Bruno Kirby was the friend on the next stool: fast-talking, New York, cranky and hard to dislike. Opposite Billy Crystal he made the best-friend part worth watching in its own right, and in Donnie Brasco he carried the same manner into a colder room.
Fi1m perspective
The voice comes first: high, rasping, a little aggrieved, as though the world has just short-changed him and he intends to say so. Bruno Kirby used it to play fast-talking New Yorkers who were belligerent and likable in the same breath, and he could keep a straight face while everyone around him was being ridiculous. In This Is Spinal Tap (1984) he is the Sinatra-loving limo driver, and he plays it as if the passengers were the ones with the problem.
He came up through small television parts in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and The Godfather Part II (1974), where he played the young Clemenza, got him noticed. What followed was a working character actor's life across comedies and dramas through the 1980s and 1990s: Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), where he was the officer standing in Robin Williams's way, and the two films with Billy Crystal that most people remember him for, When Harry Met Sally... (1989) and City Slickers (1991). Barry Levinson used him three times, Rob Reiner twice. He directed an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street in 1995, a series we admire, and later there was stage work, voice roles and television.
The Crystal films show what he did best. In City Slickers his Ed Furillo and Daniel Stern's Phil give the friendship enough friction to stop Crystal becoming the entire film; the three men score off each other the way old friends do, always with an eye on the laugh. Around the campfire we believed in them more than the plot deserved, and Kirby is a large part of why: he can make a confidence sound like a complaint, so the scene never goes soft before the script does. In When Harry Met Sally... his Jess is welcome company whenever the film steps away from its central pair, which is faint praise only until you remember how many best friends in romantic comedies are furniture.
The limits are the limits of the parts. He was rarely the reason anyone bought a ticket, and in Donnie Brasco (1997), a fine film, he is one of the crew around Pacino and Depp while the attention stays on them. The manner is there, the rasp and the readiness to take offence, but the film needs it as background and he supplies it without fuss. He was, by all accounts, generous to the actors he shared a scene with, and you can see it: he gives Crystal something to push against rather than something to compete with.
He turned down City Slickers II because he did not think the script was good enough. He was choosy, and it shows in how little of his work we would warn you off. Start with City Slickers and When Harry Met Sally... for the friendships, then Donnie Brasco to see the same face in a much colder film.
Biography
Bruno Kirby was an American actor, also credited as B. Kirby Jr. or Bruno Giovanni Quidaciolu Jr. Born in New York City, he began working in film and television in the late 1960s and appeared in supporting roles across comedies and dramas until 2006.
His credits include Young Clemenza in The Godfather Part II (1974), Tommy Pischedda in This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Lieutenant Steven Hauk in Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Jess in When Harry Met Sally... (1989), Ed Furillo in City Slickers (1991), Swifty in The Basketball Diaries (1995), Shakes' father in Sleepers (1996) and Nicholas 'Nicky' Santora in Donnie Brasco (1997). He also voiced a character in Stuart Little (1999).
Kirby was the son of actor Bruce Kirby and the brother of John Kirby.
