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Filmography
1934
Belle of the Nineties
1935
Black Fury
1940
The Last Alarm
1941
The Shanghai Gesture
1942
Dr. Renault’s Secret
The Moon and Sixpence
That Other Woman
1943
It Ain’t Hay
Prairie Chickens
Taxi, Mister
Mission to Moscow
Bomber’s Moon
Behind the Rising Sun
Thank Your Lucky Stars
Swing Fever
Henry Aldrich Haunts a House
Whistling in Brooklyn
Lost Angel
1944
Shine On, Harvest Moon
Summer Storm
The Canterville Ghost
The Missing Juror
The Princess and the Pirate
1945
The Horn Blows at Midnight
Abbott and Costello in Hollywood
Dick Tracy
Dakota
The Thin Man Goes Home
1946
Live Wires
Mysterious Intruder
The French Key
1947
Sinbad the Sailor
Killer Dill
Unconquered
Nightmare Alley
1948
I Walk Alone
Relentless
The Noose Hangs High
1949
Neptune’s Daughter
Come to the Stable
Rope of Sand
The Devil’s Henchman
Abandoned
1950
Night and the City
Dark City
He’s a Cockeyed Wonder
1951
Pier 23
Criminal Lawyer
Ten Tall Men
The Light Touch
My Favorite Spy
1954
The Egyptian
1955
New York Confidential
New Orleans Uncensored
Blood Alley
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
Kismet
1956
Davy Crockett and the River Pirates
Comanche
Man in the Vault
1957
Hell Ship Mutiny
1958
The Man Who Died Twice
The Buccaneer
1959
Alias Jesse James
1960
The Facts of Life
1961
Swingin’ Along
The Errand Boy
1962
Zotz!
Five Weeks in a Balloon
1963
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
4 for Texas
1964
Cheyenne Autumn
The Disorderly Orderly
1966
7 Women
1967
The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin
1970
Which Way to the Front?
1974
Centerfold Girls
1975
Challenge to Be Free
1976
Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood
1977
Paesano: A Voice in the Night
1978
The Magic of Lassie
The One Man Jury
1979
Gas Pump Girls
1980
Alligator
The Man with Bogart’s Face
1981
…All the Marbles
1985
Doin’ Time
1987
Amazon Women on the Moon
1990
Dick Tracy
Mob Boss
Awards
Mike Mazurki was never nominated for an Academy Award.
Mike Mazurki: Learn more about him, review his filmography and more
With an intimidating face like craggy granite and a towering 6’5″ solid frame, Mike Mazurki was born Markiyan (Mykhailo) Mazurkevych on December 25, 1907 in what is now Ternopil, Ukraine. He emigrated with his family to the United States at the age of six, living in Cohoes, New York, just outside Albany. He attended LaSalle Institute in Troy, for high school. Upon finishing school, he changed his name to “Mike”. He later graduated from Manhattan College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1930. He became a professional athlete in three sports, primarily wrestling but also football and basketball.
He was discovered by Josef von Sternberg and given a bit part in his film The Shanghai Gesture (1941). This led to a long film and television career. Possibly his most memorable role was that of slow-witted thug Moose Malloy in the film noir Murder, My Sweet (1944), opposite Dick Powell. He portrayed the psychotic, knife wielding murderer, Splitface, in the original Dick Tracy (1945). He played a wrestler nicknamed “The Strangler” in Night and the City (1950) and a role imitating the manner of a George Raft henchman in the Billy Wilder comedy, Some Like it Hot (1959). He continued to wrestle during his acting career. His slurred speech was reportedly due to a wrestling injury to his Adam’s apple.
Mazurki made guest appearances on many well-known television shows, among them My Friend Flicka (as a wrestler facing Gene Evans’s character of Rob McLaughlin), The Untouchables, Bachelor Father, Daniel Boone, Gilligan’s Island, I Dream of Jeannie, Bonanza and Gunsmoke, to name just a few.
In 1965, he co-founded and became the first president of the Cauliflower Alley Club, an association of professional wrestlers. A photograph of his cauliflower ear forms the logo of the organization. In 2005, he was posthumously awarded the New York State Award by the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame and Museum for founding the club.
In 1975, he landed his only starring role as Trapper in Challenge to be Free. The film went largely unnoticed, but Mazurki drew praise for his convincing performance as a solitary-minded, nature-loving wilderness man accused of manslaughter, and the ensuing months long chase by RCMP constables and other trappers engaged to track and capture him as he fled through the mountain ranges of the Yukon Territory in all manner of weather, in the company of an old timber wolf whom he had saved from a sad fate in another winter trap line.
Work slowed down for him in the 1970s and 1980s, but he continued working until his death in December 9, 1990. His last effort in the low budget mafia spoof comedy film, Mob Boss (1990), with his last screen role, as ‘Don Taglianeti’.
Along with his film and television works, Mike Mazurki starred in the hit Rod Stewart music video “Infatuation”, playing the bodyguard protecting a woman from a stalker (played by Stewart). In the end, he succeeds, punching Stewart out.
According to records, Mike Mazurki was married three times:
- Sylvia Weinblatt (10 February 1968 – 9 December 1990) (his death)
- Jeanette Briggs (1943 – 1950) (divorced) (2 children)
- ? (? – ?) (divorced?) – listed on second marriage certificate but illegible.
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