Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - 169. Tony Lo Bianco

Episode Date: August 21, 2017

Gilbert and Frank are joined by veteran stage and screen actor Tony Lo Bianco ("The French Connection," "The Seven-Ups," "The Honeymoon Killers") for an absorbing discussion of the art of acting, the importance of self-starting, the inventiveness of Larry Cohen and the eccentricities of Rod Steiger. Also: Tony channels Fiorello La Guardia, treads the boards with Uncle Miltie, teaches Mama Cass (and Frankie Lymon) and stares down the immortal Sandy Koufax. PLUS: Franco Zeffirelli! Remembering Roy Scheider! Tony "scouts" for the Dodgers! William Friedkin pursues Jackie Gleason! And Leonard Kastle replaces Martin Scorsese! Photos © Charles Eshelman. www.charleseshelman.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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with my co-host Frank Santopadre and we're once again recording at Nutmeg with our engineer Frank Furtarosa. Our guest this week is a director, producer, an Emmy-winning and Tony-nominated performer, and one of the busiest and most recognized television and film actors of the last 50 years. You've seen him in TV shows like Police Story, The Streets of San Francisco, The Paper Chase, Law and Order, and Homicide, and features like The Seven Ups, Fist, God Told Me To, Blood Brothers, City Heat, and The Jura, as well as the film classics The Honeymoon Killers and a movie we've discussed quite a bit on this podcast, The French Connection.

He's also been praised for his stage work, including his Obie-winning role in the play Yanks 3 Detroit Zero, as well as his Tony-nominated role as Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. For the past 30-plus years, he's toured the globe in a series of one-man shows based on the life of his childhood hero, Fiorello LaGuardia, who I'd like to add was one quarter Jewish. He's also an acting teacher and a member of the world famous actor studio. And he continues to tour the country with an inspirational lecture called From Brooklyn to Broadway and Beyond. In a long and successful career, he shared the stage and screen with Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, James Mason, Lawrence Olivier, Hal Holbrook, George C. Scott, Anthony Hopkins, Christopher Walken, and one of our favorite actors here, Rod Steiger. Please welcome an artist of many talents and a man

who once came to bat against the legendary Sandy Koufax, the bride of Bensonhurst, Tony Lobianco. Well, hello, hello. Well, thank you for that introduction. Fantastic. Hi, Tony. He almost called you the bride of Bensonhurst. Yes.

Russell Lanchester. And to all the people out there if you don't know the name tony lobeon shame on you yeah first yes first of all shame on you but type that name into your computer or iphone and i guarantee when you see the picture you're gonna go to go, oh, that guy. That's him. Yeah. Tony, thanks for coming. A pleasure, Frank.

Pleasure to be here. As I was saying off mic, it's nice to have one of my people. It's been so long. I prefer when it's Jews here. You're outnumbered tonight with Verda Rosa, Lo Bianco, and Santo Padre. with Verda Rosa, Lo Bianco, and Santo Padre. But he did prove his Italian roots when I was saying that my wife was nagging me that I should run next door and get something to eat. Exactly. And then I said, well, you're here.

I don't want to interrupt. And you, in an old-world Guinea way, said, no, no, get something to eat. Absolutely. Absolutely. He's a eat. Absolutely. Absolutely. Totally Italian. And I cook, too, as does my wife, Elise, very well. Now, another thing, I was born and raised in Brooklyn. Wow.

That's a whole bunch of us. All three of us. All three of us in Brooklyn. Wow. And so many- He's Coney Island boy. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, Coney Island,

then Crown Heights, and then Borough Park. Yeah, I was Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst. Yeah. And moved around a bit. I moved three times before I was 10 years old, ending up on 18th Avenue, 49th Street. It was quite an experience being born in Brooklyn. There's so many people in our business who have been born in Brooklyn. It's amazing. So many on our podcast. I was telling Tony,

we got about 40 or 50 people from Brooklyn on this show. Yeah, that must be something in the water. But also, you know, I think growing up in Brooklyn gives you a real perspective on life because I'm sure either of us have had a, you know, a silver spoon in our mouth when we were born. My father was a cab driver, mother, you know, a housewife and so on. And, you know, being poor, what would be considered poor, you don't know any better. And uh as i recall as my brother recalls

you know toys i think we had one toy each you know and we didn't know the difference it didn't matter we i always believe that struggling gives you an education and the harder you have it the more you know you know the more difficult life is that's true yeah well your dad owned a hardware store i mean you guys weren't flush and my dad was a struggling commercial artist yeah when we lived in an apartment in coney island above his hardware store oh that was wonderful coney island i remember my trips there as a kid and as a teenager wow it was a it was a whole other a whole other life you know different know and it's so funny because me and my wife have said

this to our kids a few times and to hear you say it that also growing up you had like one or two toys that was it now it's like they want every single toy they don't even open them all when they get them for the holidays they just stack them

over the weeks. You know, their favorite toy is generally the box. The box. Yes. They play with the box and all the toys are on the side. Tell us about your family, too, since we're talking about it. It was a big dramatic family, as you describe it. Well, always dramatic.

And, you know, the idea of – I was fortunate enough. My mother had seven brothers, and so I had uncles. And the idea to have someone to look up to was tremendously important. And we had stories. And the stories that our parents told us, because they had hardship. You know, my mother was from the Lower East Side,

my father was from Brooklyn, and they all had sixth grade educations, you know, because they had to get out and work and support the family and so on. And my mother was one that took care of everybody, our brothers and so on. And that kind of, the stories that you hear back then of struggle. I mean, when she first was a kid, they took her out of school so she can go sew coats and Howard clothing. Remember the Howard clothing way back then? And then when the inspectors would come around because of child labor laws,

they'd hide her in the bathroom. Unbelievable. So, I mean, that's the way they grew up and the struggling, all that struggling and the stories from my uncles. Oddly enough, with our brothers, somehow, some way, especially back then, one of them only smoked and one of them only drank, which is very odd, you know, when you think of that. And the idea of achieving things with struggling always is very important to me. I'm still doing it. Listen, tomorrow I'm pitching a softball game.

I love that. You know what I mean? Struggling is what I do because good is nothing. Excellent. And doing what you can't, I think you can accomplish. And it's the same thing I try to do with my acting as well. You know, playing Fiorello LaGuardia is not quite the way I look or the way I behave. And his whole manner is a whole different human being. You know, he had a different kind of a voice than I had. And certainly he was retundant and overweight.

And his manner was much more so on. But creating characters is what it's all about as far as I'm concerned. When they talked about being a character actor, to me, as far as I'm concerned, every part I played is a character. I don't know any script that's ever been written that said Tony LoBianco. I don't know that part. I've never played that part.

It's fascinating. Of course, being Italian and being pretty good at playing the gangsta stuff and looking Italian, you get cast that way. Those are great roles. They're very rich roles as an actor to play.

But the whole idea to me of acting has, quote, nothing to do with me. Well, you've also been in biblical epics. A lot of range. We did Jesus of Nazareth with Laurence Olivier and Zeffirelli, the great director. You've played every kind of part. And also I did Jacob and Joseph. Right. And that was a fascinating situation because when I left to go to Israel to shoot it, playing

Joseph, I played Joseph and Keith Michelle played the Jacob. Colleen Dewhurst was in it, my mother. And I mean Jacob's mother. Anyway, when I went there, Israel had just shot down six Syrian planes. Syrian, huh? Familiar. And I said to my then wife, I said, well, war is going to break out. When I arrived, the day I arrived, war broke out.

