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Frank Puglia

{{short description|Italian actor (1892–1975)}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2023}}

{{More citations needed|date=February 2023}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Frank Puglia

| image = Frank Puglia in Orphans of the Storm.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Frank Puglia in Orphans of the Storm (1921)

| birth_name = Francesco Giuseppe Puglia

| birth_date = {{birth date|1892|3|9|df=yes}}

| birth_place = Linguaglossa, Sicily, Kingdom of Italy

| death_date = {{death date and age|1975|10|25|1892|3|9|df=yes}}

| death_place = South Pasadena, California, U.S.

| occupation = Actor

| years_active = 1921–1975

| spouse = Irene Veneroni
({{abbr|m.|married}} 19??; died 1973)

}}

Francesco Giuseppe "Frank" Puglia (9 March 1892 – 25 October 1975) was an Italian actor. He had small, but memorable roles in films including Casablanca (a Moroccan rug merchant), Now, Voyager and The Jungle Book.

Biography

Born in Linguaglossa, Catania, Sicily, the actor started his career as a teen on stage in Italian operas.{{Cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/156002%7C53933/Frank-Puglia/|title=Overview for Frank Puglia|website=Turner Classic Movies|access-date=2019-02-16}} He emigrated to the U.S. in 1907. He left from Naples on the ship Italia.

In New York City he worked in a laundry before joining an Italian language theater group. While appearing on stage, he was discovered by D. W. Griffith, with whom he worked in over 150 films.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/frank_puglia|title=Frank Puglia|website=Rotten Tomatoes|language=en|access-date=2019-02-16}} He usually played ethnic types in films, and claimed to have learned English from reading newspapers.

He was originally cast as the undertaker, Bonasera, in Francis Ford Coppola's movie The Godfather (1972), even participating in Marlon Brando's screen test, but he fell ill before filming could begin. He was replaced by Sicilian actor Salvatore Corsitto.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EA1SCEmDyBMC&q=Frank+Puglia+godfather&pg=PT148|title=The Godfather Legacy: The Untold Story of the Making of the Classic Godfather Trilogy Featuring Never-Before-Published Production Stills|last=Lebo|first=Harlan|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=2005|isbn=9780743287777|location=New York|pages=87, 129|language=en|orig-year=1997}}

He died on October 25, 1975, in South Pasadena, California, and he is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/21/archives/frank-puglia-83-actor-of-stage-screen-and-tv.html|title=Frank Puglia, 83, Actor Of Stage, Screen and TV|date=1975-11-21|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-02-16|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}

On August 10, 2016, he was celebrated in his hometown, Linguaglossa.{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}

Filmography

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References

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External links

{{commons category|Frank Puglia}}

  • {{IMDb name}}
  • {{TCMDb name}}
  • {{Find a Grave}}
  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20061022104532/http://www.filmsandtv.com/searchmovie.php?q=Frank%20Puglia#n1 Films and TV.com]

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Category:1892 births

Category:1975 deaths

Category:Male actors from Sicily

Category:Italian emigrants to the United States

Category:Italian male film actors

Category:Italian male silent film actors

Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States

Category:People from the Metropolitan City of Catania

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:20th-century Italian male actors