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Vito Scotti (1918-1996)

Vito Scotti

The Hostage, December 4, 1965 Written by Clyde Ware, Story by JoAnne Johnson, Directed by Vincent McEveety, Guest Cast: Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Toni Reese, I. Stanford Jolley, Willis Bouchey, Vito Scotti

The Pillagers Written by Calvin Clements, Directed by Bernard McEveery, Guest Cast: John Saxon, Vito Scotti, Paul Picerni, Joseph Schneider, William Bramley, Harry Harvey, Sr., Allen Jaffe

Danny, October 13, 1969 Written by Preston Wood, Directed by Bernard McEveety, Guest Cast: Jack Albertson, Scott Brady, Frank Marth, Vito Scotti, Rayford Barnes, Steve Raines

Sergeant Holly, December 14, 1970 Written by William Kelley, Directed by Bernard McEveety, Guest Cast: Forrest Tucker, Albert Salmi, Victor Eberg, Gregg Palmer, Vito Scotti, David Renard, Med Flory, Read Morgan

We begin here with some of the alumni from the TV series "Andy's Gang" of the 1950s. These great actors were the 'victims' of a character on that show called "Froggy the Gremlin." They would deliver a lecture on their areas of expertise while Froggy would heckle them and sabotage their appearance. The first of these actors played various ethnic types throughout his long career...Arabs, Turks, Italians, Spaniards and other Latins. He was short of stature, with wavy black hair, a neatly groomed mustache, dark twinkling eyes and a smiling disposition. Vito Scotti was born in San Francisco, California on January 26, 1918 while his mother, an Italian diva, was on tour. His father was an impresario and the family was centered in New York City where young Vito was "pushed" on-stage at the age of 7. He trained in New York's Italian theatre and honed his art with 'commedia dell' arte' ...improvisational comedy. He served in the military during World War II and after the war moved towards film. His film debut was in "Cry of the City" (1948) in an unbilled part as Julio the Newsboy. Among his other film credits were: "Illegal Entry" (1949) as a Mexican Youth; "The Fabulous Senorita" (1952) as Estaba; "Conquest of Space" (1955) as Sanella; "Where the Boys Are" (1960) uncredited as Maitre D'; "Captain Newman, M.D." (1963) as Maj. Alfredo Fortuno; "The Pleasure Seekers" (1964) as Neighbor Man; "Von Ryan's Express" (1965) with Frank Sinatra, as Italian Train Engineer; "Perils of Pauline" (1967) as Frandisi; "Cactus Flower" (1969) as Senor Sanchez; "Napoleon and Samantha" (1972) as Clown Dimetri; "The Godfather" (1972) as Nazorine; "Twice in a Lifetime" (1974) as Carlos; "The Big Bus" (1976) as Barber; "Chu Chu and the Philly Flash" (1981) as Vittorio; "Loaded Weapon 1" (1993) as a Tailor and "Get Shorty" (1995) as Manager at Vesuvio's, his final film. He was best known for his work on TV as a regular on "Andy's Gang" (1955-60) as Rama in the "Gunga Ram" series and other various roles most often as an Italian music maestro; "Mama Rosa" (1950) as Nikolai; "Life with Luigi" (1953) as Luigi Basco..he replaced J. Carrol Naish in the role; "The Flying Nun" (1968-69) as police Captain Gaspar Formento; "To Rome with Love" (1969-71) as Gino Mancini and "Barefoot in the Park" (1970-71) as Mr. Velasquez. He appeared in made for TV movies such as "Columbo: Murder - A Self Portrait" (1989) and guest starred on many TV series including: "Mr. Lucky"; "Wagon Train"; "Twilight Zone"; "The Monkees"; "Gilligan's Island"; "Who's the Boss" and "Mad About You." He died of lung cancer on June 5, 1996 in Woodland Hills, California at the age of 78.

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