The six-day Yom Kippur War. And I somehow convinced my producer and director, Michael Kakianos, who directed Zorba the Greek, to stay while everybody was ordered to leave Israel. And I somehow sat down and we talked about it. I said, stay, Israel's never going to lose a war. And so, I mean, Moshe Dayan and all, we're all rushing. We're at the hotel in Tel Aviv that was headquarters. And so they'd be rushing in and out, holding news conferences there. And of course, the war was getting worse as it was going on and I was going

around doing interviews saying to the Israelis don't worry about a thing America's on its way America's wasn't on its way wow and you know what I mean so I was doing a lot of PR and what happened was I finally convinced them I said you know what would be a good idea just for morale because most of my brothers, the 11 brothers, were all Habima actors and also in the military. I said, it'd be a very good inspirational thing if we started filming. They said, filming? There's a war going on.

We're filming on the desert. I said, it could be good. So I convinced them to film. And it was so wonderful because the brothers were in their robes and were doing a scene. And we had the script girl listening to the radio for their number to be called to go to the front line. And when they did, the soldier who was my brother would stop, take off his robe. His uniform was underneath his robe, pick up his Uzi, jump into some kind of a truck and go to the front line and do his eight hours.

Well, that's the way we shot the film. Wild. Isn't that something? That is nutty. That's a great story. That's a great thing. You know, and we kept shooting and filming and I hate to use the word shooting.

Yes, of course. It was quite something, yeah. Now, I heard somewhere, too, that you, when you're in a production, a play or movie, you're not one of those actors who's just concerned with your part, your lines, but you want to know every single thing, every job that's being done. Yes, I do indeed. thing every job that's being done yes i do indeed as a matter of fact even that that when i first went to acting school at the dramatic workshop that used to be on 50th street in the capital it's gone now yeah gone across from the winter garden uh when i first went in there as a kid 17

years old uh to be an actor which i knew nothing about, except I had entered a contest in high school and did very well. I was representing Brooklyn. Right, that's right. The five boroughs. That's right. Well, you, to jump in with something, were also named King of Brooklyn? Yes, yes. That came later.

That's later. As a fact, it's on that pathway in the park. in the park the it's my it's it's it's on it's on the ground i'm sorry we didn't put that in your intro and the king of brooklyn king of brooklyn and eleni kazan my good friend was the queen oh i love brooklyn so when i so when i went to acting school the first thing i did was i said oh you have a stage here. Let's put plays on. And I said, I want to learn about lighting. I want to learn about mopping the stage.

I want to learn about putting the sets up. I want to learn everything like that. So as a result of that, you know, when I'm in years gone by when I'm acting, I always hang around the camera. And I always watch to see how the director's communicating, not only with the actors, because most of them don't communicate that much for the actors, but being an actor, I know how to communicate, you know, uh, working with, with actors and, uh, and see how much time they waste. It's a big deal. You know how much time they waste on a set, you know? And, uh, so, uh so when it came time for them wanting me to do more police stories,

I said, okay, I'll do more police, but let me direct one. So that's how I get into directing. I had not directed except for the stage. Right. Because I started a theater at the Triangle Theater here in New York in the 60s. Because I always believe that you, you can't wait. In this business, you know, you spend most of your time waiting, obviously. And that's what you get paid for, waiting, not doing your job.

But you've got to create. You have got to be the guy who's the leader. And thank God, somewhere along the line i've always been you're a self-starter yeah well tell tell gilbert you that the how dating a jewish girl kind of led and led to an acting career i was you were gonna go there i was just gonna go there because you know i have to lead it to judy i'm feeding you yeah okay yeah I'm giving you what you want. Well, you know, I was dating a gal named Faye Newman. And yes, she was Jewish. And I was sort of 16, I think.

And the teacher in school, Miss Jacobson, my mentor, happened to – I went to a vocational high school. Grady, William E. Grady Vocational High School. It had no guidance. It had no telling what kind of school you want to go to. It had none of that. And there was no showbiz in the family, by the way. No, no, no. It was the closest school to my house.

Okay. So it had to be a vocational high school. And I had no interest in sheet metal working or mechanics or whatever, woodworking or what have you. Fortunately, my brother was a commercial artist like your dad. Oh, interesting. And he had a commercial school there, class. So he took it.

And I didn't know any better. So I took it, too. He had talent. I did not. And I was fortunate enough to have this teacher, Patricia Jacobson, who another Jewish lady. And she had there was a speech and drama class in this vocational high school, which is shocking to me. I think because she was friends of the mother of the girl I was dating who was not too thrilled with her daughter with a shiksa. You know what I mean?

And so somewhat, somehow, she cut me out of class to be in her class. And we'd talk. Talk about life, talk about this, that, and the other thing. And it sort of came around, let me know that she was a friend of, you know, and friend of the mother. It was very subtle and very good, but thank God I was perceptive enough to understand because as we say, the streets, I'm life taught,

you know, street taught, I can pick up on people's vibes or what they're really getting at and their behavior and their body language and all that jazz. And so I understood that, but in the meantime, she had engaged me, a contest had come around and, uh, and she somehow, some way talked me into, uh, doing, uh, doing this speech. And it was, you know, it's so, as the circle goes, I went home and my aunt lived underneath us in Brooklyn. And it just so happened, I said,

she wants me to do some kind of a speech. And it just so happened that her sister was there, a younger sister. And she said, well, what about this poem? And it was a poem about a soldier dying in a foxhole and discovering God for the first time and having a conversation with God. And so it touched me again. And I say that because of the circle of the video I did. We'll talk about later'll get to it so I did this speech and and I won I won in my class and then I won in my bill my building and I won we had three buildings at three buildings and I won it for the whole building here I was now in in this is contest and and then she

changed it to have a rendezvous with deaf and she changed it again to Cyrano de Bergerac where you do that whole speech about you about the nose and so on and so forth and here I am I won for my district and now I won for my borough I'm one for Brooklyn it's a lot of pressure I mean it's astounding it's astounding and there I was representing Brooklyn in the city finals of the five boroughs. And I didn't win. But because that was the time I say I didn't win because it was some some young guy did a speech about communism. And it was a wonderful time to do that speech. You know, it was the 50s, 53 or four. And so in a very patriotic speech, anyone. But you had the bug at this point? That gave me, you know, before I knew I was graduating. And, you know, I played, I was, you know, always athletic.

So I played baseball and I was also the Brooklyn Dodger rookie tryout. We had at Ebbets Field. That's cool. Of all, amazing. And that's a whole story in itself. Well, with Al Campanus and all. Oh, yeah, you know that. Yeah, it's interesting stuff.

I know who he was, too. I'm a baseball guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But tell us briefly, since you mentioned it, tell us about coming up to bat against Koufax. Well, you know. Also Jewish, Gilbert. Yes, Jewish and Koufax.

And the greatest pitcher. Maybe the greatest pitcher that ever lived. Yeah, yeah, fantastic. I used to watch him, you know, on television when he'd throw a strike and he was unhappy because it was not the strike he wanted to throw. Imagine. Just on the edge, that edge. And that's also a great teacher as far as I'm concerned because that teaches me a great deal. I always want to get it right because, you know,

acting is the only place where you get to do life over. That's interesting. Wow. See? It's the only place you get to do life over. Cut. Let's do it again. Let's fix it.

