Gabe Dell’s real name was Gabriel del Vecchio. He was born in Brooklyn on October 7, 1919, the son of an immigrant Italian doctor.

At the age of 16 he made his Broadway debut in the original version of Dead End (1935). When the classic film version was produced by Samuel Goldwyn in 1937 Gabe was called to Hollywood with the other young stage performers to reprise their roles. Dead End was a superior drama that cast a critical eye on big-city tenement slums. Though playwright Sidney Kingsley never intended to glorify hoodlums, Gabe and the other boys made a tremendous impact on audiences, much as gangster antiheroes had earlier in the decade. The six Dead End sequels and the “Bowery Boys� spin-off series that followed dealt with the good deeds the “boys� did in their “hoods� along with a lot of fun, action and excitement.

The “Bowery Boys� series ran until 1952. The boys really had no choice, they were so quickly typecast; the producers would not let them grow up. After their six “A� films they could only stay in Hollywood by forming another gang and doing “B� pictures. Watching low budget to ultra-low budget movies, filmgoers engaged in a somewhat perverse enjoyment in judging which of the films had the sleaziest sets, the less classy dames, or the crummiest villains.

“We were the first generation gap,� said Dell. “Breaking out of that early image was difficult, real hard.� But Dell did break out and left the series in 1950. Some others, like Huntz Hall, remained playing tough teens until they were nearly 40.

There was, Gabe frankly admitted, a long rough period after he left movies to return to the stage: Actors Studio (“I had to learn technique�), stock, industrial shows, unemployment lines and 10 off-Broadway flops. Gabe was married and divorced from the late ballerina Viola Essen (she had starred in the film Spectre of the Rose). Their son, Beau, was born in 1956.

Gabe was with Steve Allen’s TV show a couple of seasons. He was in the movie Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (’71). He attracted attention when he took over for Alan Arkin in the hit play Luv. In 1972, The New York Times said he was an “excellent foil� for Joan Rivers in the Broadway comedy Fun City. He played the bartender Harry Grant on the TV series “The Corner Bar.� Also on TV he guest-starred in “McCloud,� “Sanford and Son,� and others. Gabe’s second marriage was to Allyson Daniell, 20 years his junior, and they had one son, Gabriel Dell Jr.

In 1973 Dell, along with Dean Hargrove, wrote a screenplay which not only starred Dell but had a part for Huntz Hall, a grand reunion for the only two Dead End kids still fully occupied with acting. The movie was The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery and also featured Will Geer, Vincent Gardenia, Barbara Harris and Jackie Coogan. The movie was shelved for two years then finally released with limited appeal. Together Huntz and Gabe bought an old abandoned church in Tapanga Canyon, CA, and converted it into a restaurant they called The Church.

An easy-going man, Gabe was a serious student of the philosophy of Zen (“Life is right here at the moment, and how can you make it work?�) Gabe owned a home in California but he also maintained an Upper West Side Manhattan residence. Gabe Dell died of leukemia in 1988. — Vernon Parker

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