American actor and professional wrestler

Mike Mazurki (December 25, 1907 – December 9, 1990) was a Ukrainian-American actor and professional wrestler who appeared in more than 142 films. His 6:ft 5 in (196:cm) presence and face had him typecast as often brainless athletes, tough guys, thugs, and gangsters. His roles included Splitface in Dick Tracy (1945), Yusuf in Sinbad the Sailor (1947), and Clon in It's About Time (1966-1967).

Contents

• 1 Early years
• 2 Career
• 3 Filmography
• 4 Television
• 5 References
• 6 Further reading
• 7 External links

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). In 1913, he emigrated with his family to the United States living in Cohoes, New York, just outside Albany, in old mill housing on Olmstead Street with his mother.

Mazurki attended LaSalle Ins*ute in Troy, for high school. Upon finishing school, he changed his name to "Mike". He played football and basketball at Manhattan College, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1930.

After earning his bachelor's degree, Mazurki graduated from Fordham Law School and became an attorney. 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 American football and basketball player.

Career

Mazurki was discovered by Josef von Sternberg and given a bit part in his film The Shanghai Gesture (1941). This led to a long film and television career. Possibly his most memorable role was that of slow-witted thug Moose Malloy in the film noir Murder, My Sweet (1944), opposite Dick Powell. He portrayed the psychotic, knife-wielding murderer Splitface in the original Dick Tracy (1945). (Forty-five years later, Mazurki would play a cameo role in the 1990 film version of the comic-strip detective.) He played a wrestler nicknamed "The Strangler" in Night and the City (1950) and 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.

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 of 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 br* 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.

Along with his film and television appearances, Mazurki was seen in the hit Rod Stewart music video "Infatuation", playing the bodyguard protecting a woman (played by Kay Lenz) from a stalker (played by Stewart). In the end, he succeeds, punching out Stewart. In 1966–67, he performed as the caveman "Clon" in It's About Time.

In 1965, he co-founded and became the first president of the Cauliflower Alley Club, an *ociation of professional wrestlers. A photograph of his cauliflower ear forms the logo of the organization. He was posthumously awarded the New York State Award in 2005 by the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum for founding the club.

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.