I come back next night on a play. I'm always fixing, fixing, fixing. It didn't go perfect. And you know, we'll never get it perfect, you know? So, but that's, that's it. That's what you do. You're supposed to do. Keep working and making sure you're doing it. So I'm a stickler for that. So when he, he throws a strike and it's not exactly where he wants it, that's my man, you see? But anyway, I was off probably doing a work on this speech and i was the all-star first baseman right would you believe uh and only because i was a uh i had a pete rose mind

set you threw yourself into it oh man i tell you it didn't matter what the score score was but anyway i came back to this game and uh i said what what's going on? He said, the guy's throwing a no-hitter against us. I said, put me in, put me in. So I got in, and I was the last batter to face Sandy Koufax. Oh, wow. And he throws this pitch, and I got to hit the ball out for an out. It was a fly ball to right field, but I got to hit the ball. You were the 27th out? Yeah, I was the last out. There's some honor in that. What a great, what a great.

That's a great story. Yeah, yeah. But that other story, you know, about the trial with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Yeah. Fantastic. Tell us, because it's fun. When we get, having a trial, we're all warming up, and we come out in the dugout, and Al Campanis, who was then a scout.

Right. He later would become the GM of the Dodgers. Right. He says to us, now listen, nobody, but nobody walks on this field. When your foot touches Dodger dirt, you run. So I was so excited to be there. When my foot touched Dodger dirt, I got a nosebleed. And I'm trying to get my nose to stop bleeding, and I'm on the field.

And I'm running to the outfield, and I'm thinking, oh, my gosh, and I'm seeing all the signs and all the bed boards. Right. Hit this sign. What was it? In Winnesfield? Whatever. Yeah, all kinds of things.

So I'm bleeding over there with my uniform and a glove. By the time I got back to somewhere, everybody was assigned to this, that, and that was a disaster. But years later, I become very good friends with Tommy Lasorda, the manager of the L.A. Dodgers. And Campanis is now, as you said, the general manager. And I'm sitting in the booth with him watching Doc Gooden pitch against Fernandez, Sid Fernandez.

And I'm watching it, and I see Doc Gooden go into his windup, and the Dodgers get a runner on first base. And I said to him, you can steal on this guy easy. He goes to his windup up here. Uh-huh. You know? So he calls down. He calls to Tommy.

He says, you can steal on this guy. Goes down. Boom, guy steals the base. So you're scouting for the Dodgers at this point. But it's amazing. You're a ball fan, and you understand. You watch these guys play. Sometimes you say, they don't know.

I'm picturing Doc Gooden's windup now, and yes, it was very deliberate. Well, yeah, now he comes set. There's a slide step. Right, right, right. You can't come. And you're still playing ball. I play. I've got to pitch tomorrow.

That's fantastic. I won eight championships in the softball league. Broadway show leagues. And I'm the only player that won MVP three years. Broadway show league? Broadway show league. Three years in a row. And the fourth year, the commissioner wouldn't give me the award.

He said, I can't give you a four. It was my best year because I pitched a no-hitter. And he said, I can't give you a four. He said, you should have four, but I can't give me the award. He said, I can't give you a four. It was my best year because it's a no-hitter. And he said, I can't give you a four. He said, you should have four, but I can't give it to you. Did it break your heart when the Dodgers first, when they left? Yeah, but actually, you know, I was a crazy guy because even though I was born in Brooklyn, I was a New York Giants fan.

Wow. Willie Mays. That's sacrilege. I know, that's sacrilege. My brothers were Yankee fans too, so that. Wow. Now, did you do some price fighting too? I did. I did club fighting and then I went into the Golden Gloves, the famous Golden Gloves. And that was quite something. And even my first fight, as a matter of fact, as a result of my life, I've written the movie

and it's called Pistol Pockets. And I don't know if guys remember, I'm a little older than you guys and maybe a lot older, but there's a period of dress code called Pistol Pockets. And it was peg pants, saddles stitched down the side, and flaps on your back that were in your back pockets that were shaped in a pistol, a piece of cloth.

And the movie is about my life growing up with the teacher and with, it only stays right at 18, 18 years old. But it also includes boxing. And it's a real wonderful come of age. And Warner Brothers is looking at it as a mistake. Very cool. Yeah, yeah.

And how were you if you had to rate yourself as a fighter? I was a good street fighter. You know, I used to fight all the time on the street. But in the ring, I only had about four or five fights. And when I lost one, that was the end. That was it. I said, I lost. You weren't going to be Rocky Marciano undefeated.

Yeah, right, right, right. So this hoists. You know, I was watching Marciano, too. I was watching the movie you made. Oh, wow, you did some great research. Well, I dig in. And I was watching the boxing scenes, and I'm thinking, this guy knows how to throw a punch.

Clearly, because in some movies you watch boxing scenes, and they look rather silly. Well, you know, as it was the case, and I did Yanks 3 Detroit, nothing, top of the seven, playing a baseball player, pitching on stage. Hal Prince hired me to do that. He was the original director, and he got let go. But before he – oh, I shouldn't say he got let go.

They had a difference of opinions, and I think he might have quit. But what happened was when I got on stage, I started pitching, and he said, what are you doing? I said, what do you mean? He said, you're pitching with your left hand. I said, yeah, I'm left handed. He said, well, that's no good because you got your back to the audience. I said, OK, I'll go to the other side, pitch from there.

He said, that's no good either. He said, because that's a weaker side of the stage. I said, OK, I'll pitch right-handed. So I, so I can throw right-handed and left-handed, you see. So I, so I pitched the whole game as a Yankee ball player, Yankee professional pitcher is right-handed with the wrong hand. Right. And, uh, Steve Garvey, uh, you know, Steve from the L.A. Dodgers, he came. He said, I've never seen an actor portray a baseball player as authentic as you have. And I said, I'm doing it with the wrong hand. Wow.

He almost fainted. He almost fainted. That's fun. But again, playing the heavyweight champ of the world, the only undefeated heavyweight champ of the world, Rocky Marciano, was right-handed. So I had to fight right-handed. Because when I boxed in the gloves, I boxed left-handed. But you can't tell.

No, no, no, no. I mean, I do that. You know, I can do that. When you prepare for a part, I heard you decide if the character is right-handed or left-handed. And I'll tell you a great story about that. Why? Because, as I said to you before, I watch behavior.

But why do you do that? Why do you make that choice? Because I can see. And you talk about Rod Steiger, okay? He's so left-handed, it's disturbing. Not sure what that means means but I love it watch him and perform it's a character trait

I'm sure all his characters that he played are not left handed you understand so you know and I play some true life characters too and so right handed left handed, it saved my life.

I was in Genoa and I had chosen this character to be right-handed. He's a detective from New York and I chose him to be right-handed. And so, the director, I'm running down the street in Genoa, and the director says to me, I want you to shoot at the fleeing bus. Maude Adams was on the bus running. Maude Adams, wow. Maude Adams. Yeah.

Yeah. So I said, I'm a New York cop. I said, I can't. I don't make that shoot at a bus. What am I going to hit? He said, shoot at it. So he said, oh, I'll blow a tire out. He's so funny, you know, baloney. So he just went, so I'm thinking, what am I going to do? All right, I'll make this director happy.

