Joseph Campanella

Joseph Anthony Campanella (November 21, 1924 – May 16, 2018) was an American character actor born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sicilian immigrants Philip and Mary O. Campanella. His father worked as a pianist and his mother as a homemaker and dressmaker. Campanella grew up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan alongside his brothers, including actor Frank Campanella (1919–2006) and another brother named Philip. The family was staunchly Catholic, and the Campanella children spoke Italian before learning English. Over the course of his career, Campanella accumulated more than 200 television and film credits spanning from the early 1950s to 2009, and received nominations for the Tony Award, the Primetime Emmy Award, and the Daytime Emmy Award.

Campanella served in the United States Navy during World War II as a landing craft commander, entering service at age 18 and serving from 1944 to 1946, making him one of the youngest commanders in the Navy at that time. Following his military service, he graduated from Manhattan College in 1948 and studied drama at Columbia University. Before pursuing acting professionally, he worked as a radio sportscaster in Lewistown, Pennsylvania.

His Broadway career spanned the early 1960s and comprised three productions. The Captains and the Kings opened in January 1962 but ran for only seven performances. The following month, Campanella was cast in A Gift of Time alongside Henry Fonda and Olivia de Havilland, a production written and directed by Garson Kanin. His performance earned him a 1962 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play. His final Broadway appearance came in 1963 in the musical Hot Spot, which starred Judy Holliday. The production delayed its opening four times and ultimately ran 58 previews and 43 regular performances.

On television, Campanella held a recurring role as the criminal Joe Turino on the CBS daytime drama Guiding Light from 1959 to 1962. He played Dr. Ted Steffen on The Doctors and the Nurses from 1964 to 1965, and one of his most prominent roles came in the first season of the detective series Mannix (1967–1968), where he portrayed Lew Wickersham, the head of the agency employing Joe Mannix. He was released from the role after the first season when the show's concept was restructured. His performance as Wickersham earned him a 1968 Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. From 1969 to 1972, he appeared as attorney Brian Darrell in The Bold Ones: The Lawyers. In 1973, he guest-starred on The Mary Tyler Moore Show as an old flame of Mary Richards in the season three episode "Remembrance of Things Past." He played Ed Cooper, Ann Romano's ex-husband, in eight episodes of One Day at a Time between 1975 and 1984, and appeared as a love interest for Barbara Stanwyck's character in the first season of The Colbys (1985–1986). Campanella portrayed Harper Deveraux on Days of Our Lives from 1987 to 1988, a role that earned him a 1989 Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. He held additional recurring roles on Beauty and the Beast (1989–1990), General Hospital (1991–1992), and The Bold and the Beautiful (1996–2005).

Beyond dramatic television, Campanella co-hosted the Canadian educational program Science International between 1976 and 1979, which aired on Nickelodeon under the title What Will They Think of Next. He narrated the Discover science series on the Disney Channel from 1992 to 1994, and voiced the character of Dr. Curt Connors/The Lizard on Spider-Man: The Animated Series from 1994 to 1997. He also served as a spokesman for NAPA Auto Parts for several years beginning in the 1970s and provided the voice-over for BMW commercials in the United States. His final film roles were Donald Meeks in For Heaven's Sake (2008) and Emil in Lost Dream (2009).

Campanella met his wife, Kathryn Jill Bartholomew, a singer and dancer, in 1963 during the run of Hot Spot. They married on May 30, 1964, and had seven sons: Philip (b. 1965), Robert Yale (b. 1966), Joseph Anthony Jr. (b. 1967), Dominic Peter (b. 1969), Anthony F. (b. 1974), John Mario (b. 1977), and Andrew Michael (b. 1979). The couple also had a stillborn daughter, Lucy Kathryn, in 1981, and later attempted to adopt a daughter but were turned down. Campanella died on May 16, 2018, at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 93 years old.