Actor Val Avery died 12 December 2009. Born Sebouh Der Abrahamian on 14 July 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he appeared in Armenian Youth Theater productions, served as an Army flight instructor during World War II, and then studied int he Bessie V. Hicks School of Drama in Philadelphia. Then he moved to New York, and began acting in live television. His first film appearance was in The Harder They Fall (1956), Humphrey Bogart’s last movie. He made a career of playing cops, thugs, Mafia kingpins, and mean bosses, (although in the classic 1960 western The Magnificent Seven, he appeared as a traveling corset salesman). He appeared in more than 100 films, and made more than 300 appearances on television.
Avery’s genre appearances include: Friday the 13th (1988), Too Scared to Scream (1985), The Amityville Horror (1979), Man from Atlantis (1977), The Legend of Hillbilly John (1974), The Invaders (1967), two episodes of The Wild Wild West (1966 and 1967), two episodes of The Munsters (1964 and 1965), and The Twilight Zone (1960).
He is survived by his wife, actress Margot Stevenson, whom he married in 1953.