I'm going to argue with him. So there I go. I'm running down the street and I'm going to shoot the thing. And all of a sudden a real police car comes by here with guns out the door on me, seeing me with a gun running down the street. Wow. And I see it. I go, whoa. I turn my hand back. They cut in front of me. They jump out of the car.

And everybody's screaming, it's a movie. It's a movie. It's a movie. So now everybody's pale and exhausted, excluding the cops. And the conversation in the car is, shoot him, kill him, kill him, kill him. And somebody say, no, no, no, don't fire, don't kill him until he fires the gun. So if I follow the director and I shoot the gun, I'm a dead man. If I'm left-handed, I run down the street this way, I don't see them.

I run this way, and then when I do see them, I go like this, and they blow me away. My hand goes right in front of the cop's car, and they shoot me. But right-handed, I just lay back. You lucked out. So it saved my life. Wow. Making those choices about being left-handed or right-handed is my characters.

How bizarre. It's bizarre, yeah. Those choices about being left-handed or right-handed is my characters. Yeah. How bizarre. It's bizarre. Yeah. And since you mentioned him, because we've mentioned him a lot on this show. We talk a lot about Rod Steiger on this show. Gilbert loves the pawnbroker. Oh, yeah.

I used to play poker with him. Yeah. Jerry Vale. What would Rod Steiger like to work with? Well, I'll tell you a funny story. I'll tell you a funny story. I'll tell you a funny story. When we were working on Jesus of Nazareth together, we also did Fist. Yeah, Fist for Norman Jewison, yeah. So he came and he said, Tony, I'd like to, you know, work out because –

do some rehearsal because, you know, I want to get away from the Steiger. Steiger. Steiger. So we do this scene, and as far as Steiger is concerned, I'm an audience. We have a scene together because every time we finish the scene, he says, how was it? Was there anything? Any good? I said, yeah, it was good.

Let's do it again, though. Let's do it again. Now I become his director. He thinks I'm an audience, but now I'm, yeah, it was was pretty good so now we do the scene again was it anything was it anything he kept saying yeah yeah it's fine well the funniest part about his entrance in in that movie on a horse when he came in and we had a big crowd Zeffirelli and of course and then all the people above here and so on and so forth and And he comes in. He does his scene. He's exhausted.

He comes in. He gets all his horse. When the scene is over, he looks. Applause. And Jeff is like, I already did a close. Fantastic. I want to do applause. Was he a character?

You spent time with him socially, too? You played cards with him? Sure. Yeah, we played at Norby Walter's. Oh, the famous Norby Walter's card game. Yeah, on Wednesdays. Somebody else, one of the other guests we had on the show played in that game. Sure.

I'm trying to remember who it was. Just fun. It's just, you know, hardly any little. I heard he was one of those actors that when he got into character, that was it. You couldn't call him by his own name anymore. Yeah, I don't know about that. I don't know about that. It was funny. He's a wonderful guy

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have the rules that you can fight. And now back to the show. What was the first big turning point role? Was it, was it, because you'd acted before, you'd acted. A lot of theater. Yeah, you've done a lot of theater, but you'd also done some TV. You were in Get Smart episode, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Was Honeymoon Killers a game changer? Honeymoon Killers was my first movie, yeah.

I mean, my first movie, 68, I believe, when we did it. And that's a story within itself. Why not the making of that movie? The making of that movie. You know? Yeah, Leonard Castle and the whole thing. And Scorsese started directing it. Did you know that?

He's very good. Scorsese spent a couple of weeks directing that picture and was replaced. Was replaced by, then we had, we had, yeah, that was,

that was weird because it was Marty's, I think, first film and he, as far as I know, the, as far as the producers were concerned,

he was, it was a low budget picture. I mean, the movie was made for $125,000 dollars and uh so Marty was using a lot of film you know and doing a lot of panning and not enough close-ups for the producers so they let him go and uh they hired they had some young some guy who'd never directed before except for some industrial films and he stood around pretty much with a script in his hand.

And because I had so much theater background, you know, I would rehearse the actors and come in with, yeah, this is a good idea. How about this? How about that? And so we did that for quite a while. And come the week or week and a half maybe of the film, and I was working with Leonard Castle throughout the whole thing,

to change the script, cut this, do this. Because when I first got that script, it was that thick. It was like 200 pages or more. And we cut it down, cut it down. And he said, you know, we don't even have a director on this movie, so I'm going to take over as director. Leonard, so about a week, and so here he was, written and directed by Leonard Castle, getting all this movie. So I'm going to take over as director. Leonard. So about a week. And so here he was, written and directed by Leonard Castle, getting all this praise. Not a filmmaker. Not a filmmaker.

He was a musician. Wrote librettas. Yeah. And so here it was, Leonard Castle and getting all this, after the movie was a success, he was getting offers, but he never directed another movie. So strange because the movie made such a mark. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know that picture, Gilbert? Honeymoon Killers?

Very disturbing movie. And that was based on a true story. Sure. Oh, yes. Ray Fernandez and Martha Beck, they both went to the electric chair. They did. And it was a notorious trial, too, because she would talk about his sexual prowess, and her regret was that she could not sit on his lap while they were going to the electric chair.

Incredible. I mean, it was quite a romance there. Oh, and I forget the name of the actress. Shirley Stoller. Yes, yes. Shirley was great. Yes yeah she was perfect yeah yeah it was later in uh seven beauties she absolutely was that's right absolutely you you you played a spaniard i played a spaniard and the funny you want to hear a fun of the funny story i mean i

got a million of them uh i got hired by herb gardner one of our great, you know, Thousand Clowns and so on, and hired to do a play with Milton Berle on Broadway. A name that has come up billions of times. I was burying that one for later, but go ahead. Okay. Yeah, you did the Goodbye People. The Goodbye People, yes. And so I got hired to play Milton's son,

you know, the Jewish uptight lawyer. And so I say to Herb, listen, Herb, I've got to go do a movie, Honeymoon Killers. I said, but I'll be back. I'm only going to be gone a week. And I have one scene in the play that you can jump around. And he said, no problem, no problem. But do me a favor. so you can jump around and he said no problem no problem but do me a favor when the uh when we're gonna have a first reading with brenda vaccaro and and milton and so on i said he said come back for

the reading see if you can arrange it with your producers i do i'm raymond fernandez so now i'm i'm raymond fernandez and so i come down and Milton says, who's this? She says, that's your son. That's Tony. He says, my son. So I knew I'm in trouble right away, you know. So we do the reading. And, of course, Milton, in the first reading, was sitting around a table. He gets up, makes an exit, goes up the stairs and for applause.

Unbelievable. He makes the first reading. Unbelievable. It's amazing. So now what happens is while I'm away doing the movie and I'm just finishing up, I call back and I say, okay, I'm on my way. The stage manager says, don't hurry. I said, don't hurry.

Why? He said, well, because when you were away, your understudy did the rod. And he looks so much more like Milton. We're going to go with him. I see. I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. You can't strike me out on the bench. I said, you hired me. So I come back and I say to Herb, I got to have a meeting with you. So I speak with him at Downey's.

The great Downey's is no longer with us. As you know, that's a, that's a bar in eighth Avenue. Also gone. Gone. And so we sit down with him and we I say to him, Herb, give me 15 minutes. I'll transform back into the character. You know, I just did the Spaniard over there. He said, I'm having so much trouble with Milton. You know, Tony, I just got to go with my instincts.

