Biography
William Edmunds was an Italian-American character actor, born Michele Giuseppe Pellegrino in San Fele, Basilicata, Italy. He performed on the New York stage before making his film debut in the short Going Spanish (1934). He moved to Hollywood in 1938 and appeared in more than seventy films and shorts, typically in supporting roles with ethnic accents, often uncredited.
Edmunds is credited as Lehman in The Mortal Storm (1940). He played Mr. Martini in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and had small parts in Casablanca (1943), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), House of Frankenstein (1944) and The Three Musketeers (1948). His screen work continued until 1953, with television appearances extending to 1959.
He died in Los Angeles on 7 December 1981.
