Dick Balduzzi

Busy American supporting actor of Italian parentage who was a familiar face on the small screen during the golden years of television. Balduzzi chose his career path while serving in the U.S. Navy. After studying at the Goodman Theatre School of Drama in Chicago he moved to New York and began to act in off-Broadway plays. To make ends meet, he also held a job at Toots Shor’s iconic restaurant in Manhattan, a famous meeting place for Hollywood celebrities. A fortuitous encounter with the casting director of The Jackie Gleason Show (1952) led to several gigs on the show from 1957, Balduzzi playing a variety of minor characters, from waiters to elevator operators. It took another seven years and a move to Los Angeles for the actor to secure regular work. From 1964, he was served best by being cast in sitcoms — helping to enliven, among others, I Dream of Jeannie (1965), Gidget (1965), Bewitched (1964), That Girl (1966) and Barney Miller (1975) –, often as police officers, salesmen or in friendly servile parts. Infrequent offerings in motion pictures included a private soldier in the war picture Kelly’s Heroes (1970) (filmed in Yugoslavia), a party guest in Pete ‘n’ Tillie (1974) and a prisoner in Michael Keaton’s zany Johnny Dangerously (1984). Until his retirement from the screen in 1990, Balduzzi supplemented his income by working a variety of other jobs, including as hotel clerks and bellhops (roles he often essayed on TV), short order cooks, as a dance instructor and acting teacher.