Joseph Calleia
Joseph Calleia in 1942
Born
Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja

(1897-08-04)August 4, 1897
Notabile, Malta
DiedOctober 31, 1975(1975-10-31) (aged 78)
Sliema, Malta
Other names
  • Joseph Spurin
  • Joseph Spurin-Calleia
  • Joseph Spurin Calleja
Occupations
  • Actor
  • singer
Years active1918–1963
SpouseEleanor Vassallo (married 1929–1967)

Joseph Calleia (/kəˈleɪə/ kə-LAY-ə; 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 (1926), 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 he 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 better in his career.

Biography

Joseph Calleia in the Broadway stage production Small Miracle (1934–35)

Joseph Alexander Caesar Herstall Vincent Calleja[1][2][a] was born on August 4, 1897,[4] in Notabile (now called Mdina),[4][5] in the administrative area of Saqqajja,[b] in the Crown Colony of Malta. His parents were Pasquale and Eleonore Calleja;[6] his father was an architect.[7] 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.[1]

In 1914 Calleia joined the British Transport Service. After cruising the world for two-and-a-half years, his ship was torpedoed in the English Channel. Hospitalized for three months,[8] Calleia was awarded a campaign medal[9] and honorably discharged. He traveled to the United States in 1917.[8] Unemployed,[10] he sang for the Red Cross and armed services, and volunteered for the American Tank Corps.[8]

Calleia began his stage career on Armistice Day.[11] 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.[12] 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.[1][8] The following season, he had a bit part in Pietro (1920), an Otis Skinner vehicle that played six weeks on Broadway and 40 weeks on tour. Calleia supplemented his salary by working as assistant stage manager and repairing trunks at $3 each.[1]

Calleia's first speaking role on the stage was in The Broken Wing (1920), a Broadway comedy starring George Abbott and Louis Wolheim. He understudied all of the parts and appeared as a Mexican peon[1] who played the guitar and sang a song called "Adelai".[12] Calleia composed the tune, and asked Abbott to write the lyrics; the song was published and eventually brought each of them royalties of as much as $2,000 a year.[13] The Broken Wing was a hit,[13] and after the play's New York run, Calleia and Thurston Hall were carried over in a London production.

After four months, the show closed, and Calleia visited Malta, where he and his father reconciled. At his father's request he began using his real surname, and he was billed as Joseph Spurin-Calleia.[1][14]

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."[15] 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.[16]

Calleia was cast as the Spanish ambassador in the Broadway production of Princess Flavia (1925),[1] Sigmund Romberg's musical adaptation of The Prisoner of Zenda. While he was waiting for the elaborate production to be mounted, he sold pianos with such success that the store owner offered him a store of his own if he would stay.[12]

In 1926, Calleia landed his first prominent stage role, in George Abbott and Philip Dunning's smash hit Broadway.[12][17] He played a shuffling, coin-jingling waiter[18] in the melodrama that New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson later called a "noisy, bustling cyclorama of backstage life [that] remains a landmark in the American theater."[19] 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.[20]

A succession of acclaimed performances in successful Broadway plays followed, including as a shiftless newspaper reporter in The Front Page (1928), a convicted murderer in The Last Mile (1930), and the sinister chauffeur in Grand Hotel (1930).[12] Calleia became a star with Small Miracle (1934), a Broadway production described by The New Yorker as "a very satisfactory melodrama with Joseph Spurin-Calleia as the pleasantest murderer you ever saw."[21]

Public Hero No. 1 trailer (1935)
Calleia received the 1938 National Board of Review Award for his performance as Inspector Slimane in Algiers (1938).[22]

"What an actor—Joseph Calleia", said Orson Welles, who directed and performed with Calleia in Touch of Evil (1958):

I fell in love with him as a ten-year-old boy. I saw him in a play in New York[c] ... a very well-staged melodrama which was an enormous hit for about a year—it was made as a movie later with somebody else. He had the leading role, and I never forgot him. And through the years I'd seen him in movies—little things. And I could never forget that performance of his. He's always played very stereotyped parts in pictures but is one of the best actors I've ever known. I have such respect for him. You play next to him and you just feel the thing that you do with a big actor—this dynamo going on.[23]: 298 

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."[24]

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.[25] Calleia's contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer permitted him a hiatus of six months a year, to continue his stage work.[26] He was not new to motion pictures—he had made three feature films on the East Coast[27]—but when MGM put Calleia under contract, they promoted his first film, Public Hero No. 1 (1935), as his screen debut.[28] Calleia's portrayal of the gunman was listed by film critic Andre Sennwald of The New York Times as one of the year's 10 best male performances.[29][30]

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."[25] 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).[2][31]

In June 1935, Calleia was announced to star as Joaquin Murrieta in I Am Joaquin[32] (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.[33] Calleia did star in Man of the People (1937), a political drama about a young lawyer fighting corporate racketeers.[34]

Calleia continued to battle typecasting, turning down well-paying villainous roles to develop more complex characters.[35] His performance as Police Inspector Slimane in Walter Wanger's Algiers (1938) was recognized by the National Board of Review.[22] Working with director John Farrow at RKO Pictures in 1939, he created a fine character study as the condemned anarchist in Five Came Back,[36] and portrayed 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,[35][37][38] but the project was not realized.

