Robert Sacchi(1932-2021)

An uncanny resemblance to Hollywood icon Humphrey Bogart ensured a brief but lucrative career for Italian-born Robert Sacchi. Raised in New York's Bronx, Sacchi was made aware of this similitude while at high school. It would eventually lead to his impersonating Bogey in films, TV ads, a Phil Collins music video, touring theatrical performances of Woody Allen's Play It Again Sam and a one-man show entitled Bogey's Back. In 1982, he also scored a novelty rap/disco hit top ten single in Germany ("Jungle Queen"). Sacchi's screen career began in 1972. After a string of minor roles he was propelled to greater fame eight years later as the suave gumshoe Sam Marlowe in Détective comme Bogart (1980), produced and written (from his own novel) by Andrew J. Fenady. For added authentic film noir feel, this complex Chandleresque mystery also featured a gallery of performers (George Raft, Yvonne De Carlo, Mike Mazurki) who had once co-starred opposite the real Bogart. Ironically, there appears to have been a real life Sam Marlowe in 1940s Los Angeles, allegedly the first ever licensed black private detective, said to have been employed by the likes of Gable, Dietrich and Chaplin and (possibly) also the inspiration for Raymond Chandler's famous creation Philip Marlowe.

In the wake of screen acting, Sacchi authored a book about ghetto kids in the 30s and 40s who went on to fame in the boxing ring, "Willie Pep Remembers - Friday's Heroes". Robert Sacchi died on June 23 2021 in Los Angeles at the age of 89.