I said, well, give me 15 minutes, 20 minutes. I'll do it. And then he said, look, I'll call you tomorrow. I said, don't tell me you're going to call me tomorrow. You're going to call me tomorrow and say, you're going to have to go with your instincts and go with him. He said, no, no, no, no. Okay. So he calls me and I said, Tony, I got to go with my instincts and go with the other guy. I said, okay, here's what I'm going to do. The part you took away from me, I want to understudy it. Now I want to be the understudy. He said, what? Why do you want to do that? He now I want to be his on the understudy he said

what why do you want to do that he said you got a run of the play contract understanding the other lead Bob dishes part he said you know you don't do anything I said no no I want to do that so now I do it he's okay he's saving me money so now I transform into this son. And everybody keeps saying, who's that? Who's that? Who's that? So what happens is we're having a run through before we go out of town with everybody in the audience, Hal Prince, Paddy Chayefsky, you name it, who is the big guys, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, the whole mishpuka was out there. The whole mishpuka.

The whole mishpuka. So there we are. All these people out in there. So I get a call, I said, from Herb. He said, Tony, you think you can read that part for me? I said, well, I know the part. I'll do it. He said, I want you think you can read that part for me? I said, well, I know the part. I'll do it. He said, I want to just see it.

Also, the producer. Oh, my God. Terrific guy. I forget his name. That's okay. We'll take it. So I come in. I do the part for the producer.

He said, gee, that's wonderful. Herb will be here in a while. Herb is crazed, you know. It's a big night. He comes in. I said, Her, that's wonderful. Herb will be here in a while. Herb is crazed, you know, it's a big night. He comes in, I said, Herb, Herb, you want me to do that thing? So I do it for him. He says, that's wonderful. Can you do that tonight?

No rehearsal, nothing. I said, yeah. I said, however, I got one problem. He said, what? I don't like the way you directed the scene. He said, what do you mean? I said, it, I got one problem. He said, what? I don't like the way you directed the scene. He said, what do you mean? I said, it's not right. He said, well, okay.

All right, you do what you want. He said, just stay out of Milton's way. That was the direction. Just stay out of Milton's way. I love that. So now I go into Milton's and they're getting made up. This is nighttime, you know. Milton, I'm your son tonight. I love that. So now I go into Milton's and they're getting made up. This is nighttime. Milton, I'm your son tonight.

What? Yeah. Let's do some words together. Okay. Okay. So now we do the scene. And in the middle of the scene, Milton stops. Everybody's out.

He says, are you going to say the line or are we going to bring the curtain down? The stage manager says, Milton, it's not him. It's your line. You're up. The line is, and he throws the line to Milton. Wow. Well, it's right. And then Milton came out for the bows with the towel and

apologized to me, to the audience, and he said, I bet you never thought you'd see Milton Berle apologize. So then everybody, oh, it was great, Tony. It was great. Listen, we'll work you in. I said, I bet you never thought you'd see Milton Berle apologize. So then everybody, oh, it was great, Tony. It was great. Listen, we'll work you in. I said, they're not working me in.

I'm doing the part. We're going out to Philly. Never got another note outside of the Philadelphia or out of Toronto and on Broadway when we did the show. Never received another note of the direction of the staging of so on and so forth. That's cool. Remarkable stuff. That's cool. It's amazing. Now, no listener of this show.

This is where Tony's going to bow out. Let me get away without asking you this. Do you know what Milton Berle is most famous for? Schlung. You can say it. It's only for the internet. You for? Schlung. You can say it. It's only for the internet. Schlung. Yeah, only for the internet.

Well, you know the wonderful story about Forrest Tucker? Is this the golf course story? Another name. Another name that comes up a lot. John Ireland, Forrest Tucker, all known for their size of their mitts. John Ireland. John Ireland? There you go.

Another one. Oh. So Buddy Hackett and the guys are sitting around, and they're going to have a contest. So they'll see whose slung is bigger. So Buddy Hackett says, Milton, just show enough to win. We heard that story with Tom Jones. We heard that story with all kinds of different people. Oh, yeah.

With the same thing, just showing up to win? Yeah, yeah. I want to say, just to... Go ahead, Bill. Who was the other one who was supposed to... A comedian. We were told Guy Marks, the comedian. Guy Marks.

Do you remember him? No, I don't know him. Now, so were you ever honored enough to see Milton Berle's dick? To tell you the truth. When we were in the bathroom together at the urinals, he turned to me and he said, do you want to see the Big Apple? It's a happy man now.

I said, no, thank you. And now I kick myself. I would have liked to see the size of that thing. What a moment in show business history. Because we've had about at least three guests who've seen Milton Berle's dick. Yeah, how much is whyibel claims he saw it. I can't remember who else. Just a couple of the quick things about Honeymoon Killers,

which if our listeners haven't seen Honeymoon Killers, see it, because it's a disturbing movie. And you're so absolutely creepy in that movie. Thank you. And this is what I found in Old Times Review, and they called you thrillingly, they referred to your thrillingly disgusting smarminess. Which is a compliment. Compliment, yeah.

Yeah. Absolutely. France, what's your foe's favorite movie? Yes, it is. And they weren't sure at first about hiring you. So that's a whole other story. I'll tell you that one too it's uh you know i'm working in my theater the triangle theater on 88th street between first and second avenue right right above uh below elaine's and uh actress marilyn chris says to

me you know they're doing this movie you should should go up for it. You're perfect for it. Honeymoon kills. So I call this woman. She said, well, how old are you? I told her, she said, oh, no, no, you're much too young for that. And we're only seeing authentic Spanish people, too, with accents. So, okay. So Marilyn, a week passes, and she says, they still haven't cast that part.

You should really go up there. So I go up. The woman says, what are you doing here? I said, well, let me show you something. So I sit in the chair, put my hand on my hair, pull it back, and I speak to her in the Spanish accent. She says, oh, my God. I'll send you in.

So I go into the room with the producers and speak to them only in the Spanish accent and after I get the part right away. And I only spoke to them. They said to me, would you mind reading other actresses that come in? I said, fine, it would be my pleasure.

So, and I never and throughout all the readings, the whole week, never spoke to them without an accent. You see, off camera, I mean, relax. So, one of the producers said, do you think we can send them to school to learn English better? A woman, a woman casting gal said, I've got to tell you, he doesn't have an accent. He said, what? They said, Tony, speak to us without an accent.

I said, no, sir, not until I sign the contract. Which I never did. I never did speak to them without the accent until I signed the contract. I know the mentality, you see. And that was just great. I mean, I have so many stories. Now, don't you be a stranger here.

OK, yes, yes. Hi. You told her we're married. Uh huh. Well, me too. Jesus, Martha, I go to New Jersey next week to marry Doris Acker. How am I going to bring her back here if you're here? It's impossible.

You know I've got to continue my business. Don't worry. I'll think of something. Now what's the matter? Oh, that's Mama. She doesn't want to go to New York. Martha, that's completely out of the question. I mean it. Look, you say you love me.

Okay, that you're going to kill yourself if you can't come up here? Okay. But you can't bring the old lady. What else am I going to do with her? Get rid of her. Choke her. I don't care what the hell you do with her. But you can't bring her up here. You understand?

Tell us how William Friedkin saw you in Honeymoon Killers and what happened. There you go. Yeah. William Friedkin and Phil D'Antoni, the producer, saw the Honeymoon Killers. And they said, gee, let's get him for Sal Boca. And the guy said, we have to go to Spain to get him. He's got a Spanish accent. I love that.