Calleia as Pete Menzies in Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958), considered to be one of the best performances of his career

Calleia became a naturalized American citizen in November 1941.[4] During World War II, Calleia led the Malta War Relief organization in the United States. The house where he was born was destroyed in 1942; his family took refuge underground in ancient catacombs during the near-constant aerial bombing of Malta by the Axis powers that lasted for more than two years.[5] Under the auspices of the Motion Picture Division of USO Camp Shows, he made personal appearances at American military facilities in 1943.[39] 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 20,000-mile (32,000 km) 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.[40][d]

In addition to working steadily in motion pictures for another 20 years,[27] Calleia also starred in the 1948 London stage premiere of Arthur Miller's Tony Award-winning play All My Sons, receiving unanimous critical acclaim.[41] 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.[42][43][44]

"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."[45]

Calleia retired in 1963 to Sliema, Malta.[6] His wife, Eleanor Vassallo Calleia, whom he had married in 1929, died there in 1967.[e] Calleia died on October 31, 1975, aged 78, in St. Julian's.

Theatre credits

Calleia (far right) as the lazy, banjo-playing reporter Kruger in the original Broadway production of The Front Page (1928)
Calleia (right) as the chauffeur who ensures that Baron von Geigern (Henry Hull) does not double-cross their gang of thieves in the original Broadway production of Grand Hotel (1930)
Calleia in the climax of the Broadway production of Small Miracle, which made him a star (1934)
Poster for the London premiere of Arthur Miller's All My Sons, which featured Calleia in a rare starring role that brought him unanimous critical acclaim (1948)
Date Title Role Notes
1919 Have a Heart[f] Chorus member Joins touring company in Denver[1][12][48]
January 19 – March 1, 1920 Pietro Miguel Criterion Theatre, New York[1][49][50]
1920 Pietro Miguel Also assistant stage manager
40-week national tour[1]
November 29, 1920 – April 1, 1921 The Broken Wing Basilio 48th Street Theatre, New York[1][51][52]
August 15 – November 18, 1922 The Broken Wing Basilio Duke of York's Theatre, London[1][12][53]
April 9 – June 1, 1923 Zander the Great Juan Empire Theatre, New York[54][55]
November 2, 1925 – March 13, 1926 Princess Flavia Senor Poncho, Wurfner Century Theatre and (from February 1) Shubert Theatre, New York[56][57][58]
September 16, 1926 – February 11, 1928 Broadway Joe Broadhurst Theatre, New York[59][60]
Also stage manager; also in charge of some ten duplicate productions of the play in the U.S. and abroad[1][18][20]
August 14, 1928 – April 13, 1929 The Front Page Kruger, Journal of Commerce Times Square Theater, New York[61][62]
February 13 – October 1, 1930 The Last Mile Tom D'Amoro Sam H. Harris Theatre, New York[63][64]
November 13, 1930 – December 5, 1931 Grand Hotel Chauffeur Also general stage manager
National Theatre, New York[65][66]
September 14 – December 3, 1932 Clear All Wires — Stage manager
Times Square Theatre, New York[1][67]
December 23, 1932 – February 1, 1933 Honeymoon Nicola Little Theatre, New York[68][69]
October 17 – December 30, 1933 Ten Minute Alibi Hunter Ethel Barrymore Theatre, New York[70][71]
July 9, 1934 The Bride of Torozko Westport Country Playhouse, Westport, Connecticut[72]
September 26, 1934 – January 5, 1935 Small Miracle Tony Mako John Golden Theatre and (from November 11) 48th Street Theatre, New York[73][74]
February 7 – February 1935 Small Miracle Tony Mako El Capitan Theatre, Los Angeles, produced by Henry Duffy with original cast members Robert Middlemass and Joseph King[75][76][77]
May 11 – September 18, 1948 All My Sons Joe Keller Lyric Theatre and (from June 15) Globe Theatre, London, with Margalo Gillmore[78][79]
January 1955 All My Sons Joe Keller Alley Theatre, Houston[80]

