Ted de Corsia


Ted de Corsia was an American radio, film, and television actor best remembered for his roles as the ex-wrestler murderer Willie Garzah in the film The Naked City and as a gangster who turned state's evidence in the film The Enforcer.

Early years

Edward Gildea De Corsia was born in Brooklyn, New York.

Radio

De Corsia was a member of the cast of Blackstone Plantation. He starred in the title role on Mike Hammer and played Sergeant Velie on The Adventures of Ellery Queen. He also voiced roles on Family Theater, The March of Time, Cavalcade of America, Gang Busters, and The Shadow.

Film

He made his film debut in Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai and went on to make a career playing villains and gangsters in 1940s and 1950s films, including The Naked City, The Enforcer, Crime Wave, The Big Combo, The Killing, Baby Face Nelson, Slightly Scarlet, and The Joker is Wild.
In his last feature, The Outside Man with Ann-Margret and Angie Dickinson, his character, the mobster Victor, is killed off early in the film, but he later appears as his embalmed corpse, posed in a chair, holding a cigar.

Television

In the late 1950s and 1960s, he appeared in a number of television series, mostly westerns. He was featured on three episodes of the CBS courtroom drama series Perry Mason, including the episodes "The Case of the Drifting Dropout", in which he played murder victim Mort Lynch, and "The Case of the Positive Negative", in the role of murder victim George Emory. Other television appearances included The Californians, The Lone Ranger, Maverick, Have Gun Will Travel, Tales of Wells Fargo, Sugarfoot, Jefferson Drum, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Frontier Doctor, Mackenzie's Raiders, Riverboat, Tate, The Rifleman, The Twilight Zone, Sea Hunt, Lawman, Stoney Burke, Rawhide, Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, 77 Sunset Strip,The Dakotas, I Dream of Jeannie, Get Smart, Zane Grey Theater,The Outer Limits and The Monkees, episode "Hitting The High Seas", and "The Devil And Peter Tork",.

Death

He died at the age of 69 in Encino, California, from a heart attack. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.

Filmography