Biography
Henry Armetta (also credited as Enrico Armetto or Tony Martin) was an Italian-born American character actor. Born in Palermo, Sicily, he stowed away to New York as a teenager around 1902. He worked in menial jobs before entering theatre through a connection at the Lambs Club, appearing in stage roles including a chorus part in A Yankee Consul. He moved to Hollywood around 1920 and began appearing in films from 1915 onwards.
Armetta appeared in more than 150 American films, often uncredited and typically cast as stereotypical Italian characters such as barbers, grocers or waiters. His early credits include In Old Arizona (1928) as a barber. Later roles encompass Pietro in Scarface (1932), the sergeant in The Black Cat (1934), the painter in Imitation of Life (1934), Guiseppi in The Big Store (1941) and the hamburger man in Anchors Aweigh (1945). His final film was released posthumously in 1946. He died in San Diego, California, in 1945.
