Harry Guardino

Brash, virile Italian-American lead and supporting "tough guy" Harry Guardino, with dark, wavy hair and a perpetual worried look on his craggy-looking mug, was born Harold Vincent Guardino on December 23, 1925, in Manhattan but raised as a Brooklynite. Serving with the U.S. Navy during World War II, he joined the Merchant Marine. He would start out in the late 1940's in the school hard knocks, training in dramatic workshops and slumming for nearly half a decade in small, obscure 'tough guy' film bits in early 50's Universal and Columbia pictures including an orderly in the service comedy Up Front (1951); soldiers in both Sirocco (1951) and Purple Heart Diary (1951); and two Tony Curtis starrers (Son of Ali Baba (1952) and Flesh and Fury (1952)). After making his Broadway debut in 1953 with a small cadet role in the play "End as a Man," Harry earned his first big break as the Broadway understudy to Ben Gazzara in the acclaimed drama "A Hatful of Rain." He later took over the role and