Mike Mazurki

Mike Mazurki
Mazurki as Splitface in Dick Tracy (1945)
Born	Markiyan Yulianovich Mazurkevich (1907-12-25)December 25, 1907 Kupchyntsi (Купчинці), Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary (now Ternopil Raion, Ternopil, Ukraine)
Died	December 9, 1990(1990-12-09) (aged 82) Glendale, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Manhattan College Fordham University Law School
Occupations	Actor professional wrestler
Years active	1934–1990
Height	6 ft 5 in (196 cm)
Spouses	Jeanette Briggs ​ ​ (m. 1943; div. 1950)​ Sylvia Weinblatt ​ (m. 1968)​
Children	2
1st President of the Cauliflower Alley Club
In office 1965–1990
Succeeded by	Archie Moore

Mike Mazurki (December 25, 1907 – December 9, 1990) 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]

Early years

Mazurki was born Markiyan Yulianovich Mazurkevich (Ukrainian: Маркіян (Михайло) Мазуркевич) (Polish: Markijan (Mychajlo) Mazurkiewicz) in the village of Kupchyntsi (in present-day Ternopil Raion), near what was then Tarnopol, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Ternopil, Ukraine).^[2]

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 noir Murder, 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 addition to his film work, Mazurki made guest appearances on many popular television shows, among them My Friend Flicka (as a wrestler facing Gene Evans's character "Rob McLaughlin"), The Untouchables, Bachelor Father, Daniel Boone, Gilligan's Island, The Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie, Bonanza, and Gunsmoke, to name just a few. In 1964, he played Cully Barstow, a yacht hand, in "The Case of the Missing Button", an episode of Perry Mason in which he threatened Mason and Paul Drake with a set of brass knuckles. He also played Arthur Jacks in the episode "The Case of the Deadly Verdict" (1963). He was a regular as well on the short-lived sitcom The Chicago Teddy Bears. In 1966–67, he performed as the caveman "Clon" in It's About Time.^[6]

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]}

Filmography

Television

References

Further reading

• 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. ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mike Mazurki.

• Mike Mazurki at IMDb
• Mike Mazurki at Find a Grave
• Mike Mazurki on Hollywood Archæology
• Mike Mazurki papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• On the Record: Actor Mike Mazurki’s legend looms large

This page was last edited on 2 March 2024, at 15:38