Ted de Corsia

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Ted de Corsia bigraphy, stories - Film

Ted de Corsia : biography

September 29, 1903 – April 11, 1973

Ted de Corsia (September 29, 1903 – April 11, 1973) was an American radio, film, and television actor best remembered for his role as a gangster turned state’s evidence in the 1951 film, The Enforcer (1951). In radio, he voiced roles on The March of Time, The Shadow, and Mike Hammer.

De Corsia was born in Brooklyn, New York. He made his movie 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 (1948),The Big Combo (1955), The Killing (1956), Baby Face Nelson, and Slightly Scarlet (1956).

In the late 1950s and 1960s, he appeared in a number of television series, mostly westerns including The Californians, Jefferson Drum, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Frontier Doctor, Riverboat, Tate, The Twilight Zone, Lawman, Stoney Burke, Rawhide, Daniel Boone, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, The Dakotas, I Dream of Jeannie and Get Smart.

In his last film, 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.

He died at the age of 69 in Encino, California, from a heart attack. His body was donated to medical science upon his death.

Selected filmography

Year Title Role
1948 The Naked City Willie Garzah
1949 The Life of Riley
It Happens Every Spring
1951 Crazy Over Horses
A Place In The Sun
1954 20,000 Leagues under the Sea
Crime Wave
1955 The Big Combo
1956 Slightly Scarlet
The Conqueror
The Killing
1957 Gunfight at the O.K. Corral Shanghai Pierce
1964 The Quick Gun Jud Spangler
1966 Nevada Smith

He was also credited as Ted DeCorsia and Ted De Corsia.