Leonardo Cimino (November 4, 1917 – March 3, 2012) was an American film, television and stage actor who in 1937 appeared in the original stage production of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock. Cimino's most well known roles are in the 1983 science fiction miniseries, V as Abraham Bernstein and the 1987 feature film The Monster Squad as the "Scary German guy".
Life and career
Born in Manhattan, Cimino was the son of Andrea and Leonilda Cimino. His father was a tailor.
Cimino was initially interested in pursuing a career as a violinist, and studied the instrument at the Juilliard School when he was a teenager. While studying the violin he became interested in acting and dancing, and began studying those as well.[1] In 1936, at the age of 18, he made his professional stage debut in a supporting role in the world premiere of Gladys Bronwyn Stern's Middle Man in Suffern, New York which starred actor Ernest Truex.[2] It was not until a decade later, however, that Cimino would become dedicated full-time to an acting career. During the late 1930s and early 1940s he studied acting, directing and modern dance at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.[1]
After returning to the United States in 1945 he continued to study the performing arts at the Neighborhood Playhouse; notably studying dance with Martha Graham. In 1946 he made his Broadway debut in a revival of Cyrano de Bergerac which starred and was directed by José Ferrer. It was the first of many projects in which Cimino would collaborate with Ferrer.[1] He went on to appear in nearly 20 Broadway productions over the next four decades, including a 1962 adaptation of E. M. Forster’s Passage to India and a 1985 revival of The Iceman Cometh. In 1976 he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for his performance of the role of Jim in Arthur Miller's A Memory of Two Mondays.
^Evry, Max (January 10, 2024). "I Found David Lynch's Lost Dune II Script". Wired. Retrieved January 10, 2024. From out of the shadows emerges a familiar face: the Baron's Doctor (Leonardo Cimino). Thought to be the only speaking part created specifically for Dune by [David] Lynch, we learn this Doctor was actually Scytale, a shape-shifting "face dancer" crucial to the plot of Herbert's second book [Dune Messiah]. Going back to Dune '84, you may not have noticed Cimino's Doctor accompanied Baron Harkonnen during the Arrakeen attack. The Doc is absent after that, even as the Baron yells creepily, "Where's my doctor?" That's because Doc/Scytale absconded with Duncan's body. This Easter egg is Lynchian world-building at its best.
