Harry Bellaver


Actor
Harry Bellaver

About

Birth Place
Hillsboro, Illinois, USA
Born
February 12, 1905
Died
August 08, 1993
Cause of Death
Pneumonia

Biography

Though he was born and raised in rural Illinois, Harry Bellaver specialized in playing the iconic character type of the working-class New Yorker. After getting his start on Broadway in the 1930s, Bellaver made his movie debut as a thug in the 1939 comic mystery "Another Thin Man." Bellaver worked steadily in film until the 1970s, but his greatest success came in the television series "Na...

Biography

Though he was born and raised in rural Illinois, Harry Bellaver specialized in playing the iconic character type of the working-class New Yorker. After getting his start on Broadway in the 1930s, Bellaver made his movie debut as a thug in the 1939 comic mystery "Another Thin Man." Bellaver worked steadily in film until the 1970s, but his greatest success came in the television series "Naked City," which ran from 1958 to 1963. Bellaver's supporting character, rumpled detective Frank Arcaro, was the easygoing foil to the intense, hotheaded leads played by stars James Franciscus and Paul Burke. Bellaver's last major role came in the 1980 superhero comedy "Hero at Large."

Life Events

Videos

Movie Clip

Serenade (1956) -- (Movie Clip) La Danza Harry Bellaver as Tonio with Mario Lanza (as Damon) in a Northern California vineyard and he's secured an audition in San Francisco, prompting a performance of a famous patter song by Puccini, Dominic Frontiere the credited accordion player, lively direction by Anthony Mann, early in Lanza's last Hollywood feature, from Warner Bros., Serenade, 1956.
One Potato, Two Potato (1964) -- (Movie Clip) Opening, Howard, Ohio Opening sequence introducing the race-relations theme and the fictional town of "Howard, Ohio," (really on location in Painesville, near Cleveland) from One Potato, Two Potato, the 1964 independent feature starring Barbara Barrie and Bernie Hamilton, directed by Larry Peerce.
One Potato, Two Potato (1964) -- (Movie Clip) Close To The Ideal SPOILER risk here, back in the courtroom, the judge (Harry Bellaver) delivers his verdict, stunning Julie (Barbara Barrie) and Frank (Bernie Hamilton), Richard Mulligan as the father Joseph, in a scene near the end of director Larry Peerce's One Potato, Two Potato, 1964.
One Potato, Two Potato (1964) -- (Movie Clip) Social Pressures Beginning in the courtroom, the judge (Harry Bellaver) induces a flashback to the day Julie (Barbara Barrie) met Frank (Bernie Hamilton), with friends Johnny (Sam Weston, brother of Jack, and later better known as the prominent porn director Anthony Spinelli) and Ann (Faith Burwell) in director Larry Peerce's independent feature One Potato, Two Potato, 1964.
Miss Sadie Thompson (1954) -- (Movie Clip) The Heat Is On Wrapping a chat on values between "reformer" Davidson (Jose Ferrer), MacPhail (Russell Collins), and innkeeper Horn (Harry Bellaver), jumping to a gratuitous number (by Lester Lee and Allan Roberts, vocal by JoAnn Greer) by the title character (Rita Hayworth), in Miss Sadie Thompson, 1954.
Love Me or Leave Me (1955) -- (Movie Clip) Don't Do Me No Favors Two scenes cover the first direct meeting of singer Ruth Etting (Doris Day), just fired from a taxi-dancing gig, and Chicago laundry racketeer Marty "The Gimp)" Snyder (James Cagney), with aide Georgie (Harry Bellaver) in tow, early in Charles Vidor's MGM bio-pic Love Me or Leave Me, 1955.
Love Me Or Leave Me (1955) -- (Movie Clip) Chicago In The Twenties Finishing the credits for producer Joe Pasternak and director Charles Vidor, and the atmospheric MGM introduction of the principals, James Cagney as Chicago mobster Marty Snyder, Doris Day as would-be singer Ruth Etting, in their largely true story, Love Me Or Leave Me,1955.
Lemon Drop Kid, The (1951) -- (Movie Clip) Flashy Dresser Busted in New York for impersonating Santa, Bob Hope (the title character, a Florida racetrack tout) visited by "Sam The Surgeon" (Harry Bellaver), enforcer for the gangster he has to pay off by Christmas, then rescued by his gal Brainey (Marilyn Maxwell), in the Damon Runyon story The Lemon Drop Kid, 1951.
Perfect Strangers (1950) -- (Movie Clip) Lucy Throws Things Having learned they'll be a sequestered jury, Fisher (Anthony Ross) gets busy, Teresa (Ginger Rogers) and David (Dennis Morgan) observe, Mrs. Bradford (Margalo Gillmore) frets, and Lena (Thelma Ritter) hesitates, in Perfect Strangers, 1950.
Side Street (1950) -- (Movie Clip) Here Comes Papa Gangster George (James Craig) and henchman Larry (Harry Bellaver) wait outside the hospital to chat with new father Joe (Farley Granger) about the money he stole, in Anthony Mann's Side Street, 1950.

Trailer

Bibliography