Filmography

Calleia and William Powell in After the Thin Man (1936)
Calleia starring in Man of the People (1937)
Chester Morris, John Carradine, Lucille Ball and Calleia in Five Came Back (1939)
Calleia and Mae West in My Little Chickadee (1940)
Calleia and Glenn Ford in Gilda (1946)
Algiers (1938)
The Gorilla (1939)
The Jungle Book (1942)
Year Title Role Notes
1931 My Sin Juan [27]
1931 His Woman Agent [27]
1932 The Divorce Racket Stephen Arnaud [27]
1935 Public Hero#1 Sonny Black [27]
1936 Riffraff Nick Lewis [27]
1936 Exclusive Story Ace Acello [27]
1936 Tough Guy Joe Calerno [27]
1936 Robin Hood of El Dorado — Screenwriter[81]
1936 His Brother's Wife Fish-Eye [27]
1936 Sworn Enemy Joe Emerald [27]
1936 Sinner Take All Frank Penny [27]
1936 After the Thin Man "Dancer" [27]
1937 Man of the People Jack Moreno [27]
1937 The Bad Man of Brimstone Portuguese Ben [27]
1938 Algiers Inspector Slimane National Board of Review Award[22][27]
1938 Marie Antoinette Drouet [27]
1939 Juarez Alejandro Uradi [27]
1939 The Gorilla Stranger [27]
1939 Five Came Back Vasquez [27]
1939 Golden Boy Eddie Fuseli [27]
1939 Full Confession Father Loma [27]
1940 My Little Chickadee Jeff Badger [27]
1940 Wyoming John Buckley [27]
1941 The Monster and the Girl Deacon [27]
1941 Sundown Pallini [27]
1942 The Jungle Book Buldeo [27]
1942 The Glass Key Nick Varna [27]
1943 For Whom the Bell Tolls El Sordo [27]
1943 The Cross of Lorraine Antonio Rodriguez [27]
1944 The Conspirators Captain Pereira [27]
1946 Deadline at Dawn Val Bartelli [27]
1946 Gilda Det. Maurice Obregon [27]
1947 The Beginning or the End Enrico Fermi [27]
1947 Lured Dr. Moryani [27]
1948 The Noose Hangs High Mike Craig [27]
1948 Four Faces West Monte Marquez [27]
1948 Noose Sugiani U.S. title The Silk Noose[82][83]
1950 Captain Carey, U.S.A. Dr. Lunati [27]
1950 The Palomino Miguel Gonzales [27]
1950 Branded Mateo Rubriz [27]
1950 Vendetta Guido Barracini [27]
1951 Valentino Luigi Verducci [27]
1951 Pulitzer Prize Playhouse Don Fernando Episode: "Night Over Taos"[84]
1951 The Light Touch Lt. Massiro [27]
1952 When in Rome Aggiunto Bodulli [27]
1952 Yankee Buccaneer Count Domingo Del Prado [27]
1952 The Iron Mistress Juan Moreno [27]
1953 The Caddy Papa Anthony [27]
1955 Underwater! Rico Herrera [27]
1955 The Treasure of Pancho Villa Capt. Pablo Morales [27]
1955 The Littlest Outlaw The Padre [27]
1956 Hot Blood Papa Theodore Caldash [27]
1956 Serenade Maestro Marcatello [27]
1957 Wild Is the Wind Alberto [27]
1958 Touch of Evil Pete Menzies [27]
1958 The Light in the Forest Chief Cuyloga [27]
1958 Have Gun – Will Travel Sheriff Sam Truett Episode: "The Manhunter"[85]
1959 Zorro Padre Simeon Episode:"The Sergeant Sees Red"[86][87]
1959 Cry Tough Papa Estrada [27]
1960 The Alamo Juan Seguín [27]
1963 Johnny Cool Tourist [27]
1963 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Cagewa Episode:"A Killing at Sundial"[88][89]

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)[90]
February 25, 1940 The Screen Guild Theater Hal Wilson "Blind Alley" with Edward G. Robinson[91][92][93]
November 12, 1943 Stage Door Canteen Guest star [94]
February 18, 1944 Stage Door Canteen Guest star [94]
November 24, 1944 Stage Door Canteen Guest star [94]
November 7, 1948 Theatre Guild on the Air "Criminal Code" with Pat O'Brien[95]

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.[6][96][97] 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.[6][98][99]

The house in Mrabat Street, St. Julian's where Calleia lived after 1963 was demolished in September 2023.[100]