They thought he was Spanish. He's got a Spanish. And fortunately enough, I think Wiener, I believe, not that Wiener, but there was a casting guy and said, no, no, he's a New York actor. He doesn't have the accent. And that's how that happened. You know, that's what this business is about boy perception of uh you know they say uh you know i know when i'm directing i say uh how about this

actor they say well i think he's he's working he's over there i said thinking is no good find out for sure if he's working or he's available or not available. Because when I did Blood Brothers with Richard Gere and Paul Savino, that's another case. Richard Price was in my building at 365 West 77th Street. He was in my building and he was writing this book, Blood Brothers. And we had a doorman named Jimmy who was theatrically wise. And he would talk to him and I would talk to him about show business. And he said, I'm writing this thing for, you think I can get Tony to read it?

So he finishes it, finishes the script. And I get it. And I read it and loved it. And so Robert Mulligan is director to Kill a Mockingbird. Academy Award winning. He's the director. So I meet with him. And as thorough as I can be, I speak with him like four hours about the character and the movie itself.

Because, you know, as you said, you know, when I read a script, I read everybody's part. And the directors and the actors and so on and so forth. And I see the movie, you know, I see, I see. So, so when I, he said, okay, you're it. He said, who do you want as your brother? Who do you want as your this and so on. So he said, I'm thinking Paul Savino. He said, and I said, yeah, great, great, great. He said, but I'm working with a young man for your son. He said, I'm, I said, I'm working with him and we'll go into rehearsal and then we'll have the kid. So somewhere along the line in the rehearsal,

he said, the kid is not working out. He says, I got to get a son for you. So I called my agent, Ed Lomato, who was great at mulatto, who he had Richard Gere as a client. And he said, I'm going to send them over. And I said, good, I'll do the screen test with him, and I'll even negotiate his contract.

I can tell you how much he can get for it, you know, which I like doing. And so we did Richard, and he got the, I mean, we did Gere, yeah, Richard Gere, and he got the part, and the rest is history. It's a beautiful movie. But why I tell you that story is because they wanted me to do Fist, Norman Jewison. And I couldn't because I was doing Blood Brothers. But what happened was they had hired a kid, I forget what actor it was, to play against Stallone. And Stallone was eating them up on the screen.

They just couldn't get there. So they inquired, while I'm shooting Blood Brothers, you know, what my availability was. And it just so happened, I had a week off. And so what I could do, and we'd arrange, talk about agents and talk about, you know, if he's available, if he's not available. I had a week off from Blood Brothers.

I went and did Fist for the first week because Fist jumped 20 years in the picture, you know, 20 years later. After that week, I went back, did, finished up Blood Brothers and then came back and did the rest of Fist. So I did two movies at the same time, which was timing. Yeah. All about timing. Yeah, yeah. But you got to work with your friends on A French Connection. That's true.

That's true. And you're from a working-class family. Oh, yeah. And yet when you – and I found this very surprising. When you told them you wanted to go into show business, they were very enthusiastic about that. Yeah, yeah. As far as my father and mother and brothers were concerned, if I wanted to be going into be acting school, I was already a star. I was already a star in their mind, you know?

It was remarkable. It was very inspiring how they would travel distances to see you in small parts. Yeah, you're terrific how you did this research. I mean, they did. When I did, when I went away to, you see, talk about, I don't know what you want to talk, but describe this as, because when I studied acting at the dramatic workshop for a year I was considered

the the guy in the school they wanted me to go after a year to go to work you know I was getting all the reviews and all that jazz and I said I'm not ready they said what do you mean I read I said I just learned one way of acting that you taught me. And it was, I was being taught by a former choreographer. So he was generally teaching me from the outside in and basically being from Brooklyn and having the background of boxing and baseball and all that stuff and streets, street, it saved me because that I was able to be emotional and be able to fulfill the direction, which was take two steps here, turn, say the line. This is the kind of direction I was able to be emotional and be able to fulfill the direction, which was take two steps here, turn, say the line. This is the kind of direction I was getting. Now, a lot of kids up

there didn't have my background to understand how to justify those things. So when I left that school, I learned from the outside in. It helped me a great deal about direction and power of the stage from his point of view, you know? But I was not being fulfilled because I would be able to do a scene on stage, have cry, have the audience cry, have them laugh and be thinking, what am I going to eat after the show? What about the softball game I'm going to play? And I'm thinking, what am I going to eat after the show? What about the softball game I'm going to play? And I'm thinking, this can't be acting.

So I went to another acting school where I can learn from the inside out. But I was smart enough to say, I'm going there being dumb. Because once you think and you're the star of this other school, you think you know something. I was smart enough to say, I'm not going to go there and protest anything. I'm going to learn their half of the side. That's why I'm going there. As I was there and I'm the kid, I was 18, 19. So I must've been 20 years old when I went to the other acting school. And after I'm there for a couple of months, the teacher comes to me and he says, I want you to teach. I said, what do you mean teach? He said, teach acting here.

I said, what do you mean? I said, you have to have, these are young people, I'm saying. These are young people coming. You have to have the sensitivity. You were 20. To deal with that. And I'm saying, he said, you see, you know that. That's why I want you to teach.

So I taught for a year. I taught Mama Cass. I love that. You know? Yeah, that's great. Mama Cass. I taught Frankie Lyman.? Yeah, that's great. Mama Cass. I taught Frankie Lyman. Cass Elliott was taking acting classes. Why?

Cass Elliott was taking acting classes. How about that? Yeah. And so. The way worlds collide. Yeah. And Samson Rafelson was a teacher. Samson Rafelson wrote The Jazz Singer, first talking movie picture.

And the other teacher was Joshua Logan as teaching directing. How about that? And, I mean, he did all the musicals that they keep repeating and repeating and repeating. And he, in fact, it was Josh Logan who sent me for my first reading. And my first reading was quite an adventure. I was playing a 21-year-old gigolo, kind of a lover, an older woman,

in a California by a swimming pool. And Carmen Capalbo was the director. They were going to do a play called Faster, Faster by Bill Marchant, I believe. Yeah. And so I went up for this reading. It was the biggest theater I've ever seen in my life. You know, I've been working in a 50-seat theater, and I'm walking onto a Broadway stage with no set on it.

You know how huge that is with a thousand people audience. And here I feel like a peanut. And they've got a guy reading the girl. So as far as I'm concerned, I'm all over him. He's going to play a girl. And at one point, I say the line I have, I say,

tell me the truth. Don't I look like a Michelangelo statue? It's a great line. Come and Kapow, but laugh like you did. And he falls out of the truth. Don't I look like a Michelangelo statue? It's a great line. Come and Kapow for the last like you did, and he falls out of the aisle. And so what happened was, what do I know? So I called the next day, and I said, do I have the part? First reading.

He said, what? He said, well, we'll know what thinking about it. He said, you did very well, Tony. And if you're not getting the part, you're certainly going to be the understudy. He said, that's for sure. He said, so now the play gets canceled altogether. They don't do the play. And he said to me, I want you to be in Three Penny Opera. I said, what's that? He said, what? You haven't seen that show? I said, no. He said, okay, I want you to play the street singer. I said, street singer? What is that? You know? So he said, well, go want you to play the street singer. I said, street singer? What is that?

