I know I’m REALLY dating myself here, but when I was a bit younger (ok, a LOT younger), my favorite weekly TV program was The Untouchables, which aired from 1959-1963. It starred Robert Stack as Eliot Ness, the Prohibition Era federal agent who helped put Al Capone behind bars, and was narrated by Walter Winchell, a popular and controversial gossip columnist of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. The series was very popular at the time and was a kind of film-noir of televison. It featured many great actors of that time and future stars, also. One of my favorite characters was the villain, Frank Nitti, Capone’s henchman, who was portrayed by Bruce Gordon.
I was recently able to get a copy of the series, and I just watched the first episode, The Empty Chair. Very nostalgic. The Nelson Riddle theme music, Winchell’s narration, the action and the atmospheric sets brought back many memories. While I was watching the episode, I kept interrupting it to look on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) for information on the stars and for other tidbits. According to the IMDB, Gordon, surprisingly, died only recently, on January 20th, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 94, a couple weeks shy of 95. I was surprised that he had still been alive as recently as last month. RIP Mr. Gordon, a.k.a. Frank Nitti.