Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

Many movie character actors found steady work and arguably more exposure with the advent of television. 

ANTHONY CARUSO (1916-2003)

The American character actor appeared in more than one hundred films, usually playing villains, gangsters, Native Americans, or a variety of ethnic characters. He made his film debut in 1940 and was often uncredited throughout the decade. Caruso's fortunes changed overnight after playing mobster Louis Ciavelli in The Asphalt Jungle (1950). By the mid-1950s, television became his medium, working steadily throughout the 1960s and 1970s on numerous popular series in Westerns, police dramas and comedies, where he often parodied a gangster persona. Caruso's face became very familiar. In the fantasy world of Hollywood, Caruso's life was 180 degrees from his many tough-guy roles. His passion for gardening and cooking, along with his wife of sixty-three years, continued after retirement from acting in 1990.

Discover more about Carsuso's career at IMBD.

A Movie Star's Premiere

 

On this date in 1946, The Killers premiered. The American film noir stars Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner in her career booster, Edmond O'Brien, and a host of B-movie stalwarts. The opening scene is one of the most captivating in noir history. Under the footsteps of two assassins, Charles McGraw and William Conrad is Miklós Rózsa's pounding theme. The "dum-de-dum-dum" motif would soon be adapted as the Dragnet theme by Walter Schumann. Although the same notes were used, Rózsa's theme had a faster tempo with no rests. 

Partly based on the 1927 short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, it centers on an insurance detective's investigation via flashbacks into the execution of Lancaster's character by the two aforementioned killers. In this respect, not unlike a Columbo or Monk series, the viewer sees the end at the beginning. 

Note: Not many get top-billed in their screen debut, but Lancaster or his contract pulled it off.