Harry Guardino
Encyclopedia
Harry Guardino was an American
actor
whose career spanned from the early 1950s
to the early 1990s
. In 1964, he was cast in a short-lived CBS series entitled The Reporter
, a drama
about a hard-hitting investigative journalist
named Danny Taylor. His principal co-star was Gary Merrill
as city editor
Lou Sheldon. WIth Merrill, he had co-starred the year before in "The Human Factor
" episode of The Outer Limits
.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Guardino appeared on stage
, in film
s, and on television
. His Broadway theatre
credits included A Hatful of Rain
, One More River
(earning a Tony Award
nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance), Anyone Can Whistle
, The Rose Tattoo
, The Seven Descents of Myrtle
, and Woman of the Year
.
Guardino's other film credits include Houseboat
, Pork Chop Hill
(about the Korean War
), The Five Pennies
, King of Kings, Madigan
, Lovers and Other Strangers
, and Dirty Harry
. He was nominated twice for the Golden Globe Award
for Best Supporting Actor. He guest starred on John Cassavetes
's 1959-1960 series, Johnny Staccato
, the story of a pianist
/private detective in New York City
.
In 1960, Guardino appeared as Johnny Caldwell in the episodes "Perilous Passage", "The O'Mara's Ladies", and "Daughter of the Sioux" in the NBC
western
series Overland Trail
starring William Bendix
and Doug McClure
. McClure two years later would join the long-running The Virginian
series on NBC after a preceding stint on the CBS detective series Checkmate (TV series)
.
In 1971 Guardino starred in the short-lived series Monty Nash
. Guardino had a continuing role as Perry Mason's nemesis
, Hamilton Burger
, in the 1973 television series The New Perry Mason and a recurring role on Angela Lansbury
's Murder, She Wrote
. He made guest appearances in dozens of television series, including Studio One
, Target: The Corruptors!
, The Eleventh Hour
, Alfred Hitchcock Presents
, Kraft Television Theatre
, Playhouse 90
, Dr. Kildare
, The Lloyd Bridges Show
, Route 66
, Ben Casey
, Hawaii Five-O
, Love, American Style
, The Greatest Show on Earth
, Kojak
, The Streets of San Francisco
, Jake and the Fatman
, and Cheers
. He had the lead role of Det. Lee Gordon in the 1969 made-for-television suspense film The Lonely Profession
.
Guardino died at the age of sixty-nine of lung cancer
in Palm Springs
, California
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
whose career spanned from the early 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
to the early 1990s
1990s
File:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
. In 1964, he was cast in a short-lived CBS series entitled The Reporter
The Reporter (TV series)
The Reporter is an American drama series that aired on CBS from September 25 to December 18, 1964. The series was created by Jerome Weidman and developed by executive producers Keefe Brasselle and John Simon.-Synopsis:...
, a drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
about a hard-hitting investigative journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
named Danny Taylor. His principal co-star was Gary Merrill
Gary Merrill
Gary Fred Merrill was an American film and television character actor whose credits included more than fifty feature films, a half-dozen mostly short-lived TV series, and dozens of television guest appearances....
as city editor
City editor
A city editor is a title used by a particular section editor of a newspaper. They are responsible for the daily changes of a particular issue of a newspaper that will be released in the coming day...
Lou Sheldon. WIth Merrill, he had co-starred the year before in "The Human Factor
The Human Factor
The Human Factor is an espionage novel by Graham Greene, first published in 1978 and adapted into a 1979 film, directed by Otto Preminger using a screenplay by Tom Stoppard.-Plot summary:...
" episode of The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits
The Outer Limits or Outer Limits may refer to:*The Outer Limits , a black-and-white science fiction series that aired from 1963 to 1965...
.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Guardino appeared on stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, in film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s, and on television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. His Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
credits included A Hatful of Rain
A Hatful of Rain
A Hatful of Rain is a 1957 dramatic film. The movie was a rarity for its time in its frank depiction of the effect of drug addiction.It is a medically and sociologically accurate account of the effects of morphine on an addict and his family ....
, One More River
One More River
One More River is a 1934 film directed by James Whale. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures and starred Diana Wynyard. The film is based on a novel by John Galsworthy.-Cast:*Diana Wynyard - Claire Corven*Frank Lawton - Tony Croom...
