Jay Novello(1904-1982)
- Actor
Short, dapper Jay Novello specialized in playing ethnic types,
sometimes Spanish, Greek or Mexican but usually Italian--not
surprising, since his parents were Italian immigrants and he grew up
speaking the language before he learned English. Born in Chicago in
1904, he came from a very diverse neighborhood and, in addition to
speaking Italian and English, also picked up a working knowledge of
German and Greek. He got a job acting with various theater companies in
the Chicago area, and his facility with languages got him work in radio
as a dialect specialist. He soon moved to Hollywood and got work in the
radio industry there, and made his film debut in an uncredited bit part
in 1930. He played in everything from westerns to action pictures to
serials (in one of which, The Adventures of Smilin' Jack (1943), he played a Japanese spy!). He did
much television work, and one of his best known roles was as the
scheming Mayor Lugato in the Ernest Borgnine comedy series McHale's Navy (1962). He died of
lung cancer in North Hollywood in 1982.
