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Albert Salmi

 
Who2 Biography: Albert Salmi, Actor
Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Who2 Biographies

  • Born: 11 March 1928
  • Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York
  • Died: 22 April 1990 (suicide by gun)
  • Best Known As: Ever-present character actor

Albert Salmi studied at the prestigious Actors Studio in the 1950s and appeared in Bus Stop on Broadway. After starring with Paul Newman in the TV movie Bang the Drum Slowly (1956), Salmi settled into life as a prolific Hollywood character actor. He guest-starred in many of the leading TV series of the 1950s and 1960s -- including The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Route 66 and Bonanza -- as a succession of surly cowboys, cheerful pirates, sheriffs and sidekicks. Late in his career Salmi went into semi-retirement in Washington State. He died in 1990 when apparently he shot his wife and then himself in their home; the deaths were officially ruled a murder-suicide.

Salmi's parents were immigrants from Finland.

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Actor: Albert Salmi
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Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Mar 11, 1928 in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York
  • Died: Apr 22, 1990 in Spokane, Washington
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '60s-'80s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Western
  • Career Highlights: Breaking In, The Bravados, Wild River
  • First Major Screen Credit: Bang the Drum Slowly (1956)

Biography

Brawny, Brooklyn-born Albert Salmi was trained in the late '40s at the Actors Studio and American Theatre Wing. Extremely busy on-stage and live TV in the 1950s, Salmi was seen in such roles as the dimwitted "doom-ded" ballplayer in the 1956 TV adaptation of Mark Harris' Bang the Drum Slowly. His first significant Broadway appearance was as the overexuberant rodeo star in William Inge's Bus Stop. Salmi made his film debut as the epileptic Smerdyakov in The Brothers Karamazov (1958). Equally adept at buffoonery and brutality, Salmi often found himself cast in the 1960s as comic relief on one TV program, only to appear later in the week as a sadistic gunslinger or slavering serial killer on another show. He was also seen on a weekly basis as Yadkin on the Daniel Boone series of the 1960s and as Pete Ritter on the 1970s cop series Petrocelli. Albert Salmi apparently killed both himself and his estranged, terminally ill wife in 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Wikipedia: Albert Salmi
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Albert Salmi
Born March 11, 1928(1928-03-11)
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died April 22, 1990 (aged 62)
Spokane, Washington, U.S.
Occupation Actor
Years active 1955–1989

Albert Salmi (March 11, 1928 – April 22, 1990) was an American actor.

Contents

Biography

Albert Salmi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Finnish immigrant parents, and following a stint in the Army, took up acting as a career, studying Method acting with Lee Strasberg. In 1955, Salmi starred in Bus Stop on Broadway. He was asked to go on the road with the show, where he fell in love with and married his leading lady, former child star Peggy Ann Garner, on May 16, 1956. Their only child, Catherine Ann Salmi, died in 1995 of premature heart disease at the age of thirty-eight.

He made his film debut as Smerdjakov in the 1958 movie version of The Brothers Karamazov, with Yul Brynner, Lee J. Cobb, William Shatner, and Richard Basehart - a role for which Salmi turned down an Oscar-nomination. Salmi's next film was The Bravados in which he played one of the villains hunted down by hero Gregory Peck. The National Board of Review presented Salmi with the NBR Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work in both of these films.

He held several memorable roles on The Twilight Zone including "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" and "Execution" and also appeared twice as the incorrigible pirate, Alonzo P. Tucker on Lost in Space. He appeared in a Gunsmoke episode as a killer who comes to an ironic end. He guest starred in Combat!, Bonanza, The Legend of Jesse James, Custer, The Eleventh Hour, The Road West (in 1967 series finale "Elizabeth's Odyssey"), Knight Rider, and many other television programs, including James Franciscus's short-lived 1961 series, The Investigators. He also had a regular role on the 1970s TV law series Petrocelli. In the series Land of the Giants last episode he appeared as a pair of evil twins.

Salmi and Garner divorced on March 13, 1963. About the same time, he started a role as the comical Yadkin on TV's Daniel Boone opposite Fess Parker. He then remarried, his bride being Roberta Pollock Taper. They had two daughters.

A high point of Salmi's career came in 1968, when he was cast in the Arthur Miller play The Price. He played the lead on Broadway and in London.

Death

In 1990, Salmi and Roberta were found shot to death in their home in Spokane, Washington. According to police, Salmi, who was separated from Roberta at the time and was suffering from severe clinical depression, shot his wife and then himself.[1] According to family and friends, that was quite out of character for him. It was thought that it was more in his character to eat papayas and laugh himself to death than to commit murder-suicide.[2]

Further reading

  • "Spotlights & Shadows: The Albert Salmi Story," by Sandra Grabman. (2004) Albany: BearManor Media ISBN 1-59393-001-1.
  • "Plain Beautiful: The Life of Peggy Ann Garner," by Sandra Grabman. (2005) Albany: BearManor Media ISBN 1-59393-017-8.

References

  1. ^ "Albert Salmi, Actor, 62, Is Found Shot to Death in Home With Wife". The New York Times. 1990-04-25. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE6D9163DF936A15757C0A966958260. Retrieved 2008-03-29. 
  2. ^ Biography: Spotlights & Shadows: The Albert Salmi Story, BearManor Media, 2004. ISBN 1-59393-001-1

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 
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