Notes

  1. ^ Calleia's surname is pronounced "cal-ay-a", with the emphasis on the second syllable.[3]
  2. ^ Saqqajja is an administrative area of Mdina but outside the walled city. It is culturally considered part of both Rabat and Mdina. Saqqajja was historically part of Rabat but in recent history is officially part of Mdina; see also Melite (ancient city).
  3. ^ The play, titled Small Miracle, ran on Broadway in 1934–35 and was filmed in 1935 as Four Hours to Kill!, starring Richard Barthelmess.
  4. ^ 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."[40]
  5. ^ Joseph Calleia and Eleanor Vassallo (born August 19, 1898, Brooklyn, New York) were married December 29, 1929, at Long Island, New York. She died in Sliema on December 17, 1967.[4][46]
  6. ^ Written by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse with music by Jerome Kern, Have a Heart was first produced on Broadway in 1917 by Harry W. Savage.[47]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n "Across from Malta". The New York Times. October 21, 1934. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  2. ^ a b Katz, Ephraim (1998). The Film Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). New York: HarperPerennial. p. 208. ISBN 0-06-273492-X.
  3. ^ York, Cal (December 1939). "Cal York's Gossip of Hollywood; Pronouncing Guide". Photoplay. Vol. 53, no. 12. p. 70. Retrieved 2016-01-04.
  4. ^ a b c d The National Archives at Riverside; Riverside, California, USA; Petitions for Naturalization, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Los Angeles), 1940–1991; NAI: 594890; Record Group Title: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685–2009; Record Group Number: 21. Ancestry.com, California, Naturalization Records, 1887–1991 [database online]. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2014. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  5. ^ a b "Film Actor Heads Malta War Relief". Pittsburgh Press. November 22, 1942. Retrieved 2015-11-13.
  6. ^ a b c d "Joseph Calleia - Malta's Hollywood actor". The Malta Independent. May 21, 2013. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
  7. ^ "Joseph Calleia's Father Dies". The New York Times. July 4, 1945. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  8. ^ a b c d "The Front Page". Playbill. October 1, 1928. p. 47. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  9. ^ "Joseph Calleia". Ancestry.com. Web: UK, Campaign Medals Awarded to WWI Merchant Seamen, 1914–1925 [database on-line]. Provo, Utah, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  10. ^ "Joseph Calleia Spurin". Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2005. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  11. ^ The Broken Wing (The Magazine Theatre Program). New York: New York Theatre Program Corporation. March 21, 1921. p. 23.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Weiler, A. H. (November 21, 1943). "A True Chip Off the Old Maltese Block". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-11-11.
  13. ^ a b Abbott, George (1963). Mister Abbott. New York: Random House. p. 99. OCLC 330940.
  14. ^ "Double Jointed Film Name Has Unusual Story". Chicago Tribune. April 28, 1935. Retrieved 2016-01-16.
  15. ^ Downes, Olin (February 15, 1925). "Opera: Joseph Calleia, Tenor, in Debut". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
  16. ^ "Joseph Calleia, Tenor, Pleases". The New York Times. February 22, 1926. Retrieved 2015-11-20.
  17. ^ Berger, Marilyn (February 2, 1995). "George Abbott, Broadway Giant With Hit After Hit, Is Dead at 107". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
  18. ^ a b "A Solid Year of Broadway". The New York Times. September 18, 1927. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
  19. ^ Berger, Marilyn (July 22, 1968). "Philip Dunning, Playwright, 76, Co-Author of 'Broadway,' Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
  20. ^ a b "Plan 10 Companies to Act 'Broadway'". The New York Times. March 22, 1927. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
  21. ^ "Goings On About Town". The New Yorker. Vol. X, no. 46. December 29, 1934. p. 2.
  22. ^ a b c "The Year's Best". National Board of Review Magazine. National Board of Review. 14 (1): 12. January 1939. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  23. ^ Welles, Orson, and Peter Bogdanovich, edited by Jonathan Rosenbaum, This Is Orson Welles. New York: HarperCollin Publishers 1992 ISBN 0-06-016616-9.
  24. ^ Harrison, Paul (December 30, 1934). "Variety of Broadway Plays Are Listed Among Dying Year's Best Stage Fare". The Pittsburgh Press.
  25. ^ a b "Amusements". Somerset Daily American. Somerset, Pennsylvania. September 8, 1936. p. 5.
  26. ^ "Coming and Going". The Film Daily. January 15, 1936. Retrieved 2016-09-17.
  27. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf "Joseph Calleia". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  28. ^ Public Hero No. 1 trailer. Internet Archive. 1935. Event occurs at 0:15.
  29. ^ Sennwald, Andre (January 5, 1936). "Best Ten, More or Less". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  30. ^ Sennwald, Andre (June 8, 1935). "Movie Review: Public Hero No. 1". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
