Joseph Campanella

Joseph Campanella was born on Nov 21, 1924 in USA. Joseph Campanella's big-screen debut came with Murder, Inc. directed by Burt Balaban in 1960, strarring Panto (uncredited). Joseph Campanella is known for The Showdown directed by Antony Sestito, Taran Killam stars as The Batter and Clayton Norcross as Jonathan C. Edwards. The upcoming new movie Joseph Campanella plays is Lost Dream which will be released on May 07, 2009.

Gaunt, wavy-haired Sicilian-American character actor Joseph Campanella seemed to pop up in just about every second TV series and telemovie of the 1960s and 70s. A tireless veteran of stage and screen, he remained very much in demand well into his eighties. His older brother Frank was also an actor. The son of a musician, Campanella began his flirtation with show biz as a teenage sports announcer for a small Pennsylvania radio station. He served in the U.S. Navy during the Second World War, where, at 18, he commanded a landing craft. Campanella initially studied architecture, earned a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and studied for a Master's Degree in speech and drama at Columbia University. His stage career began at the Colonial Theatre in Boston in 1954. He subsequently relocated from New York to Hollywood. Beginning with anthology television in 1952, he amassed numerous guest credits and even had a recurring role as Lew Wickersham (the suave, scientifically-minded head of the Intertect detective agency) in Mannix (1967), for which he received an Emmy Award nomination. For the better part of his career, Campanella was cast as priests (a standout role was that of Father Corelli in Les envahisseurs (1967) episode "Storm"), police officers or doctors. He had a knack for playing characters of a volatile or tortured disposition. Campanella appeared on many daytime soap operas, including a lengthy spell on Amour, gloire et beauté (1987) and the short-lived Dynasty spin-off Dynastie II: Les Colby (1985). As narrator, he provided the voice for National Geographic specials (for each episode some eight hours of voice-over were taped, though only fifty minutes were actually used), as well as doing commercials for BMW and the National Automotive Parts Association. On Broadway his roles have included "Captain and the Kings," "Hot Spot," "Born Yesterday," and "The Caine Mutiny".