[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]
Val Avery was born Sebouh Der Abrahamian on July 14, 1924, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He acted in productions of the Armenian Youth Theater and, after serving as an Army flight instructor during World War II, enrolled in the Bessie V. Hicks School of Drama in Philadelphia. In 1953, he married the actress Margot Stevenson [1912-2011] in 1953, and they had a daughter actress Margot Avery [1957- ].
Avery, who started out in live television and broke into film in "The Harder They Fall" (1956), Humphrey Bogart's last movie, he found a rewarding niche playing cops, thugs, Mafia kingpins and mean bosses, although in "The Magnificent Seven," John Sturges's classic 1960 western, he appeared as a traveling corset salesman. Mr. Avery played the Mafia psychopath Socks Parelli in the Sidney Lumet caper film "The Anderson Tapes" (1971) and the Mafia godfather who cuts off Eric Roberts's thumb in "The Pope of Greenwich Village" (1984). He also made frequent guest appearances on ‘The Fugitive’, ‘Gunsmoke’, ‘Columbo’ and other television series. In all, he made more than a hundred films and appeared on television more than 300 times in series and dramas. "In the early years, there were times when it was rough, times when I thought of packing it in, and then a job would open up," he told The Daily News in 1999. "And it would lead to another and another and another, until I had a career and a life."
Val Avery appeared as the judge in the 2002 Euro-western “Blueberry” (aka Renegade)
AVERY, Val (Sebouh Der Abrahamian)
[7/14/1924, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. – 12/12/2009, Greenwich Village,
New York, U.S.A.] – theater, film, TV actor, married to actress Margot
Stevenson [1912-2011] (1953-2009) father of actress Margot Avery [1957- ].
Renegade – 2002 (judge)
From the looks of his real name, I can only assume that Val Avery was Jewish and changed his name due to that very reason as back then Hollywood DID not and WOULD not cast Jewish performers. But when you think about it, half of Hollywood's movie moguls were themselves Jewish. Names such as Woody Allen, Mel Blanc, Mel Brooks, and Adam Sandler come to mind. Val Avery's real name was Sebouh Der Abrahamian but seeing as how THAT name sounded too Hebrew, he probably thought it would be best to change it to something that everybody in America could pronounce. I find it interesting that Val Avery's wife AND daughter have the same first name. That rarely happens. I think I also saw Val Avery in an uncredited role as the hangman in "Hang 'Em High" with Clint Eastwood but I'm not too sure. Maybe he WAS in that film I don't know. He died in 2009 at the age of 85 but I bet he had some memorable film and television roles before his passing. Val Avery. Gone but not forgotten.
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