Joseph Calleia

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Bust for Calleia in Notabile, today's Mdina , in Malta

Joseph Calleia (born August 4, 1897 in Notabile , † October 31, 1975 in Sliema , Malta ; actually Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja ) was a Maltese actor.

Life

Calleia's parents, Pasquale and Eleonore Calleja (née Spurin), were of Spanish and English origins. While attending St. Julian's and St. Aloysius Colleges in Malta, Calleia discovered his talent for singing and composition. He founded a musical band with which he left Malta in 1914 at the age of 17 to travel through Europe. In the years that followed, he and his band played in the cafes and music halls of the capitals ravaged by the First World War . Through engagements in Paris and London , he came to New York in 1926 , where he soon switched to acting and used the stage name Joseph Spurin after his mother's maiden name for his first roles on Broadway . Talent scouts from Hollywood finally noticed him, whereupon he got a contract with MGM in 1931 and henceforth pursued acting as Joseph Calleia. Due to its southern appearance, it was mostly occupied as a Latin American, a Greek or an Arab.

Between 1931 and 1963 he starred in 57 films in which he was often seen as a police officer, for example as Inspector Slimane in Algiers (1938) alongside Charles Boyer and Hedy Lamarr or as Detective Maurice Obregon in Gilda (1946), where he was stood in front of the camera with Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford . At the side of Orson Welles he played one of his most important screen roles as Sergeant Menzies in his cynical film noir In the Sign of Evil (1958). In 1963, Calleia ended his acting career and returned to his homeland in Malta.

From 1929 he was married to Eleonore Vassallo. The marriage, which remained childless, lasted until Vassallo's death in 1967. Joseph Calleia died seven years later at the age of 78. He was buried in the family vault in the Santa Maria Addolorata cemetery in Paola . Posthumously , Calleia received a special honor from his country when Malta published two postage stamps with his likeness on the occasion of his 100th birthday in 1997 . In October 2005 a bust of him was erected in front of the house where he was born. It was sponsored by the Bank of Valletta and made by the Maltese sculptor Anton Agius.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Joseph Calleia  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Film Actor Heads Malta War Relief . In: The Pittsburgh Press , November 22, 1942.
  2. ^ Across from Malta . In: The New York Times , October 21, 1934.
  3. ^ A b Joseph Calleia - Malta's Hollywood actor (1897–1975) . In: The Malta Independent , May 21, 2013.
  4. ↑ BOV sponsors Commemorative Bust Honoring Joseph Calleia ( Memento from November 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on bov.com (Bank of Valletta), March 1, 2006.
personal data
SURNAME Calleia, Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Calleja, Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Maltese actor
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Notabile , Malta
DATE OF DEATH October 31, 1975
Place of death Sliema , Malta