You know? So he said, well, go see the show. So I go down there. Jerry Auerbach is the street singer, you know, and he's singing. And I'm bowled over by that production at the Theater de Lys, you know, the original comic of Palo Verde. And I come back. He said, did you see it?

I said, yeah. He said, what do you think? I said, it's fantastic. He said, so I want you to I said, yeah. He said, what do you think? I said, it's fantastic. He said, so I want you to do the street singing. I said, I can't sing. He said, can you yell loud? I said, oh, yeah. Can you yell loud?

Yeah. He said, okay, do it. So I said, then why do you want, no, no, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I said, why do you want to hire me? You don't even know if I can act. He said, what do you mean? I saw you do the audition. I said, no, I had a script in my hand.

I was not acting. He said, I want to hire you. I said, no, I got to audition for you. He said, well, okay, okay. So I said, I want to do something that I know. So I come in, costume, makeup, everything. So the stage manager said, you ready? I said, I'm ready for 20 minutes. Went upstairs, transformed into an old man

because I always played old men as young men, as a young man. Came down, they didn't know who I was. And they said, excuse me, can we help you? Oh, sorry, we're having auditions here, sorry. And I walked towards the stage, talked to them only in the voice, got up on the stage, got up on stage

and did a scene, a six-page monologue from Elmer Rice's Edding Machine. And they came up on stage after with crying and say, and Carmen said, look, look, now will you take the job? I said, now I'll show you, I can't sing. So I was right again. He said, okay. He said, look, look, uh, uh, you can sing with other people. I said, Oh yeah, that I could do. Okay. Be, be in the gang, be in the member of a gang. It's okay. Which, which part. I said, oh, yeah, that I could do. Okay, be in the gang. Be in the member of a gang.

I said, okay, which part? He said, Bob the Saw. Bob the Saw. Oh, yeah. Wait a minute. That part should be played by a fat man. He says, what? I said, I'll play him as a fat man, okay?

Big fat man. So at this point, you're saying, do whatever you want, Tony. You do whatever you want. So now I put the padding on and the nose, the putty, the putty, the whole thing. I do a whole character in a fat thing, and I do the part. Now, we had a – the gang members used to double as beggars, and the guys used to take rags and put them over their faces and so on. Not me.

I used to take a whole, make a whole other character, different nose, different hair, gray, a babushka, a whole thing. And I had a line. It was a drum roll and I would say, that must be the guard of honor. Little do they expect they'll be seeing us today. That was my line. I used to get applause every night after I deliver that line because I would put on a whole I made a whole character of it I had a

voice you know that must be the god of honor you know little do they expect we'll be seeing us today and then it's we got ended it was great because the show was running for years and the band would turn and I was their entertainment for the night. You know, they would turn to see what I was going to do that night. So it was great fun. And it's that kind of thing when you're talking about when my parents came to visit me when I did Summer Stock, to remind you, after the year of an acting school at the dramatic show, after the year of acting at the Actors Repertory Theater and teaching, I went away as an apprentice in summer stock for $8 a week

and painted signs and did things. You really immersed yourself in the world of being an actor. Yeah, learning all that stuff rather than going out and, you know, already two years of training. So I would go there and paint signs and be an usher and all that kind of stuff, but I'd have a part. And every time I did a part, I made a whole thing of it that was not just a...

No small parts. No small parts. And then my mothers and father would drive up 400 miles to come and see me do a walk on you know nice that they supported great great support i'm very fortunate so you never like you know ever sat back and said you know i'm a star i know what i'm doing or any of that well i know what i'm doing yeah but i don't say i don't you know do the the thought crap you know i'm interested in the work.

I'm interested in the people. You're interested in every aspect of the work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell us about your friendship with Scheider and the French connection. Well, Roy Scheider and I, we'd done at least five projects together, and he worked in my theater. And the great thing is Jason Miller, the great Jason Miller, who was also an actor,

but also wrote The Exorcist. Yeah, and that championship. That's right. That championship season. We did all of Jason's plays at my theater before that championship season. And in fact, he wanted me to play in the championship season downtown but i was probably too wrapped up working for free at the at the triangle theater to do that and that was a big

mistake uh but uh so roy scheider uh performed in jason's full-length play uh and and one night uh play uh and and one night uh Roy had to go and do Clute I think the movie with Jane Fonda yeah and it had night shoot so he had it he couldn't do the play and so Jason jumped into his own play oh wow the lead in his own play that's when he was married to Jackie Gleason's daughter Linda how did you get into French Connection Was it because Friedkin saw you in Honeymoon Killers? I think so. And they said this guy has to play Sal and then you wound up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I made quick friends with Sonny Grasso, you know

the real detective that Roy played in the movie. And then we did Popeye Doyle. Popeye Doyle and Eddie. I hung out with all those guys, you know and that movie's just so much fun. And same thing with Seven Ups, too. Same

group. Which was directed by Philip. Phil D'Antoni. Right, right, right. Directed and produced, yeah. You know, the stories about French Connection and Gilbert, we've talked about it, how Jackie Gleason was pursued for Popeye Doyle and Lee Marvin. And I think Frank Sinatra. No, no. I heard they shot with Jimmy, they they shot with Jimmy Breslin.

They started out with Jimmy Breslin. Did you know that? Oh, no. Yeah. Peter Boyle turned it down. Peter Boyle turned it down. Frank Sinatra was wanted for Dirty Harry. Dirty Harry.

Yeah, that's right. Oh, yeah. But I know Gleason was considered. Really? But he had just come off of a film that didn't do well. Wow. I didn't hear that one. Yeah.

That's great. And the stuff about it, too. I mean, the chase scene. The chase scene. They didn't do well. Wow. I didn't hear that one. Yeah. That's great. And the stuff about it too. I mean, the chase scene, that they didn't have the proper permits. Yeah. That's crazy. Wild stuff.

Real wild stuff. Who is that clown? Jewish lucky. What about the last of the big time spenders? You think? No, you. He's spreading it around like the Russians are in Jersey.

They say we stick around and give them a tail. Our friend's name is Boca. Salvatore Boca. B-O-C-A. Well, downtown, they're pretty sure you pulled off a contract on a guy named DeMarco. Man, that's not a drop I'll open up a charge for you in Bloomingdale's. B-O-C-A. Doesn't rest a hand. And then on our own, after working a whole day and night, we tailed him to Brooklyn. And we sat on him for practically a week. Now, who do we come up with? Didn't they actually almost hit that woman in the chasing?

Well, at one point, I think he hits a car that he wasn't supposed to hit Or two A couple of those things, yes And Fernando Rey was cast by mistake Because he was trying to get a different actor. There was sitting Phil and Billy Friedkin watching a movie, a foreign film, and they wanted this actor. I think it was Belle du Jour. It was a Belle du Jour. And they wanted this actor, and they sent the wrong actor.

They sent Fernando Rey. Right. And Billy went to meet him at the airport, and he called Phil, and he says, the guy's got the wrong actor. Phil said, well, what does he look like? He's got a beard and everything. And he said, well, ask him if he wants to cut the beard off. And he said, he asked me.

He said, oh, no, no, no. I have the bed skein' underneath or something. It turned out brilliant. Your wife is outside. Your wife, Elisa, we met, is outside, and she's holding up a sign saying that you have to go to dinner. Oh. But tell us one thing about Larry Cohen, who's somebody that we love on this show. Oh, Larry Cohen, my goodness.

