Al Ruscio

Al Ruscio was a performer whose career spanned more than 50 years, during which he compiled more than a hundred credits in film and television.

A versatile character actor, Ruscio is remembered by many TV fans for appearances in Seinfeld and Life Goes On and by movie enthusiasts for roles in The Godfather, Part III and Showgirls.

A native of Salem, Massachusetts, Ruscio began his career in New York City, where he trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse School for the Theatre. He moved to Los Angeles in 1958, and made his TV debut that year with a part in Gunsmoke. His movie debut came the following year, in Al Capone, starring Rod Steiger as the notorious gangster.

In the 1960s, he helped to establish the drama department at Midwestern College in Denison, Iowa. He also had stints as a professor of acting at the University of Windsor in Canada and as artistic director of the Academy of Dramatic Art at Michigan’s Oakland University. 

Ruscio’s seemingly endless list of television credits included episodes of Zane Grey Theater, Sea Hunt, Peter Gunn, Bonanza, Have Gun — Will Travel, The Untouchables, Dr. Kildare, 77 Sunset Strip, Baretta, The Six Million Dollar Man, McCloud, Marcus Welby, MD, Police Woman, SWAT, One Day at a Time, Phyllis, The Rockford Files, Kojak, Starsky and Hutch, Eight Is Enough, Lou Grant, Hart to Hart, Taxi, T.J. Hooker, Barney Miller, The Fall Guy, Remington Steele, Falcon Crest, Santa Barbara, The A-Team, Highway to Heaven, St. Elsewhere, Who's the Boss, Matlock, Hill Street Blues, MacGyver, Cagney & Lacey, Hunter, The Wonder Years, Mad About You, ER, The X Files and many others.

Ruscio died November 12, 2013, in Los Angeles. He was 89.