Ben Gazzara was an American film, stage, and Emmy Award-winning television actor and director. He is best known for his roles in Hysterical Blindness, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Big Lebowski, Anatomy of a Murder, and Run for Your Life. Other film credits include Dogville, Buffalo '66, Happiness, Anything for John, An Early Frost, You’ll Never See Me Again, and Opening Night.

Broadway theatre credits include his debut as Jocko de Paris in End of Man (Vanderbuilt Theatre); Jacob Berger in Awake and Sing! (Belasco Theatre); Eric Dawson in Shimada (Broadhurst Theatre); George in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Music Box Theatre); Erie Smith/Leonard Pelican in Hughie/Duet and Joy in Night Circus (John Golden Theatre); Gaston in Traveller Without Luggage (ANTA Playhouse); Edmund Darrell in Strange Interlude (Hudson Theatre); Johnny Pope in A Hatful Of Rain (Lyceum Theatre); and Brick in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof (Morosco Theatre).