Joseph Bologna was born in Brooklyn on December 30, 1934. He majored in art history at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. After a stint in the Marine Corps Joe was hired to produce and direct Manhattan-based TV commercials.

In 1965 he married actress/writer Rene Taylor, who would collaborate with Bologna on such stage, screen, and TV projects as Lovers and Other Strangers, Made for Each Other, Woman of the Year, and the Emmy-winning “Acts of Love and Other Comedies.� Bologna and Taylor also created the 1973 TV series “Calucci’s Department.�

On his own, Bologna has been a much-in-demand film actor since 1970. His most rewarding screen assignments have included the starring role of Dan Torrance in the 1976 disaster-flick spoof The Big Bus and Sid Caesar-like TV comic King Kaiser in the nostalgic My Favorite Year (1982). On television, Joseph Bologna played a cameo as Walter Winchell in the made-for-cable biopic “Citizen Cohn� (1992), and starred as Nick Foley on the 1987 TV “dramedy� “Rags to Riches,� which gave him a rare opportunity to sing.

Other films in which Bologna appears are Big Daddy (‘99), Heaven Before I Die (‘97), National Lampoon’s The Don’s Analyst (‘97), Love is All There Is (‘96) and Revenge of the Nerds 4: Nerds Love (‘94). — V.P.

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