- Born
- Died
- Birth nameGabriel Del Vecchio
- Nickname
- Gabe
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- The son of an Italian immigrant doctor, Gabriel "Gabe" Dell began his career singing in a boys church choir and then on a children's radio show. He made his stage debut in the play "Dead End" and, with the other juvenile members of the cast, was called to Hollywood for the film version. Dell was one of the more unusual members of what came to be known as the East Side Kids/Dead End Kids/Bowery Boys in that when he appeared in many of their films, he, unlike his colleagues, didn't always play a member of the gang. He often played a reporter, or a cop, or even a gangster, somebody who had either befriended the gang or used to be one of them but got out.
Dell took a leave from the film business during WW II and served in the Merchant Marine for 3-1/2 years. When he returned, he played in a few more of the Bowery Boys series but made his final film with them in 1950 and struck out on his own. He took roles in Broadway plays, formed a nightclub act with former East Side Kid Huntz Hall and studied for three years at the Actors Studio. He worked steadily in television and was a regular cast member of the The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (1956). He alternated between TV and film parts, with one of his best roles being that of a sardonic hit man with a sense of humor in director Phil Karlson's action packed Framed (1975).- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com
- SpousesAllison Daniell(1965 - March 1970) (divorced, 1 child)Barbara Dell(? - May 14, 1953) (divorced)Viola Essen (divorced, 1 child)
- He formed a nightclub partnership with Huntz Hall in 1950 that resulted in the breakup of both men's marriages. Gabe's wife, Barbara, and Mrs. Hall jointly divorced them on 14 May 1953, citing the act as an alienating factor.
- Studied mime under Etienne Decroux, the man who taught Marcel Marceau.
- One of the original "Dead End Kids".
- It was incorrectly reported in a Topps Boba Fett magazine that Dell provided the voice of Boba Fett in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Lucasfilm eventually corrected the item, confirming that it was actor Jason Wingreen who did the voice for the film, and speculated that the confusion resulted from the fact that Dell most likely provided the voice of Boba Fett for the animated segment of The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), but that no record of what voice the actor actually did supply could be found.
- Survived by two sons, Gabriel Dell Jr. and Beau Del Vecchio (both actors), and a sister, Ethel Evelyn Del Vecchio.
- Earthquake (1974) - $18,900
- Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) - $650 /week
- Crime School (1938) - $275 /week
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