Filmography

• Belle of the Nineties (1934) as New Orleans Audience Admirer (uncredited)
• Black Fury (1935) as Security Force Applicant (uncredited)
• Each Dawn I Die (1939) as fellow prisoner (uncredited)
• The Last Alarm (1940) as Onlooker (uncredited)
• The Shanghai Gesture (1941) as The Coolie
• Dr. Renault's Secret (1942) as Rogell (uncredited)
• The Moon and Sixpence (1942) as Tough Bill (uncredited)
• That Other Woman (1942) as Thug (uncredited)
• Gentleman Jim (1942) as Jake Kilrain (uncredited)
• It Ain't Hay (1943) as Bouncer (uncredited)
• Prairie Chickens (1943) as Henchman Charlie (uncredited)
• Taxi, Mister (1943) as Henchman Joe
• Mission to Moscow (1943) as Russian Machinist Workman (uncredited)
• Bomber's Moon (1943) as Kurt (scenes deleted)
• Behind the Rising Sun (1943) as *anese Wrestler (uncredited)
• Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) as Olaf (uncredited)
• Swing Fever (1943) as Wrestler (uncredited)
• Henry Aldrich Haunts a House (1943) as The Goon (uncredited)
• Whistling in Brooklyn (1943) as Henchman on Ship (uncredited)
• Lost Angel (1943) as Fighter (uncredited)
• Shine On, Harvest Moon (1944) as Bouncer (uncredited)
• Summer Storm (1944) as Tall Policeman Bending Over Petroff (uncredited)
• The Canterville Ghost (1944) as Metropolus
• The Missing Juror (1944) as Cullie – M*eur (uncredited)
• The Princess and the Pirate (1944) as Pirate (uncredited)
• Murder, My Sweet (1944) as Moose Malloy
• The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945) as B* Player / Humphrey Rafferty
• The Spanish Main (1945) as Erik Swaine
• Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945) as Klondike Pete
• Dick Tracy (1945) as 'Splitface'
• Dakota (1945) as "Bigtree' Collins
• The Thin Man Goes Home (1945) as First Man outside barber shop (uncredited)
• Live Wires (1946) as Patsy 'Pat' Clark
• Mysterious Intruder (1946) as Harry Pontos
• The French Key (1946) as Sam Cragg
• Sinbad the Sailor (1947) as Yusuf
• Killer Dill (1947) as Little Joe
• Unconquered (1947) as Bone
• Nightmare Alley (1947) as Bruno
• I Walk Alone (1948) as Dan
• Relentless (1948) as Jake
• The Noose Hangs High (1948) as Chuck
• Neptune's Daughter (1949) as Mac Mozolla
• Come to the Stable (1949) as Sam
• Rope of Sand (1949) as Pierson
• The Devil's Henchman (1949) as Rhino
• Abandoned (1949) as Hoppe
• Samson and Delilah (1949) as Leader of Philistine soldiers
• Night and the City (1950) as The Strangler
• Dark City (1950) as Sidney Winant
• He's a *eyed Wonder (1950) as 'Lunk' Boxwell
• Pier 23 (1951) as Ape Danowski
• Criminal Lawyer (1951) as 'Moose' Hendricks
• Ten Tall Men (1951) as Roshko
• The Light Touch (1951) as Charles
• My Favorite Spy (1951) as Monkara
• The Egyptian (1954) as Foreman, House of Death (uncredited)
• New York Confidential (1955) as Arnie Wendler
• New Orleans Uncensored (1955) as Big Mike
• Blood Alley (1955) as Big Han
• Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (1955) as Bigfoot Mason
• Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956) as Bigfoot Mason
• Kismet (1955) as Chief Policeman
• Comanche (1956) as Flat Mouth
• Around the World in 80 Days (1956) as Hong Kong Drunk
• Man in the Vault (1956) as Louie
• Hell Ship Mutiny (1957) as Ross
• The Man Who Died Twice (1958) as Rak
• The Buccaneer (1958) as Tarsus
• Some Like It Hot (1959) as Spats's henchman #1
• Alias Jesse James (1959) as Dirty Dog Tough (uncredited)
• The Facts of Life (1960) as First Husband in Motel Room
• Swingin' Along (1961) as Bookie
• The Errand Boy (1961) as Blonde 'Movie Siren'
• Pocketful of Miracles (1961) as Big Mike
• Zotz! (1962) as Igor
• Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962) as Slave Captain
• Donovan's Reef (1963) as Sgt. Monk Menkowicz
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) as Miner bringing medicine to his wife
• 4 for Texas (1963) as Chad
• Cheyenne Autumn (1964) as Senior First Sergeant Wichowski
• The Disorderly Orderly (1964) as Moving Van P*enger (uncredited)
• 7 Women (1966) as Tunga Khan – Bandit Leader
• The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (1967) as Mountain Ox
• Which Way to the Front? (1970) as Rocky (uncredited)
• Centerfold Girls (1974) as The Caretaker
• Challenge to Be Free (1975) as Trapper
• Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) as Studio Guard
• Paesano: A Voice in the Night (1977) as Bodyguard
• The Magic of L*ie (1978) as Apollo
• The One Man Jury (1978) as Kayo's Handler
• Gas Pump Girls (1979) as Moiv
• Alligator (1980) as Gatekeeper
• The Man with Bogart's Face (1980) as Himself
• ...All the Marbles (1981) as Referee in Chicago (uncredited)
• Doin' Time (1985) as Bruno
• Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) as Dutch (segment "Reckless Youth")
• Dick Tracy (1990) as Old Man at hotel
• Mob Boss (1990) as Don Taglianeti (final film role)

Television

References

Further reading

• Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Mike Mazurki". The Name Below the *le:: 65 Cl*ic 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

• 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