Benito Daniel "Ben" Piazza (July 30, 1933 – September 7, 1991) was an American actor.
Life and career Piazza made his film debut in Sidney J. Furie's Canadian film A Dangerous Age (1959) followed by his Hollywood debut in The Hanging Tree (1959). Though he signed contracts with Warner Bros. and Gary Cooper's production companies for five years, he did not make another film until No Exit (1962).
A prolific television and film character actor, Piazza is perhaps most widely recognized as the wealthy restaurant patron in John Landis' 1980 comedy hit The Blues Brothers from whom Jake (John Belushi) offers to purchase his wife and daughter. Prior to that, he also played the violent boyfriend who scars Liza Minnelli's character's face in Otto Preminger's Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon (1970). Piazza's other film appearances include The Candy Snatchers (1973); he played a dramatic role in an episode of Barnaby Jones, titled “Bond of Fear” (04/15/1975); The Bad News Bears (1976); I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (1977); Nightwing (1979); Peter Bogdanovich's Mask (1985); Clean and Sober (1988); and Guilty by Suspicion (1991), in which he portrayed Hollywood film director/mogul Darryl F. Zanuck. In 1986, he had a three-month stint on the daytime soap opera Santa Barbara as Dr. A.L. Rawlings. He played the role of Walt Driscoll in the sixth season of Dallas (1982-83).
Piazza wrote plays and a novel, The Exact and Very Strange Truth (1964), a coming-of-age story about an Italian-American boy in Little Rock, Arkansas, which was Piazza's hometown. However, Piazza wrote in the book's introduction that any resemblance between the characters and real people was “irrelevant”, although the parallels to his own life were unmistakable. Piazza dedicated the book to openly gay playwright Edward Albee, who was a close friend.
Personal life and death Piazza was married to actress Dolores Dorn from 1967 until 1979. He was in a committed relationship with Wayne Tripp from 1973 until Piazza died of AIDS-related cancer in 1991.
Filmography Year Title Role Notes1957 A Dangerous Age David 1959 The Hanging Tree Rune 1962 No Exit Camarero 1970 Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon Jesse 1972 The Outside Man Desk Clerk 1973 The Candy Snatchers Avery 1974 The Waltons George Reed "The Five-Foot Shelf"1975 Gunsmoke Fifer "Hard Labor"1976 The Bad News Bears Bob Whitewood 1977 I Never Promised You a Rose Garden Jay Blake 1979 Nightwing Roger Piggott 1979 The Concorde ... Airport '79 Associate TV version, Uncredited1980 The Blues Brothers Father 1982 Waltz Across Texas Bill Wrather 1982–1983 Dallas Walt Driscoll TV series, Season 6 (11 episodes)1985 Mask Mr. Simms 1985 The Twilight Zone Dr. Vaughn HeilmanTV series, (segment "Chameleon")1988 Clean and Sober Kramer 1990 Rocky V Doctor Uncredited1991 Guilty by Suspicion Darryl Zanuck (Final Film Role)
References
External links
(juvenile credits)
Ben Piazza at the University of Wisconsin's Actors Studio audio collection