Frank Puglia
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Filmography
Selected Frank Puglia film and TV show credits:
Acting Credits
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Biography
Frank Puglia (9 March 1892 – 25 October 1975) was an Italian film actor. Puglia had small but memorable roles in films including Casablanca (a Moroccan rug merchant), Now Voyager and The Jungle Book. He was originally cast as the undertaker, Bonasera, in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972), even participating in Marlon Brando's infamous screen test, but he fell ill before filming could begin. He was replaced by Italian-American actor Salvatore Corsitto, thus losing out on delivering one of the most famous opening lines ("I believe in America...America has made me my fortune.) in film history. Born in Sicily, the actor started his career as a teen on stage in Italian operas. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1907 and worked in a laundry before joining an Italian language theater group in New York. While appearing on stage, he was discovered by D. W. Griffith, which began an acting career spanning over 150 films. He usually played ethnic types in films, and claimed to have learned English from reading newspapers.
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