Actor Val Avery Dies at 85
Known for playing tough guys on television and in films.
Val Avery, an actor whose rough features and intimidating aura helped him become a familiar face to decades of film and television audiences, died December 12, 2009, at his home in New York City. He was 85.
Avery began his career in live television and broke into the movies in The Harder They Fall, the final film of screen legend Humphrey Bogart. That led to a long line of other projects in which he frequently played cops and crooks.
Other film credits included Hud, Hombre, The Laughing Policeman, The Magificent Seven, The Anderson Tapes, The Pope of Greenwich Village and Donnie Brasco.
He also continued to work in television, and appeared in such series as The Fugitive, Gunsmoke, Columbo, The Odd Couple, Quincy and Law & Order.
He enjoyed a long working relationship with actor-director John Cassavetes. After Cassavetes directed Avery in five episodes of the television series Johnny Staccato, in which Cassavetes also starred, he went on to cast Avery in the feature films Too Late Blues, Faces, Minnie and Moskowitz, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Gloria.
Avery was born Sebouh Der Abrahamian on July 14, 1924, in Philadelphia. He acted in productions of the Armenian Youth Theater and, after serving as an Army flight instructor during World War II, enrolled in the Bessie V. Hicks School of Drama in Philadelphia.
He is survived by his wife since 1953, actress Margot Stevenson, and their daughter.