Vincent Gardenia gives fathers, managers and other men accustomed to being heard a comic force that leaves room for disappointment. We value him most when a supporting part, as in Moonstruck, has concerns of its own.
Fi1m perspective
In Moonstruck (1987), Vincent Gardenia's Cosmo Castorini helps make a family conversation worth watching for its own sake. His comic friction gives the older characters something to do besides explain the younger ones. The furrowed brow and hearty manner suit the fathers and authority figures he so often played. We value the way he lets comedy and disappointment sit in the same performance. There is room for a character to be difficult company without making him unworthy of our attention.
His early film bit parts gave way to more substantial work in the late 1950s, while his stage career grew in the 1960s and 1970s. Neil Simon's comedies made particular use of him, with roles written or tailored for his abilities. The stage production of The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1972) belongs to that strand. In Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), baseball manager Dutch Schnell gave him a film part suited to his ability to combine comedy and drama.
Moonstruck uses him particularly well beside Olympia Dukakis as Rose Castorini. Dukakis can make a pause carry a difficult decision, while Gardenia keeps the family exchanges funny. Shanley's writing gives both characters desires of their own, and neither actor hurries past the disappointments. We were moved by Gardenia and Dukakis because they make the older couple's troubles matter as much as the younger romance. The film can be warm without requiring everyone in the family to be easy company.
The narrower casting is worth acknowledging. Detective Frank Ochoa in Death Wish (1974) belongs to a recurring line of police roles, alongside the exasperated family men. That familiarity can make an actor useful without giving him much new to do, and it would be wrong to expect every part to offer a discovery. The musical Little Shop of Horrors (1986), with Gardenia as Mr Mushnik, offers a different setting, though still a supporting role. For a first encounter, choose Moonstruck and pay as much attention to the parents as to the lovers.
Biography
Vincent Gardenia was an Italian-American stage, film and television actor. Born Vincenzo Scognamiglio in Naples, Italy, on 7 January 1920, he moved with his family to Brooklyn, New York, as a child. His father, an actor and manager, ran an Italian-language theatre company with which Gardenia first performed.
He made his Broadway debut in the 1950s and won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play for The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1972). Gardenia received Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) and Moonstruck (1987), in which he played Cosmo Castorini. Other film roles include Mr Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors (1986) and Detective Frank Ochoa in the Death Wish films (1974 and 1982). He won an Emmy Award for the television film Age-Old Friends (1989). Gardenia died on 9 December 1992 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
