The original script called for a major role for Danova, who was to form a trio of Cleopatra's lovers alongside Harrison's Caesar and Burton's Marc Antony.

Though a number of scenes featuring Taylor and Danova were shot, the script was revised and the role truncated as the Burton-Taylor affair made tabloid headlines.

Two of his best roles were as the neighborhood mafia Don, Giovanni Cappa, in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets (1973) and as the corrupt mayor of Faber, Carmine DePasto, in National Lampoon's Animal House (1978).

; That Girl; Daniel Boone; Charlie's Angels; The Love Boat; Sanford and Son; Fantasy Island; McMillan & Wife; Police Story; Murder, She Wrote; Airwolf; Hunter; Maude; The Rifleman; Mannix; Night Gallery; Falcon Crest; Hart to Hart; Mission: Impossible (1988–90); and his final television appearance in 1992 as Father DiMarco on In the Heat of the Night.

Danova died of a heart attack on March 19, 1992, aged 66,[6] at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences headquarters in Los Angeles while attending a meeting of the Foreign Language Film committee.