Joseph Calleia

Joseph Calleia ( ; born Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja, August 4, 1897 – October 31, 1975) was a Maltese-born American actor and singer on the stage and in films, radio and television. After serving in the British Transport Service during World War I, he travelled to the United States and began his career on the stage, initially in musical comedy, but later in original Broadway productions such as Broadway, The Front Page (1928), The Last Mile (1930), and Grand Hotel (1930). Calleia became a star with the play Small Miracle (1934), his first real role as a villain, and he was put under contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Calleia excelled as the villain in Hollywood films, but he fought against typecasting and created a succession of darkly mysterious characters edged with humor in films such as Algiers (1938), Five Came Back (1939), Golden Boy (1939), The Glass Key (1942) and Gilda (1946). During World War II, Calleia led the Malta War Relief organization in the United States, and toured for the USO and the Hollywood Victory Committee. After the war, he continued to work steadily in motion pictures and television, and starred in the 1948 London stage premiere of Arthur Miller's Tony Award-winning play All My Sons. Calleia's performance in Orson Welles's 1958 film Touch of Evil is regarded as one of the best in his career.

Early life

Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja was born on August 4, 1897, in Notabile (now called Mdina), in the administrative area of Saqqajja, in the Crown Colony of Malta. His parents were Pasquale and Eleonore Calleja; Calleia studied at St. Julian's and St. Aloysius Colleges. At age 12, he used the English pound given to him for Christmas to buy two dozen harmonicas, and organized a local band whose performances were soon netting £100 a week. Sent by his father to London to study engineering, Calleia employed his good tenor voice in music halls, performing ballads of the Scottish Highlands in traditional dress. He worked as Joseph Spurin, using his mother's maiden name due to his father's disapproval. Calleia was awarded a campaign medal and honorably discharged. He traveled to the United States in 1917. he sang for the Red Cross and armed services, and volunteered for the Tank Corps. After World War I, he had only limited success in vaudeville. He earned his living stoking the furnace at a department store, and got a night job washing and repairing New York City streetcars. By day, he haunted theatrical booking offices. The Henry W. Savage agency sent Calleia to Denver, where he made his stage debut singing in the chorus of Jerome Kern's musical comedy Have a Heart. The Broken Wing was a hit,

On February 14, 1925, Calleia made his concert debut at Town Hall in New York City, accompanied by pianist Ferdinand Greenwald. "He proved to be the possessor of an agreeable high voice, which he used with much skill in Italian airs," wrote New York Times music critic Olin Downes, "including that of Rodolfo from Puccini's La Boheme and others from Verdi's Trovatore and Rigoletto." In recital at New York's Steinway Hall on February 21, 1926, Calleia "displayed a voice of pleasant and attractive timbre" in a program that included works by Scarlatti, Paisiello, Schumann, Gounod and Leoncavallo, as well as two of his own compositions.

Calleia was cast as the Spanish ambassador in the Broadway production of Princess Flavia (1925), He played a shuffling, coin-jingling waiter Calleia also acted as the company's stage manager and, working for producer Jed Harris, he supervised some 10 duplicate productions of Broadway in the U.S. and abroad.

Naming the theatre's villain of the year for 1934, nationally syndicated columnist Paul Harrison of the Newspaper Enterprise Association selected "Joseph Spurin-Calleia, whose gangster role in Small Miracle provided one of the finest of all performances on Broadway."

Film career Calleia had his first real role as a villain in Small Miracle, and his success in the play was responsible for his move to Hollywood. He was not new to motion pictures—he had made three feature films on the East Coast Calleia's portrayal of the gunman was listed by The New York Times film critic Andre Sennwald as one of the year's 10 best male performances.

Calleia excelled as the bad guy in films, but he wanted to create characters with some sympathy. "I'd like to get away from straight villain roles," he said in a 1936 interview. "But I have no wish to be a hero. I enjoy roles where I get slapped around a bit. It's far more stimulating to play a character that isn't all one thing—not all bad and not all good." He created a series of darkly mysterious characters edged with humor in films including Algiers (1938), Five Came Back (1939), Golden Boy (1939), The Glass Key (1942) and Gilda (1946).

In June 1935, Calleia was announced to star as Joaquin Murrieta in I Am Joaquin (later titled Robin Hood of El Dorado), a film for which he had written the screenplay. MGM replaced him with Warner Baxter, ostensibly because Calleia was too old, although Baxter was six years older. Calleia did star in Man of the People (1937), a political drama about a young lawyer fighting corporate racketeers.

Calleia continued to battle typecasting, turning down well-paying villainous roles to develop more complex characters. His performance as Police Inspector Slimane in Walter Wanger's Algiers (1938) was recognized by the National Board of Review. and a heroic priest in Full Confession. Calleia was announced to star as Father Damien in an RKO picture to be written and directed by Farrow, but the project was not realized.

