Jobbing Jay Novello

Tribute today to character actor Jay Novello (Michael Romero, 1904-1982).

No relation to either Ivor Novello or Don Novello (since he was, as we say, a Romero), one could be forgiven for mixing this actor up with any number of contemporaries, including Leo Carrillo, Vito Scotti, or Mel Blanc. He also reminds me of H.B. Warner’s Mr. Gower character in Frank Capra’sIt’s a Wonderful Life (1946). But this may be because that performance was echoed by one of Novello’s own roles, likely the first place I ever saw him, as Mr. Martinelli, Peter’s boss at the bike repair shop on The Brady Bunch. (The one where he gets fired). Both Novello and Brady Bunch creator Sherwood Schwartz had started out in radio; I’d bet anything they knew each other from those days.

Adept at accents and languages, Novello didn’t only play Italian characters, though they were a natural specialty. He also frequently played Mexicans in westerns, as well as Greeks, Frenchmen, North Africans, South Asians, the full magillah. With his flashy moustache, he was often cast in noir films as nightclub owners or other shady types, or as a waiters, or store owners.

Novello had started out with stock companies in his native Chicago, which led to films and radio by the 1930s. His over 200 screen credits includes such films as Tenth Avenue Kid (1938), Robin Hood of the Pecos (1941), Junior G Men of the Air (1942, with the Dead End Kids), the 1944 Captain Americaserial, The Bullfighters (1945) with Laurel and Hardy, The Big Sky (1952), The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952), Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation (1953), The Robe (1953), The Mad Magician (1954), Son of Sinbad (1955), The Pride and the Passion (1957), The Lost World (1960), Atlantis the Lost Continent (1961), Pocketful of Miracles (1961), The Man from the Diners Club (1963), the Elvis picture Harum Scarum (1965), What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966), and The Comic (1969).

Novello was a regular on such old time radio shows as I Love a Mystery, One Man’s Family, The Lone Wolf, and Rocky Jordan. His recurring role on My Favorite Husband led to several guest shots on star Lucille Ball’s later I Love Lucyand The Lucy Show, although his first TV appearance was on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. Novello was a mainstay of TV westerns like Wagon Train, Have Gun – Will Travel, Bonanza, and Bat Masterson, almost always as Mexican characters. He had a recurring role as a scheming Italian mayor on McHale’s Navy. Other late TV work included shots onMy Three Sons, F Troop,The Mothers in Law,The Flying Nun, Love American Style, The Mod Squad, McCloud,Kojak,Chico and the Man etc.

Novello’s final credit was a supporting part in Stanley Kramer’s 1977 thriller The Domino Principle. Lung cancer took him five years later.