Daily Mail
By Sameer Suri
October 23, 2021
Character actor Val Bisoglio, who played John Travolta's hothead father in Saturday Night Fever, has died.
His widow Bonnie revealed to Variety on Saturday that her husband passed on this Monday at the age of 95 in his own home.
On television he made memorable turns on programs ranging from M*A*S*H and Quincy, ME to eventually The Sopranos which was his final screen credit.
Italo Valentino Bisoglio was born to Italian immigrants in New York City in 1926 and kicked off his career in the theater scene.
As well as working with Arthur Penn in Shakespeare In The Park he also played a role in the Arthur Miller immigrant drama A View From The Bridge.
According to his IMDb page he made his screen debut the year of his 30th birthday with a role on the popular crime soap The Edge Of Night.
He continued jobbing on such shows as The Doctors And The Nurses and The Cool World and then in 1966 achieved another two milestones.
The year he turned 40 he made his film debut in Hot Rod Hullaballoo, a movie about a demolition derby also featuring Neil Simon's future wife Marsha Mason.
That very same year he also acted for the first time on Broadway, playing a cop in the crime drama Wait Until Dark starring Lee Remick and Robert DuVall.
Lee led the cast as a blind lady who finds herself in possession of a heroin stash inside a doll and then has to outmaneuver the men who come looking for it
As the years rolled along he kept up the TV work, securing a long-running part on The Doctors as well as shorter guest shots on a number of famous programs.
Some of the beloved series he acted on include The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Love American Style, All In The Family, Barney Miller and Kolchak: The Night Stalker.
On M*A*S*H he had a three-episode arc as a cook and on Quincy, ME he played the proprietor of a restaurant where the title medical examiner often eats.
His film roles also continued, including as a reverend in a 1970s comedy called Linda Lovelace For President in which the legendary porn star played a parody of herself.
Val's best-remembered film role came in 1977 when he played John Travolta's father who in one iconic scene smacks his son on the head and is asked to 'watch the hair.'
In addition to Bonnie, whom he married a quarter century ago, Val's survivors include his sons Joseph Bisoglio, Scott Chapman and Casey DeFranco.
BISOGLIO, Val (Italo Valentino Bisoglio)
Born: 5/7/1926, New York City, New York, U.S.A.
Died: 10/18/2021, Los Olivas, California, U.S.A.
Val Bisgolio’s westerns – actor:
Bonanza (TV) – 1968 (Chief Gray Cloud)
The Frisco Kid – 1979 (Cliff Harper)
No comments:
Post a Comment