Harry Bellaver

Harry Bellaver

Bellaver in Naked City, 1962
Born February 12, 1905
Hillsboro, Illinois, U.S.
Died August 8, 1993 (aged 88)
Nyack, New York. U.S.
Resting place
 Tappan Cemetery, Tappan, New York
Occupation Film, stage, television actor
Years active 1938–85
Children Lee Bellaver
Vaughn Bellaver-Allentuck

Harry Bellaver (February 12, 1905 – August 8, 1993) was an American stage, film and television actor who appeared in many roles from the 1930s through the 1980s.

Life and career

Bellaver was born in Hillsboro, Illinois, the son of Italian immigrants working in the Hillsboro coal mines. He quit school at a young age and worked various jobs but eventually was awarded a scholarship to Brookwood Labor College in Katonah, New York. Early in his career he appeared in numerous Broadway plays. He made his made his Broadway debut in the 1931 Group Theatre in the play 1931. He also appeared in the Elmer Rice play We, the People in 1933, and in the Broadway debut that year of The Threepenny Opera.

Bellaver's greatest Broadway success was in 1946, when he appeared in the original production of Annie Get Your Gun, as Chief Sitting Bull. He appeared in the same role in the 1966 revival.

Bellaver was also a prolific film character actor, mainly in "working class" roles, from 1939 through the 1960s. He appeared in the film adaptation of From Here to Eternity and in several notable film noirs. He played the role of ex-convict "Creeps" in 1939's Another Thin Man with William Powell and Myrna Loy. He appeared in The House on 92nd Street as a taxi driver spying for the Nazis, and again played a cab driver, this time victimized by a gangster, in Side Street. He also appeared in "Love Me or Leave Me" with James Cagney and Doris Day in 1955 and The Old Man and the Sea with Spencer Tracy in 1958. He also appeared in the comedy Hero at Large a 1980 comedy film starring John Ritter and Anne Archer.

Bellaver is probably best known for his featured role as Sgt. Frank Arcaro in the television series Naked City appearing in 136 of the series' combined 138 episodes. He played an older, mellow detective who was a counterpoint to the dedicated young detectives played by James Franciscus and Paul Burke. Bellaver continued to play small film and television roles through the 1980s, with his last screen role in 1985 as an old miner in the film The Stuff.

Death

Harry Bellaver lived in Tappan, New York when he died of pneumonia on Sunday, August 8, 1993, at Nyack Hospital in Nyack, New York. He donated his body to science. He was survived by his daughters Lee Bellaver of Stone Ridge, New York and theatrical casting director Vaughn Bellaver-Allentuck of East Hampton, L.I., two grandsons, a granddaughter, and two great-granddaughters.

Broadway roles

References

    External links