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Joe Spinell was born Joseph J. Spagnuolo
on October 28th 1936 in
Manhattan. After working in theater
for a bit and even having a stint as a
contracted player at MGM he finally came
into his own. His niche was as one of
Hollywoods most popular tough guy
characters actors his specialties
were the seedy NY thug, the underworld
heavies, sometimes the seasoned cynical
cop -- which meant lots of work in the
cop and mafia craze of the 70s. His many
film roles in this vein were Willie Cicci
in The Godfather
Part I & 2, loan shark Tony Gazzo in
the first two Rocky
movies, Taxi Driver,
DiSimone in Cruising,
Paradise Alley, Vigilante,
The One Man Jury,
Brubaker,
Charles Lipsky in Frank
Sinatras last starring role in a
film The First Deadly Sin,
Nick in Farewell My Lovely,
Spider in Sorcerer,
Toredano in The Seven Ups,
Munato in Nighthawks,
etc.
He was also quite
adept at comedic versions of that same
role
as Manetti in Night
Shift, Melvin
and Howard, Losin
It, National
Lampoon Goes to the Movies,
Married to the Mob,
The Pick-Up Artist,
etc. He also broached the horror genre in
several features like Out
of the Darkness and the
1979 TV Movie Vampire
with Jason Miller, Kathryn Harrold,
Jessica Walter, and E.G.
Marshall. On of my favorites of his
(though atypical) is the cheapie space
classic Starcrash.
In the 1979 flick Spinell plays villain
Count Zarth Arn with a cast that also
includes Caroline Munroe, Christopher
Plummer, Marjoe Gortner, and David
Hasselhoff (!!).
However, as his first
starring role Joe Spinell chose something
very different writing, and acting
as executive producer in William
Lustigs Maniac.
His performance in the film is amazing!
Frank Zito is unsympathetic, horrific,
and so damn real a 1981 precursor
to the gritty Henry
Portrait of a Serial Killer.
Frank liked to scalp women and put the
bloody flesh-lined wigs on the mannequins
in his apartment where he also kept an
assortment of dolls many in
birdcages! Zito eventually gets his when
the mannequins in his apartment come to
life and twist off his head even
if its eventually revealed as a
hallucination.
This is creepy with a
capital C and Maniac
stands out even 24 years later as one of
the goriest films around. It features
multiple butcherings, scalpings, assorted
violence, and a unforgettable shotgun
scene where Tom Savini (as Disco
Boy) has his head blown off through
a windshield in S-L-O-W motion from SIX
different angles
if you think
youve seen it all
this one
will make you think again. Savini
definitely out does himself in FX
department.
As Zito, Spinell is so
believable -- which is especially creepy
given the fact that he wrote and
produced. How realistic was his
portrayal? Well
reportedly John
Wayne Gacy wanted Spinell to play him in
a movie! Supposedly to heighten his
performance as Zito, Spinell would go
without sleep for long stretches and then
get wasted in order to give him that
filthy, sloppy edge.
Maniac
is 88 of the most disturbing minutes ever
captured on film. The $48,000 gore-fest
was banned in The Phillipines, censored
in Britain, and just too downright
disturbing for anything near a mainstream
audience. The supporting cast includes
Caroline Munroe as a fashion
photographer, but this is Spinells
show all the way. As a bit of trivia:
Maniac was
one of the first films to use Dolby
Stereo.
With the taste of blood
still in his mouth, Spinell starred as
stalker supreme Vinny Durand in The
Last Horror Film which is
set against a backdrop of the Cannes Film
Festival. Jana Bates (Caroline Munroe,
yet AGAIN!) is at Cannes to promote her
film and accept an award for her
performance in Scream
(yep, thats the title of the
fictional movie and this was done in
1982!) Crazy NY cabbie Vinny has followed
her and wants Jana to star in his film
The Loves of Dracula.
Spinell was no doubt giggling to himself
when he gives Vinnys speech about
the excess of gore in todays
cinema. He even becomes violently
ill at a film he considers too bloody.
Determined to get to her, Vinny proceeds
to off Janas entourage one-by-one
in a myriad of ways until only she
remains. Once again Spinell is
amazing this time as the psychotic
fan brimming with delusions.
Spinell was a supposed
alcoholic and drug abuser in real life
who died in his Sunnyside, Queens, NY
apartment on January 13th,
1989 at the age of 52. Officially his
death is listed as a heart
attack but speculation runs deep to
a more lurid ending. From several sources
it has been reported that asthmatic
Spinell, also a hemophiliac, bled to
death after hitting his head in a drunken
fall. Ironically, he had written the
story, was set to produce, and had found
backing for the sequel to his most
notorious role. It was to be called
Maniac 2: Mr. Robbie. |