Mike Mazurki (December 25, 1907 – December 9, 1990, born Markiian Yulianovych Mazurkevych)[a] was a Ukrainian-American actor and professional wrestler who appeared in more than 142 films. Although educated as an attorney, his hulking 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) presence, craggy face, and croaking voice had him often typecast as brainless athletes, tough guys, thugs, and gangsters. Memorable roles included Moose Malloy in Murder, My Sweet (1944), Splitface in Dick Tracy (1945), Yusuf in Sinbad the Sailor (1947), and "The Strangler" in Night and the City (1950). He was the founder and first president of the Cauliflower Alley Club.[1]
Mazurki attended high school at the LaSalle Institute in Troy, New York. Upon graduation, he changed his name to "Mike". He played football[3] and basketball at Manhattan College,[4] where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1930.[5]
After earning his bachelor's degree, Mazurki graduated from Fordham Law School and became an attorney.[citation needed] He later said he took up professional wrestling because he could earn around ten times what he could as a lawyer. Mazurki was also a professional football and basketball player.[6][7]
Career
Mazurki had trained as a professional wrestler, but turned to acting after serving as Mae West's bodyguard.[citation needed] Mazurki was discovered by Josef von Sternberg and given a bit part in his film The Shanghai Gesture (1941).[7] This led to a long film and television career. Possibly his best-known role was as the slow-witted but dangerously obsessed thug Moose Malloy in the lurid film noirMurder, My Sweet (1944). He portrayed the psychotic, knife-wielding murderer Splitface in the original Dick Tracy (1945). (Mazurki would play a cameo role, 45 years later, in the 1990 Warren Beatty film version of the same name.) He played a frightening, knuckle-cracking henchman in the noir Abandoned (1949), bone-crushing wrestler "The Strangler" in Night and the City (1950) (performing a grueling and highly realistic match against a professional Greco-Roman grappler), and had a role imitating the manner of a George Raft henchman in the Billy Wilder comedy, Some Like It Hot (1959). He continued to wrestle during his acting career. His slurred speech was reportedly due to a wrestling injury to his Adam's apple.[6] Following the death of Victor McLaglen, Mazurki appeared in several films for John Ford.[citation needed]
In 1972, he landed his only starring role in a film as Trapper in Challenge to Be Free. As he aged, acting opportunities for Mazurki began to slow in the 1970s and 1980s; nevertheless, he continued working until his death on December 9, 1990. His final film role, that of "Don Taglianeti", is in the low-budget comedy Mob Boss, which was released just two months before he died. Along with his film and television appearances, Mazurki was seen in the hit Rod Stewart music video "Infatuation" (1984), playing the bodyguard protecting a woman (played by Kay Lenz) from a stalker (played by Stewart, whom he punches out). Mazurki later said that he got more fame in the making of this video than in any of the feature films or TV shows in which he'd starred.[8][better source needed]
Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Mike Mazurki". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 165–167. ISBN978-1-7200-3837-5.
External links
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