Like everyone else who remembers him, I loved character actor Vincent Gardenia (Vincenzo Scognamiglio, 1920-1992) — but it wasn’t until I learned about his early years that I got super jazzed about doing a post on him, for his old-school roots indeed tie him to the themes of this blog.

Gardenia was born in Naples, where his father Gennaro Gardenia Scognamiglio was a stage star. Vincent was a toddler when the family moved to Brooklyn. His father established an Italian-American theatre troupe called the Gennaro Gardenia Company which performed original melodramas in all the Italian-American neighborhoods in and around New York City.