(earning a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance), Anyone Can Whistle
Anyone Can Whistle
Anyone Can Whistle is a musical with a book by Arthur Laurents and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. The story concerns a corrupt mayoress, an idealistic nurse, a man who may be a doctor, and various officials, patients and townspeople, all fighting to save a bankrupt town...
, The Rose Tattoo
The Rose Tattoo
- External links :*...
, The Seven Descents of Myrtle
The Seven Descents of Myrtle
The Seven Descents of Myrtle is a play by Tennessee Williams. Its title character is reminiscent of another Williams' heroine, Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire....
, and Woman of the Year
Woman of the Year
Woman of the Year is a romantic comedy film. The movie is about an emancipated woman, chosen "Woman of the Year", and her colleague-turned-husband and their efforts to negotiate a path to marital bliss....
.
Guardino's other film credits include Houseboat
Houseboat (film)
Houseboat is a 1958 romantic comedy film starring Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer, Paul Petersen, Charles Herbert and Mimi Gibson. The movie was directed by Melville Shavelson, who also directed the original 1968 version of Yours, Mine and Ours....
, Pork Chop Hill
Pork Chop Hill
Pork Chop Hill , directed by Lewis Milestone, is a Korean War war film based upon the eponymous book by military historian S. L. A. Marshall, depicting the bitterly fierce first Battle of Pork Chop Hill between the U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Division, and Chinese and Korean Communist forces at the...
(about the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
), The Five Pennies
The Five Pennies
The Five Pennies was a semi-biographical 1959 film starring Danny Kaye as cornet player and bandleader Red Nichols. Other cast members included Barbara Bel Geddes, Harry Guardino, Bob Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Susan Gordon, and Tuesday Weld...
, King of Kings, Madigan
Madigan
Madigan is a 1968 American thriller film directed by Don Siegel and starring Richard Widmark and Henry Fonda.The screenplay, originally titled Friday, Saturday, Sunday, was adapted by two writers who had been blacklisted in the 1950s, Abraham Polonsky and Howard Rodman , based on a novel titled The...
, Lovers and Other Strangers
Lovers and Other Strangers
Lovers and Other Strangers is a 1970 comedy film based on the play by Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna. The film features an ensemble cast including Richard Castellano, Gig Young, Cloris Leachman, Anne Jackson, Beatrice Arthur, Bonnie Bedelia, Michael Brandon, Harry Guardino, Anne Meara, Bob Dishy,...
, and Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan....
. He was nominated twice for the Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
for Best Supporting Actor. He guest starred on John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes
John Nicholas Cassavetes was an American actor, screenwriter and filmmaker. He acted in many Hollywood films, notably Rosemary's Baby and The Dirty Dozen...
's 1959-1960 series, Johnny Staccato
Johnny Staccato
Johnny Staccato is an American private detective series which ran for 27 episodes on NBC from September 10, 1959 through March 24, 1960.-Synopsis:...
, the story of a pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
/private detective in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
In 1960, Guardino appeared as Johnny Caldwell in the episodes "Perilous Passage", "The O'Mara's Ladies", and "Daughter of the Sioux" in the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series Overland Trail
Overland Trail (TV series)
Overland Trail is a short-lived American Western series which aired on NBC from February 7 to June 6, 1960. The series starred William Bendix and Doug McClure,-Synopsis:...
starring William Bendix
William Bendix
William Bendix was an American film, radio, and television actor, best remembered in movies for the title role in the movie The Babe Ruth Story and for portraying clumsily earnest aircraft plant worker Chester A. Riley in radio and television's The Life of Riley...
and Doug McClure
Doug McClure
Douglas Osborne "Doug" McClure was an American actor whose career in film and television extended from the 1950s to the 1990s...
. McClure two years later would join the long-running The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
series on NBC after a preceding stint on the CBS detective series Checkmate (TV series)
Checkmate (TV series)
Checkmate is an American detective television series starring Anthony George, Sebastian Cabot, and Doug McClure. The show aired on CBS Television from 1960 to 1962 for a total of 70 episodes and was produced by Jack Benny's production company, "JaMco Productions" in co-operation with Revue...
.
