He had small, but memorable roles in films including Casablanca (a Moroccan rug merchant), Now, Voyager and The Jungle Book.

Born in Linguaglossa, Catania, Sicily, the actor started his career as a teen on stage in Italian operas.

In New York City he worked in a laundry before joining an Italian language theater group.

[2] He usually played ethnic types in films, and claimed to have learned English from reading newspapers.

He was originally cast as the undertaker, Bonasera, in Francis Ford Coppola's movie The Godfather (1972), even participating in Marlon Brando's screen test, but he fell ill before filming could begin.