Cliff Osmond

Born on February 26, 1937 in Jersey City, Clifford Osman Ebrahim graduated with a degree in Business Administration from the University of California.

Fans of Billy Wilder movies will remember Osmond as private investigator Purkey, convinced that the leads ( Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau ) weren’t clean wheat, in On a Silver Platter , his first collaboration with the director. In Kiss Me, Silly he was Barney, the amateur songwriter, eager to jump on the chance that a famous Las Vegas singer ( Dean Martin ) has turned up in his town. He was also a police officer serving the prison warden in Primera Plana , and another agent in Sweet Irma .

Regarding the latter, Osmond recalled that he himself was one of the reasons why the film went from being a musical to a comedy. When the actor was trying to sing a song, Wilder reportedly said, “Cliff has the same ear for music as Vincent van Gogh.”

Between 1962 and 1996, Osmond played over a hundred roles, mostly in series. In fact, he had important roles in various episodes of Kojak and Gunsmoke . At the same time he worked as an acting teacher (actors like Armand Assante and Carlos Alazraqui studied with him). In 1962, he directed a film, The Penitent , with Raul Julia , and in 1973 he was nominated for a Writers Guild Award for writing an episode of The Streets of San Francisco . He also wrote a book about his career: “Acting is Living: Exploring the Ten Essential Elements in any Successful Performance.”