To Absent Friends - Bruce Kirby

Bruce Kirby

1925 - 2021

Noted character actor (144 credits per IMDB) Bruce Kirby died this week at the age of either 93 or 95, as different sources show birthdates of both 1925 or 1928. Regardless of that fact, Kirby was one of those "where-have-I-seen-this-guy-before" actors that are always showing up in movies and television shows.  He is also the father of the late Bruno Kirby Jr., a fact that I commented upon early last year when I happened to see both of them on an old episode of "Columbo" from the 1970's.

Here is in part what I wrote last February:

Anyway, an episode called "By Dawn's Early Light" featured a very young Bruno Kirby as a teenaged military cadet.  You remember him, right?  He portrayed young Peter Clemenza in "Godfather - Part II" in 1975, when he was billed as "B. Kirby Jr.", as he was in this particular Columbo episode.  He appeared in a couple of Billy Crystal's 1980's comedies, "City Slickers" and "When Harry Met Sally" when he was billed as "Bruno Kirby." At other points in his career, he was sometimes billed as "Bruno Kirby Jr."  From 1971 through 2006 he amassed 69 credits on television and in the movies. He was a most familiar face in those years, right up until his death from leukemia in 2006 at the way too young age of 57.  So it was no surprise when he jumped right off the screen in this bit part in the Columbo episode.  (In fact, seeing actors in bit parts in shows like this who later went on to big things is one of the fun parts of watching them.)

Also appearing in "By Dawn's Early Light" as Sgt. George Kramer, one of the plainclothes cops tailing after Lt. Columbo, was actor Bruce Kirby.  Bruce Kirby was and is - he's still with us and will turn 92 in 2020 - one of those character actors that you have seen a million times on television and in movies over the years.  IMDB lists 143 acting credits for him stretching from 1955 through 2006.  They included regular supporting roles on shows such as Car 54, Where Are You?, Kojak, and L.A. Law.  He appeared in nine separate episodes of Columbo.  Look him up in IMDB, and you will see the names of dozens of television shows, some long forgotten, some memorable, in which he appeared.

Well, it turns out that he is the father of Bruno Kirby, the "Senior" to Bruno's "Junior."  He was born in 1928 as Bruno Quidaciolu, and became "Bruce Kirby" when he went into the acting biz.  Fun Fact: In Rob Reiner's 1986 movie "Stand By Me", he played a character named "Mr. Quidaciolu."  In one of the Columbo episodes that I watched, his Sgt. Kramer had a fairly large speaking part, and if you might not have seen a physical resemblance between father and son, you could definitely hear a vocal and speech pattern in Bruce's voice that were definitely passed on to his son, Bruno.

Like I always say, Stars are Stars, but you can't make movies and television shows without actors like Bruce Kirby.

RIP Bruce Kirby.

Bruce Kirby with son

Bruno Kirby Jr.

(1949-2006)