In 1971 Guardino starred in the short-lived series Monty Nash
Monty Nash
Monty Nash is an American drama series that aired in syndication from 1971 to 1972.-Synopsis:The series centered on Monty Nash, a government investigator who went undercover to catch criminals, including counterfeiters and smugglers....
. Guardino had a continuing role as Perry Mason's nemesis
Archenemy
An archenemy, archfoe, archvillain or archnemesis is the principal enemy of a character in a work of fiction, often described as the hero's worst enemy .- Etymology :The word archenemy or arch-enemy originated...
, Hamilton Burger
Hamilton Burger
Hamilton Burger is the fictional Los Angeles district attorney who is the nemesis of Perry Mason in the long-running series of novels, films, and radio and television programs featuring the fictional defense attorney created by Erle Stanley Gardner...
, in the 1973 television series The New Perry Mason and a recurring role on Angela Lansbury
Angela Lansbury
Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...
's Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
. He made guest appearances in dozens of television series, including Studio One
Studio One (TV series)
Studio One is a long-running American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by the 26-year-old Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC.-Radio:...
, Target: The Corruptors!
Target: The Corruptors!
Target: The Corruptors! is a 35-episode crime drama starring Stephen McNally as newspaper reporter Paul Marino, which aired on ABC from September 29, 1961 to June 8, 1962. The character Jack Flood, Marino's undercover agent, was portrayed by Robert Harland...
, The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (1962 TV series)
The Eleventh Hour is an American medical drama about psychiatry starring Wendell Corey, Jack Ging, and Ralph Bellamy, which aired sixty-two new episodes plus selected rebroadcasts on NBC from October 3, 1962, to September 9, 1964.-Series premise:...
, Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
, Kraft Television Theatre
Kraft Television Theatre
Kraft Television Theatre is an American drama/anthology television series that began May 7, 1947 on NBC, airing at 7:30pm on Wednesday evenings until December of that year. In January 1948, it moved to 9pm on Wednesdays, continuing in that timeslot until 1958. Initially produced by the J...
, Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California...
, Dr. Kildare
Dr. Kildare
Dr. James Kildare is a fictional character, the primary character in a series of American theatrical films in the late 1930s and early 1940s, an early 1950s radio series, a 1960s television series of the same name and a comic book based on the TV show, and a short-lived 1970s television series...
, The Lloyd Bridges Show
The Lloyd Bridges Show
The Lloyd Bridges Show is an American anthology drama series produced by Aaron Spelling, which aired on CBS from September 11, 1962 to May 28, 1963, starring and hosted by Lloyd Bridges.-Synopsis:...
, Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
, Ben Casey
Ben Casey
Ben Casey is an American medical drama series which ran on ABC from 1961 to 1966. The show was known for its opening titles, which consisted of a hand drawing the symbols "♂, ♀, *, †, ∞" on a chalkboard, as cast member Sam Jaffe intoned, "Man, woman, birth, death, infinity." Neurosurgeon Joseph...
, Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
, Love, American Style
Love, American Style
Love, American Style is an hour-long TV anthology produced by Paramount Television and originally aired between September 1969 and January 1974...
, The Greatest Show on Earth
The Greatest Show on Earth (TV series)
The Greatest Show on Earth is an American drama series starring Jack Palance about the American circus, which aired on ABC from September 17, 1963, to April 28, 1964...
, Kojak
Kojak
Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
, The Streets of San Francisco
The Streets of San Francisco
The Streets of San Francisco is a 1970s television police drama filmed on location in San Francisco, California, and produced by Quinn Martin Productions, with the first season produced in association with Warner Bros...
, Jake and the Fatman
Jake and the Fatman
Jake and the Fatman is a television crime drama starring William Conrad as prosecutor J. L. "Fatman" McCabe and Joe Penny as investigator Jake Styles. The series ran on CBS for five seasons from 1987 to 1992. Diagnosis: Murder was a spin-off of this series...
, and Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
. He had the lead role of Det. Lee Gordon in the 1969 made-for-television suspense film The Lonely Profession
The Lonely Profession
The Lonely Profession was a made-for-television suspense film directed by Douglas Heyes. It was first broadcast October 21, 1969 on NBC.-Plot:...
.
Guardino died at the age of sixty-nine of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
in Palm Springs
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.