Mike Mazurki

Mike Mazurki (December 25, 1907 – December 9, 1990) was a Ukrainian-American actor and professional wrestler who appeared in more than 142 films. His 6 ft 5 in (196 cm) presence and face had him often typecast as brainless athletes, tough guys, thugs, and gangsters. His roles included Moose Malloy in Murder, My Sweet (1944), Splitface in Dick Tracy (1945), Yusuf in Sinbad the Sailor (1947), and Clon in It's About Time (1966–1967). He was the founder and first president of the Cauliflower Alley Club. Early years Mazurki was born Markiyan Yulianovich Mazurkevich in the village of Kupchyntsi (in present-day Ternopil Raion), near what was then Tarnopol, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Ternopil, Ukraine). Mazurki attended LaSalle Institute in Troy, for high school. Upon finishing school, he changed his name to "Mike". He played football and basketball at Manhattan College, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1930. After earning his bachelor's degree, Mazurki graduated from Fordham Law School and became an attorney. He later said he took up professional wrestling because he could earn around ten times what he could as a lawyer. Mazurki was also a professional American football and basketball player.