  31. ^ Halliwell, Leslie (1984) [1965]. Halliwell's Filmgoer's Companion (8th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 103. ISBN 0-684-18183-5.
  32. ^ "Screen Notes". The New York Times. June 11, 1935. Retrieved 2016-09-17.
  33. ^ "Robin Hood of El Dorado". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. Retrieved 2016-09-17.
  34. ^ "Has New Type Picture Role; Joseph Calleia The Hero of 'Man of the People', at Queen". Big Spring Daily Herald. April 16, 1937.
  35. ^ a b Coons, Robbin (July 24, 1939). "Hollywood Sights and Sounds". Big Spring Daily Herald.
  36. ^ Soanes, Wood (July 9, 1939). "Unusual Film Fare Offered This Week". Oakland Tribune. Out of the enterprise comes a fine piece of work by Joseph Calleia, an actor who was taken from the stage after several excellent characterizations and who has been given little chance to show his stuff on the screen. Because Five Came Back was obviously not viewed as an epic while in the making and was, consequently, not subjected to high-powered studio supervision, Calleia managed to get in a splendid character study.
  37. ^ "'Damien the Leper' Purchased by RKO; Robert Sisk to Be the Producer — Joseph Calleia Has Been Assigned to Title Role". The New York Times. May 17, 1939. Retrieved 2016-09-17.
  38. ^ "Hollywood Buys 45 More Stories to Add to 1940 Feature Programs". Motion Picture Herald. 136 (1): 34. July 1, 1939. Retrieved 2016-09-17.
  39. ^ "Movie Actor Visitor at Local Post". Big Spring Herald. September 14, 1943.
  40. ^ a b Soanes, Wood (March 25, 1944). "Malta's Gift to Films, Joseph Calleia, Cheers Up His Blitzed Brothers and Yanks in North Africa". Oakland Tribune.
  41. ^ "'All My Sons' a Hit". The New York Times. May 12, 1948. Retrieved 2016-09-18.
  42. ^ Comito, Terry, ed. (1998) [1985]. "Interview with Charlton Heston". Touch of Evil. Rutgers University Press. p. 215. ISBN 0-8135-1097-X. There were some fine performances, especially Joe Calleia. I think it's one of the very best pieces of work he did in his whole career.
  43. ^ Brady, Frank (1989). Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 500. ISBN 0-385-26759-2.
  44. ^ McGilligan, Patrick (2015). Young Orson. New York: Harper. p. 297. ISBN 978-0-06-211248-4.
  45. ^ Callow, Simon (2015). Orson Welles: One Man Band. New York: Viking. pp. 255–256. ISBN 978-0-670-02491-9.
  46. ^ National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington, D.C.; General Records of the Department of State; Record Group: RG59-Entry 5166; Box Number: 51; Box Description: 1968 BI - CAZ. Ancestry.com. Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835–1974 [database online]. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2010. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
  47. ^ "Have a Heart". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  48. ^ "It Pleased in Denver". The Hutchinson News. February 12, 1919.
  49. ^ "Pietro". Playbill Vault. Playbill. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  50. ^ "Pietro". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  51. ^ "The Broken Wing". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  52. ^ "The Broken Wing". Playbill Vault. Playbill. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  53. ^ Wearing, J. P. (2014). The London Stage 1920–1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-8108-9302-3.
  54. ^ "Zander the Great". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  55. ^ "Zander the Great". Playbill Vault. Playbill. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  56. ^ "Princess Flavia". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  57. ^ "Princess Flavia". Playbill Vault. Playbill. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  58. ^ "'Princess Flavia' is Rich and Captivating". The New York Times. 3 November 1925. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
  59. ^ "Broadway". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  60. ^ "Broadway". Playbill. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  61. ^ "The Front Page". Playbill. October 1, 1928. p. 37. Retrieved 2016-11-29.
  62. ^ "The Front Page". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
  63. ^ "The Last Mile". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
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  90. ^ "Ethel Waters and Joe Cook Will be Guests of Vallee; Crosby Signs Joan Bennett and Joseph Calleia". The Lima News. March 2, 1939. Joan Bennett and Joseph Calleia, heroine and villain of many cinema productions ... are the visiting celebrities in the Music Hall with Bing Crosby ...
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  97. ^ "Anniversaries 1997 - 6c Joseph Calleia and film camera". Malta Post. Retrieved 2015-11-10.
  98. ^ "Letters: Calleia's bust vandalised". Times of Malta. February 12, 2006. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
  99. ^ "Letters: Bust of Joseph Calleia". Times of Malta. July 15, 2007. Retrieved 2017-02-11.
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