Joseph Bologna, 'My Favorite Year' Actor And Oscar-Nominated Screenwriter, Dies At 82

Mike Barnes at the Hollywood Reporter offers an obituary of writer/actor Joseph Bologna.

Joseph Bologna, an actor, playwright and screenwriter who was so memorable as the egotistical King Kaiser in the 1982 comedy classic My Favorite Year, has died. He was 82.

Bologna died Sunday morning at City of Hope hospital in Duarte, Calif. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer three years ago, said his wife of 52 years, actress and screenwriter Renee Taylor.

Bologna received an Oscar nomination for adapted screenplay, shared with his wife and David Zelag Goodman, for his work on Lovers and Other Strangers (1970). The couple had first written it for Broadway in a 1968 production directed by Charles Grodin.

They penned 22 plays in all, including It Had to Be You, Bermuda Avenue Triangle and If You Ever Leave Me I'm Going With You!

Bologna and Taylor penned and starred in the semi-autobiographical Made for Each Other (1971), which Newsweek called "the best love story & comedy of the year," and co-wrote and co-directed Love Is All There Is (1996), which marked one of the first feature appearances for Angelina Jolie.

You can read the rest of the obit via the below link:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/joe-bologna-dead-my-favorite-year-actor-was-82-1029119 

Note: Not mentioned in the obit is Joseph Bologna’s outstanding role as Bill Bonanno, the son and heir of Salvatore Bonanno, the boss of the Bonanno Cosa Nostra organized crime family, in the TV film adaptation of Gay Talese’s true crime book Honor Thy Father.

I'd like to watch Honor Thy Father, Made For Each Other and My Favorite Year again. Good films. 

Yes, We have No Bonannos: The Rise And Fall Of The Bonanno Crime Family

Brad Hamilton at the New York Post wrote an interesting piece on the history of the New York Bonanno Cosa Nostra crime family.

An epidemic of snitching and a slew of arrests has gutted this once-robust family, started by original commission member Joseph “Joe Bananas” Bonanno.

Joseph Ponzi, chief investigator for the Brooklyn DA’s office, says the recent take-down of acting boss Vincent “Vinny TV” Badalamenti — a relatively unknown bagel-store owner from Bensonhurst whom Ponzi called “the last man standing” — has left the family rudderless.

There’s no clear boss, street boss or consigliere. The in-house counsel job became vacant on Jan. 27, when Anthony Graziano, busted with Badalamenti and other senior leaders, was charged with racketeering and extortion,

You can read about the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/yes_we_have_no_bonannos_beqIqL1PSLA6O7jNCy4uzL/0

The photo above is of crime family boss Joseph Bonanno on the cover of his autobiography.

The Bonanno family was also the subject of Gay Talese's Honor Thy Father and FBI legendary undercover agent Joseph Pistone's Donnie Brasco.