Mike Mazurki

Early years

Mazurki was born Markiian Yulianovych Mazurkevych in the village of Kupczyńce near Tarnopol, Galicia, Austria-Hungary. He attended LaSalle Institute in Troy, New York, and changed his name to Mike after graduating. He played football and basketball at Manhattan College, earning a Bachelor of Arts in 1930, then graduated from Fordham Law School and became an attorney. He took up professional wrestling because it paid about ten times what law did, and also played professional football and basketball.

Career

Mazurki trained as a professional wrestler but turned to acting after serving as Mae West's bodyguard. Josef von Sternberg discovered him and gave him a bit part in The Shanghai Gesture (1941). His best-known role was the slow-witted thug Moose Malloy in Murder, My Sweet (1944). He played the knife-wielding murderer Splitface in Dick Tracy (1945) and later made a cameo in the 1990 film version.

He portrayed a knuckle-cracking henchman in Abandoned (1949) and the wrestler "The Strangler" in Night and the City (1950), performing a realistic match against a professional grappler. He imitated a George Raft henchman in Some Like It Hot (1959). His slurred speech reportedly came from a wrestling injury to his Adam's apple. He made television guest appearances on My Friend Flicka, The Untouchables, Bachelor Father, Daniel Boone, Gilligan's Island, The Munsters, I Dream of Jeannie, Bonanza, and Gunsmoke.

He played Cully Barstow in a 1964 Perry Mason episode and Arthur Jacks in a 1963 episode. He was a regular on The Chicago Teddy Bears and performed as the caveman Clon in It's About Time.