Albert Salmi

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

Biography

Albert Salmi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Finnish immigrant parents,^[1] 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 volunteered 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. 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 had several memorable roles on The Twilight Zone including "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville","A Quality of Mercy" 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 was a guest star in The Virginian episode as an outlaw who changed his ways to become a Franciscan monk. In a 1960 episode of Have Gun — Will Travel he played a quick-tempered priest who risks his life to protect a wanted man from a vigilante. He guest starred in Naked City,Combat!, Bonanza, The Big Valley, 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 appeared in the 1964-1965 season of "Daniel Boone" as Yadkin. He also had a regular role on the 1970s TV law series Petrocelli. In Land of the Giants series finale he appeared as a pair of evil twins. He also appeared in an episode entitled The Jokester on Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1980 he appeared alongside David Carradine in the aviation film, Cloud Dancer. That same year, he played protagonist, Danny Noonan's father in Caddyshack.

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, Albert and Roberta Salmi 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][2]

References

Further reading

• Spotlights & Shadows: The Albert Salmi Story (2nd edition), by Sandra Grabman. (2010) Albany: BearManor Media ISBN 1-59393-425-4.
• Plain Beautiful: The Life of Peggy Ann Garner, by Sandra Grabman. (2005) Albany: BearManor Media ISBN 1-59393-017-8.

External links

Biography portal

• Albert Salmi at the Internet Movie Database
• Albert Salmi at the Internet Broadway Database
• Albert Salmi at Find a Grave
• Albert Salmi mini-bio