New York Lawyers And Attorneys

As a young actor, Mr. Gazzara possessed a dark, controlled energy that made him an emerging stage star in the 1950s. He originated the role of Brick in Tennessee Williams’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and was nominated for a Tony Award for “A Hatful of Rain,” a 1955 drama in which he portrayed a war veteran addicted to drugs.

He had a major role in the 1959 film “Anatomy of a Murder,” playing an Army officer charged with a revenge killing after his wife was allegedly raped. He seemed to be an emerging star, yet he never achieved the same level of fame as two of his classmates at New York’s Actors Studio, Paul Newman and Steve McQueen.

Newman took the role of Brick when “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” was made into a film in 1958, and McQueen became a star of Hollywood action films. In what he considered an act of professional desperation, Mr. Gazzara turned to television.

From 1965 to 1968, in “Run for Your Life,” he played Paul Bryan, a lawyer with a terminal illness who was determined to pack as much ad­ven­ture into his remaining days as possible. Mr. Gazzara considered the show formulaic, saying, “I could almost do the next show without reading the script,” but “Run for Your Life” has retained a cult following for decades.

On the final day of shooting “Run for Your Life,” Mr. Gazzara ran into actor and director John Cassavetes, who offered him a role in his new movie. The 1970 film, “Husbands,” showcased Mr. Gazzara, Cassavetes and Peter Falk, who died last year, as three perplexed men trying to get over the death of a friend.