Tony Russel

Tony Russel, born Antonio Pietro Russo on November 23, 1925, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Italian immigrant parents, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, screen, and voice work across multiple decades and continents. He is also known under the variant credits Tony Russo and Tony Russell. He died on March 18, 2017, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the age of 91, and is interred at Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery under his birth name, Antonio P. Russo.

Following service in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, Russel pursued his education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He subsequently relocated to Rome, where in 1954 he established the English Language Dubbers Association, known as ELDA, consolidating the city's competing dubbing organizations into a single leading English-language dubbing group in Europe. Russel served as the organization's president until 1966, when Roger Browne succeeded him in that role.

His Italian film career began after he appeared in Burt Topper's War is Hell in 1963, following which he took the title role in La leggenda di Fra Diavolo. He went on to appear in a number of sword-and-sandal and Eurospy productions, including Secret of the Sphinx and Gladiators Seven, both released in 1964. In 1965 he played Zorro in Behind the Mask of Zorro, a role that carried particular resonance given that he had previously tested for the Walt Disney television version of the character, ultimately losing that part to Guy Williams. That same year he starred in the science fiction films Wild, Wild Planet and its concurrently produced sequel, War of the Planets. Russel was also among the American actors who declined the lead role in A Fistful of Dollars. He departed Italy for the United States in 1967, later appearing in The Hard Ride in 1971 and Soul Hustler in 1973.

His stage work brought him to Broadway in 1978, when he appeared in Same Time, Next Year.