Ted De Corsia

Edward Gildea De Corsia was born on September 29, 1903, in New York City, and went on to build a career spanning Broadway, radio, film, and television before his death on April 11, 1973. Raised in Manhattan, he began working as a radio performer in the late 1920s, developing a reputation for his deep voice and commanding presence in crime and mystery programming.

De Corsia's stage career ran from 1929 to 1935, during which he appeared on Broadway in Symphony and in the Little Theatre Tournament. Concurrent with his stage work, he established himself as a prolific radio actor, lending his voice to network dramas including The Shadow, Gang Busters, The March of Time, Cavalcade of America, and Family Theater. He held the title role on Mike Hammer, portrayed Sergeant Velie on The Adventures of Ellery Queen, and was a cast member of Blackstone Plantation.

His film debut came in 1947 in Orson Welles's The Lady from Shanghai, a role that launched a sustained career playing villains and gangsters. The following year he appeared as ex-wrestler murderer Willie Garzah in The Naked City (1948), and in 1951 he played a gangster who turned state's evidence in The Enforcer. His subsequent film credits included Crime Wave (1954), The Big Combo (1955), Slightly Scarlet (1956), The Killing (1956), Baby Face Nelson (1957), and The Joker is Wild (1957). His final feature film, The Outside Man (1972), starred Ann-Margret and Angie Dickinson; De Corsia played the mobster Victor, a character killed early in the story who later appears as an embalmed corpse posed in a chair holding a cigar.

From the late 1950s through the 1960s, De Corsia appeared frequently in television, with a concentration in western series. He played George Winters in the Wanted: Dead or Alive episode "Chain Gang," which aired December 10, 1959. He appeared in three episodes of the CBS courtroom drama Perry Mason, including "The Case of the Drifting Dropout" (1964), in which he played murder victim Mort Lynch, and "The Case of the Positive Negative" (1966), in which he portrayed murder victim George Emory. Additional television credits included The Lone Ranger, The Untouchables, The Twilight Zone, Sea Hunt, The Outer Limits, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Monkees.