Calleia became a naturalized American citizen in November 1941. He also accepted an invitation from the Hollywood Victory Committee to make a tour of military camps in North Africa, particularly because the tentative itinerary included Malta. On the trip, Calleia and his small troupe entertained service personnel in Natal, Dakar, along the coast to Casablanca and across to Tunis, then went to Malta, which Calleia had not visited since 1922. They gave two shows per day and visited all of the hospitals at each stop; and they presented six shows in Malta as part of the exchange program between American and British entertainment units. (Calleia's USO troupe consisted of singer Marcia Rice, accordionist Bonnie Brooks, and master of ceremonies Gary Webb.) Calleia sang, performed a scene from Small Miracle—"and I closed the show with a burlesque striptease. That was the toughest part of the show. It gets awful cold in North Africa." His performance in Touch of Evil (1958)—as Pete Menzies, longtime partner of corrupt Police Captain Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles)—is regarded as one of the best of his career.

"It is not rare in Welles's films for one actor to break away from the overall gesture of the film to embody a distilled human truth," wrote Welles biographer Simon Callow. "In Touch of Evil there are two actors who do this—Dietrich and Joseph Calleia, playing Quinlan's deceived colleague, Menzies. Calleia's haunted features figure more and more prominently on screen as the truth about Quinlan increasingly dawns on him, along with the knowledge that he must betray him. ... Calleia's abundant inner life casts a growing spell over the film as it comes to its climax, bringing to vividly personal life Welles's sempiternal subject: betrayal."

Later life Calleia retired in 1963 to Sliema, Malta. His wife, Eleanor Vassallo Calleia, whom he had married in 1929, died there in 1967. Calleia died on October 31, 1975, aged 78, in St. Julian's.

Theatre credits

Date Title Role Notes 1919 Have a Heart Chorus member Joins touring company in Denver January 19 – March 1, 1920 Pietro Miguel Criterion Theatre, New York 1920 Pietro Miguel Also assistant stage manager40-week national tour August 15 – November 18, 1922 Basilio Duke of York's Theatre, London April 9 – June 1, 1923 Zander the Great Juan Empire Theatre, New York November 2, 1925 – March 13, 1926 Princess Flavia Senor Poncho, Wurfner Century Theatre and (from February 1) Shubert Theatre, New York September 16, 1926 – February 11, 1928 Broadway Joe Broadhurst Theatre, New York Also stage manager; also in charge of some ten duplicate productions of the play in the U.S. and abroad August 14, 1928 – April 13, 1929 Kruger, Journal of Commerce Times Square Theater, New York February 13 – October 1, 1930 Tom D'Amoro Sam H. Harris Theatre, New York November 13, 1930 – December 5, 1931 Grand Hotel Chauffeur Also general stage managerNational Theatre, New York September 14 – December 3, 1932 Clear All Wires — Stage managerTimes Square Theatre, New York December 23, 1932 – February 1, 1933 Honeymoon Nicola Little Theatre, New York October 17 – December 30, 1933 Ten Minute Alibi Hunter Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York July 9, 1934 Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, Connecticut September 26, 1934 – January 5, 1935 Small Miracle Tony Mako John Golden Theatre and (from November 11) 48th Street Theatre, New York February 7 – 1935 Small Miracle Tony Mako El Capitan Theatre, Los Angeles, produced by Henry Duffy with original cast members Robert Middlemass and Joseph King May 11 – September 18, 1948 All My Sons Joe Keller Lyric Theatre and (from June 15) Globe Theatre, London, with Margalo Gillmore January 1955 All My Sons Joe Keller Alley Theatre, Houston

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes 1931 My Sin Juan 1931 His Woman Agent 1936 His Brother's Wife Fish-Eye 1950 Captain Carey, U.S.A. 1951 1959 Zorro Episode:"The Sergeant Sees Red" 1959 Cry Tough

Select radio credits Date Title Role Notes March 2, 1939 Kraft Music Hall Guest star Calleia sings "Adelai", the popular song he and George Abbott wrote for Broadway's The Broken Wing (1920–21) February 25, 1940 The Screen Guild Theater Hal Wilson "Blind Alley" with Edward G. Robinson November 12, 1943 Stage Door Canteen Guest star February 18, 1944 Stage Door Canteen Guest star

Legacy Monument to Calleia in Rabat, Malta, close to Mdina, sponsored by the Bank of Valletta. Calleia was posthumously honored by the Malta postal authority with a set of two commemorative stamps issued in 1997. In 2005, a bust of Calleia by sculptor Anton Agius was installed at his birthplace in Malta on the initiative of then 15-year-old Eman Bonnici.

The house in Mrabat Street, St. Julian's where Calleia lived after 1963 was demolished in September 2023.