Mike Mazurki


The menacing figure who claims more murders than anyone in motion pictures saunters up to prove that life imitates art. Vince Barbi has killed 650 people--all members of the Screen Extras Guild, who lived. The notorious mobster Lucky Luciano died in his arms. He was Benito Mussolini's favorite boxer, John Cassavetes' favorite heavy. RememberThe Blob? Vince played the proprietor of the diner along with being the man responsible for financing the picture. Using nefarious funds, he gave Steve McQueen his first big role as the teenage hero.

Vince is in a bad mood today. The air conditioner went on when he was napping and blew his hairpiece in the air. Vince caught it from the corner of his eye, something moving quick against the backlit drapes. He pulled out his pistol and shot it. The conversation turns naturally to violence in the cinema. These corpse grinders think there is too much. One is reminded that Leo Tolstoy, after a life of fornication and debauchery, became convinced that the world would be perfect if people would stop fucking. And of course he was right because if they did, there would be no people. (Roll over, Malthus.) "I don't think a lot of violence is necessary," pronounces Mazurki, who lived through only one picture,New York Confidential, and that was because he squealed on Broderick Crawford. Abie's lizard eyes rove the room at random. Periodically he pipes up to no one in particular, "What round is it?" The man has been knocked from pillar to post and now he agrees that movies are too violent. No one disagrees.