Cesare Danova

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Cesare Danova March 1 1926 March 19 1992 born Cesare Deitinger in Bergamo Italy was a television and screen actor He adopted the stage name Danova when he turned to acting in Rome at the end of World War II He migrated to the United States in the 1950s to make the film Don Giovanni Don Juan in 1955 He was contracted to MGM in 1956 Other appearances include The Man Who Understood Women He tested for a part in Ben Hur but his big break was the role of Apollodorus Cleopatras personal servant in the 1963 film Cleopatra directed by Joseph Mankiewicz and starring Elizabeth Taylor Richard Burton and Rex Harrison While the original script called for a major role for Danova who was to form a trio of Cleopatras lovers alongside Harrisons Caesar and Burtons Marc Antony Though a number of scenes featuring Taylor and Danova were shot the script was revised and the role truncated as the BurtonTaylor affair made tabloid headlines What remained was little more than a cameo The following year he starred as Count Elmo Mancini in Viva Las Vegas as Elvis Presleys rival for both Ann Margarets Rusty Martin and for the Las Vegas Grand Prix predictably losing both to Elviss Lucky Jackson In 1967 Danova had another break with the TV series Garrisons Gorillas in which he played the role of Actor Clearly inspired by the hit film The Dirty Dozen and the hit TV series Mission Impossible the series had an ensemble cast but unfortunately only ran for 26 episodes Two of his best roles were as the neighborhood mafia Don Giovanni Cappa in Martin Scorseses Mean Streets 1973 and as the corrupt town mayor Carmine DePasto in National Lampoons Animal House 1978 He also acted in three episodes of The Rifleman and regularly appeared as a guest star on numerous television series including Murder She Wrote Maude Falcon Crest and the revival of Mission Impossible 198890 He died of a heart attack at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences headquarters in Los Angeles while attending a meeting of the Foreign Language Film committee His mausoleum is in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery Danova was married twice and had two sons Marco amp Fabrizio by his first wife Pamela He was an expert horseman avid polo player and an excellent archer Description above from the Wikipedia article Cesare Danova licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia