1950, ses participations au cinéma se restreignent, au profit de la télévision, où il joue essentiellement dans des séries, entre 1952 et 1973, ainsi que dans deux téléfilms, en 1966 et 1972.
Best films
(1943)
(Actor)
(1942)
(Actor) Usually with