Who puts you in the movie God Told Me To, which we were talking about. We did a play together, too, a play called Nature of the Crime. Larry saw me in Honeymoon Killers, and he cast me in this role of a genius Jewish homosexual fellow. And I said to him, why are you casting me in that role? I said, what have you seen me do? He said, honeymoon killers. I said, that's fascinating that you're doing that.

I said, do you know that I can really do that? He said, I do. I said, I don't believe you. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to cast this part for you. He said, what? He said, I'm going to get five actors who are right for this role.

I mean, I know I can do this role and I want to do it. But I want you to really understand, even though you want to hire me, I want you to see these other actors. So he auditioned all the actors. And I said, so what do you think? He said, I want you.

I said, what do you want me? He said, because you're going to give me something more. They gave me everything they've got. But you're going to give me another thing. It's one of the best roles I've ever played. And I based the character on him and a fellow I played poker with and invited him to the show. Interesting.

And the guy said, my God, that's me. That's me up there. The guy who I played poker with. It's amazing. But anyway, then when I was doing Yanks 3, Detroit Nothing, top of the seventh on the play, Larry came to me and asked me to do this movie, Too Scared to...

God Told Me To. God Told Me To. And so we did. We shot the movie in the daytime, and I did my play at night, except on Wednesday when I had two shows, so we didn't shoot that day. We shot something else.

And that's how we shot that movie. That is a crazy movie. It's a police procedural that turns into a supernatural horror film. Yeah. Deborah Raffin, Sylvia Sidney, Sam Levine. Yeah. I saw somewhere that you protested or were just very strongly opposed to in the Metropolitan Opera House when they were putting on the production of the death of Leon Klinkhofer.

Yes, yes, exactly. I mean, the audacity of them to disrespect that man and praise the terrorist. And yeah, I'm very much involved in Israel and very big. I've been to Israel three times now. And the short shrift and prejudice against the Israelis is ridiculous. Just jealousy.

I mean, they're brilliant, brilliant, brilliant people. Have more Nobel Prizes than anybody in a small little country of it. And that they would put on a play that would praise the terrorists. And it was just awful, awful. Interesting. Yeah. Well, Elisa's going to get mad at us because she's got to take you to dinner. So set up this piece that you were kind enough to show us before, and we'll get you out of here.

You know, my friends, in all the movies that I've done, which is about 102, uh, to be precise and all the play I directed and so on and so forth, there comes time when something crosses your heart and you feel you must, you must do it. And it's a, it's a poem, uh, called just a common soldier by A. Lawrence Vaincourt. This is embedded at West Point, engraved in a statue at West Point. It touched my heart, and I learned it, and a friend said, we must film this. We did two years ago, and it's a five-minute video, and I implore you to go to justacommonsoldier.com on YouTube or whatever, and you'll see this video. reached 22 million views, which is astonishing number in two years. And, uh, I know they're going to play it for you. Yeah, we're going to play it to take out the episode. So everybody, but I do urge you to see it for yourself because the visual of it is a tribute to the great men, the great men and women who have fought this country and has given us our freedom,

and they don't get their due. And every time this thing is shown, when it's 22 million views, that probably translates to maybe 30 million or so people or more that have seen it, not counting when I do it at events, because that doesn't get into view, maybe 300, 800 people in there. But it's really something you want to see, but you'll hear it. Well, we'll play it. And also we send people to the website so they can actually see the visuals. God bless you. And we watched it before this interview and it was

really powerful. Thank you. Anything else to plug? Anything else besides the softball game tomorrow? You still doing Fiorello? I'm doing Fiorello, yes. I've been asked to do it in Philadelphia again where I did it once before and also another theater where my dear friend Dina Martin, Dina Martin's daughter, performed at a theater, I think in New Jersey, and we're going to do it there. Some other people want to do it for campaigns, you know, supporting. Because I did it, you know, when John Katsimatidis

was running for mayor, he bought 19 shows and attended every one, and he pointed, this is the way I want to be mayor of New York City. You know, so... Now, Fiorello LaGuardia. The man has to go to dinner. I know, I know, I know.

And your wife is going to kill me. All right, last question. Okay. He used to read. The comics. Yeah, the comics on the radio. Yeah, he read Dick Tracy. Was it during a newspaper strike?

Newspaper strike, yeah. He said, well, the newspaper strike isn't over, and I suppose the children want to hear something about their funnies. Do you miss them? Well, let's look at Dick Tracy. Let's see what Dick Tracy is doing. Oh, that's fantastic. Dick Tracy is doing.

Oh, that's fantastic. Well, I should let you go because your wife is going to get really pissed at me. She's going to come in here in a minute. And you let me eat, so I'm going to have to let you eat. This has been Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast with my co-host Frank Santopadre. amazing colossal podcast with my co-host frank santo padre and as much as i'm against all the guineas who have been on this show he does support israel and he did have an opportunity to see milton burles cock which he passed up yes which i'll never forgive you for. But we want to thank the great Tony LoBianco. The actor's actor.

Thank you, pal. Thank you, both of you. Tony, thanks. We know you're busy and we appreciate you coming in and giving us your time. My pleasure. I enjoyed being with both you guys. You're great. Thank you.

We'll see you again. God bless America. Bye-bye. Thank you. ¶¶ He was getting old and paunchy, and his hair was falling fast. And he sat around the Legion telling stories of the past, of a war that he had fought in, and the deeds that he had done, in his exploits with his buddies, they were heroes, every one.

And though sometimes to his neighbors his tales became a joke, all his Legion buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke. But we'll hear his tales no longer. For old Bill has passed away. And the world's a little poorer. For a soldier died today. He will not be mourned by many.

Just his children and his wife. For he lived an ordinary and quite uneventful life. Held a job and raised a family, quietly going his own way. And the world won't note his passing. Though a soldier died today. When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state. While thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great. Papers tell their whole life stories from the time that they were great. Papers tell their whole life stories from the time that they were young,

but the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung. Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land a guy who breaks his promise and cons his fellow man? Or the ordinary fellow, who in times of war and strife, goes off to serve his country and offers up his life? A politician's stipend and the style in which he lives are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives, while the ordinary

soldier who has offered up his all is paid off with a medal and perhaps a pension small. It's so easy to forget them, for it was so long ago that the old bills of our country went to battle. But we know it was not the politicians with their compromises and ploys who won for us the freedom that our country now enjoys. Should you find yourself in danger with your enemies at hand? Would you want a politician with his ever-shifting stand? Or would you prefer a soldier who has sworn to defend his home, his kin, and country,

his kin and country, and would fight until the end. He was just a common soldier, and his ranks are growing thin. But his presence should remind us we may need his like again. For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier's part is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians start. If we cannot do him honor while he's here to hear the praise, then at least let's give him homage at the ending of his days. Perhaps just a simple headline in a paper that would say, our country is in mourning for a soldier died today. Today. Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast is produced by Dara Gottfried and Frank Santapadre, with audio production by Frank Verderosa. Our researchers are Paul Rayburn and Andrea Simmons.

Web and social media is handled by Mike McPadden, Greg Pair, Nancy Chinchar, and John Bradley Seals. Special audio contributions by John Beach. Special thanks to John Murray, John Fodiatis, and Nutmeg Creative, especially Sam Giovonco and Daniel Farrell for their assistance.