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The
Strange Career of
Gaspare Biondolillo
by
Linda Ann Loschiavo
New York Times columnist Russell Baker once wrote, "Jack
LaRue is part of our national heritage and hardly anyone knows who he is."
Do you?
Though the
marquee-friendly moniker "Jack LaRue" sounds French, in fact he was
an Italian American born in the
Bronx
on May 3rd, 1902 and Gaspare Biondolillo was his birth
name. Upon graduating from
DeWitt
Clinton
High School
, Biondolillo, a music lover, became a piano tuner.
A visit to a
Times Square
office led to meeting a casting agent who hired the
teenager as a bellhop in a silent film. For
three days work he received $45 and decided to be an actor.
With his catchy new name Jack LaRue made the rounds, seeing producers
for two years. The small roles he
snagged never earned more than $5 (the customary wage of the extra).
But, determined to be noticed, at last he caught the eye of the
legendary actor Otis Skinner [1858-1942] who drew him into a production of a
Broadway drama "Blood and Sand," which premiered at the
Empire Theatre in September 1921. The
setting was
Madrid
,
Spain
and LaRue played a mandolin-strumming Spaniard, the first
of many Latino parts that came his way.
Other mainstage opportunities followed.
For his third appearance on Broadway, he played a gangster in "Crime"
opposite actresses Sylvia Sidney and Kay Francis.
A second pattern was being established.
When producers needed a thief, a mobster, a villain, they would often
think of Jack LaRue, who was becoming typecast as a hit man or a Hispanic.
In 1928, Mae West tapped him to play the Latin lothario Pablo Juarez in
the Broadway blockbuster "Diamond Lil."
LaRue was Mae's type tall, dark, and handsome and they became
friends during the plays long run. Eight
years later, he played "Rico" in Mae West's film "Go West,
Young Man" [
Paramount
, 1936]; Mae also cast him in her play "Sextette"
[July 1961].
His portrayal of Pablo Juarez raised his visibility.
In 1929, he played a Mexican in "Fiesta, a Broadway
drama. A year later, producers
realized he had a Mediterranean pedigree and fit him into a Broadway
production of Hemingway's novel of love and death on the Italian front, A
Farewell to Arms, where he played a Captain.
Later that year, he portrayed Garboni, a murder victim in "Midnight";
the Broadway cast included Clifford Odets and other notables, and LaRue felt
that stardom couldn't be far away. Indeed
his big chance was around the corner.
During the
1920s, he had been in films, and director Howard Hawkes must have liked
something because he invited LaRue to
Hollywood
to audition for "Scarface" opposite Paul
Muni in 1930. Born in
Austria
in 1895, Muni was 5' 10" and LaRue was 1½"
taller. Hawkes changed his mind
and selected a 5' 10" dancer he had spotted at Texas Guinan's midtown
speakeasy: George Raft. Raised in
Hell's Kitchen and pals with mobster Owney Madden, Raft appropriated a
mannerism from
New York
gangsters flipping a coin when he auditioned.
The studio cast the newcomer as Guino Rinaldo.
The role made Raft a star overnight.
A powerhouse
can choose his roles. Therefore,
when Paramount Pictures tried to cast George Raft as a gunman in William
Faulkners controversial novel Sanctuary, Raft refused to do an
unsympathetic role. A lucky break
came to Jack LaRue on February 18, 1933 when the studio suspended Raft and
cast him as Trigger opposite Miriam Hopkins in this project, re-titled The
Story of Temple Drake. But
what was meant to be a star-making vehicle bombed.
Despite this box-office bust, Jack LaRue received generous media
attention, which led to more contracts. He
resembled another
Hollywood
newcomer Humphrey Bogart [1899-1957] and the
studios were casting both actors in similar roles: secondary hoodlums.
From 1936-1940, Bogart did 28 films and LaRue had 30 screen roles.
Carlo Roncoroni, head of the new Cines studio in
Rome
, asked LaRue if he would appear in the title role of a
film about
Columbus
. Then in 1941 things changed.
Director John Huston tagged George Raft to play Sam Spade in The
Maltese Falcon. Since Raft
refused to work with a rookie, Bogart staked a claim on fame by starring in
this classic. In the same year,
LaRue starred in Paper Bullets and a tiny role went to a young
up-and-comer Alan Ladd, who landed a bit part because of his agent, Sue Carol
(later Mrs. Ladd). When the film
was reissued in 1943 as Gangs Inc., Ladd was awarded star billing.
Clearly, Jack LaRue did not have the right agent.
And by the time Bogart shot to glory in
Casablanca
[1942],
Hollywood
lost interest in the 40-year-old Italian American actor
who failed to dazzle. Compelled to
seek work abroad, LaRue moved to
England
in the late 1940s to play American villains in British
pictures. His most memorable
appearance was as Slim Grissom in the notorious No Orchids for Miss
Blandish [1948], a reprisal of his 1933 role in The Story of
Temple Drake. He has over
100 feature films to his credit.
LaRue often worked in television during the last two decades of his
career. Briefly, he was the
eerily-lit host of the spooky TV anthology Lights Out and,
in 1953, he hosted I Love Murder (an ABC-TV series).
He also made guest appearances on Perry Mason,
Cheyenne
, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Love,
American Style, and numerous other television programs.
Playing the tough guy ushered LaRues contemporaries George
Raft, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson into eternal icon
status. Watch old movies and you
will see him often one of those actors whos branded forever as whats-his-name.
IDEA
DICEMBRE 2006
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