Sammy Petrillo passed away on Aug 15th, at the age of 74. Mr. Petrillo is most famous (certainly around these parts) for having starred in Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. Mr. Petrillo’s fame was based upon his uncanny resemblance and impression of Jerry Lewis, then young and the screen partner of singer Dean Martin.
Brooklyn Gorilla teamed Mr. Petrillo up with Italian crooner Duke Mitchell, himself an ersatz (although somewhat less carbon copy) version of Dean Martin. Whether the film would have kicked off a series of bargain basement Petrillo/Mitchell comedies will never be known, because a quick lawsuit for infringement on the part of Lewis and Martin scuttled any such nascent plans. (Lewis especially–unsurprisingly, since he’s always had a reputation of being a real dick– exerted pressure to keep Petrillo from getting many TV and nightclub gigs.)
Petrillo and Mitchell continued to work in other gigs, however. Mr. Petrillo continued to work smalltime show biz jobs after his breakup with Mitchell, following Lewis and Martin’s own parting of the ways. For instance, he appears in a scene in the ghastly horror flick The Brain That Wouldn’t Die. He also briefly worked with sexploitation director Doris Wishman.
