Joseph V. De Santis; Actor for Six Decades

Joseph V. De Santis, whose lengthy career embraced stage, film, radio and television while he also pursued the disparate interests of teacher and sculptor, has died in a hospital near his Provo, Utah, retirement home.

He was 80 and died of respiratory complications on Aug. 30, it was learned this week.

A native of New York City, he was seen and heard in literally thousands of radio and TV shows in a career that spanned six decades.

Born a tailor’s son, his first professional broadcast was in Italian-language radio in 1931 while his stage debut had come two years earlier at Columbia University.

His legitimate theater credits ranged from “Cyrano de Bergerac” to the “Count of Monte Cristo” to “Othello.” His final live performance was believed to be in “Goodnight Grandpa” in 1981.

On radio he was featured in “Dimension X,” trumpeted as the first major science-fiction series ever aired on a regular basis when it made its debut in 1950. Five years later he was heard in “X-Minus One,” a successor to “Dimension X” which featured stories by Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and others.

He was seen on television regularly in “Photocrime,” a 1949 crime and mystery series, and was narrator of “The Trap,” a 1950 dramatic anthology.

He also was a regular guest player on “Theatre Guild of the Air,” “Playhouse 90,” “Studio One,” “Robert Montgomery Presents,” “Colgate Comedy Hour,” “The Untouchables,” “Bonanza,” “The New Dick Van Dyke Show” and many more.

His made his film debut in 1949 in “Slattery’s Hurricane” and his pictures came to include “I Want to Live,” “Cry Tough,” “The Brotherhood” and a dozen others.

As a young man De Santis (whose name was sometimes spelled Di Santis) studied sculpture and art and in later years his work was shown in several galleries. His portrait of Walter Hampden as “Cyrano de Bergerac” is in the Walter Hampden Memorial Library in New York City.

During the 1960s De Santis taught acting and dialect before retiring to his home in Utah.