Anthony Caruso

Who was Anthony Caruso?

Anthony Caruso was an American character actor in more than one hundred American films, usually playing villains, including the first season of Walt Disney's Zorro as Captain Juan Ortega.

Born in Frankfort, Indiana, Caruso was reared from the age of 10 in Long Beach, California. He made his film debut in Johnny Apollo.

In some of his television roles, Caruso played sympathetic characters, like "Ash", on an early episode of CBS's Gunsmoke. He guest-starred on two of Rod Cameron's syndicated series, City Detective and COronado 9.

In 1954, Caruso played Tiburcio Vasquez in an episode of Jim Davis's syndicated western series, Stories of the Century. He appeared in the first Brian Keith series, Crusader. Among Caruso's other Western credits was 1954's Cattle Queen of Montana also starring future U.S. President Ronald W. Reagan.

At Christmas 1957, Caruso appeared as a Roman Catholic priest in the episode "The Child" of NBC's The Restless Gun, starring John Payne, and also guest starring Dan Blocker and James Gleason.

In 1959, Caruso was cast with Tom Nolan and Sally Brophy in the role of George Bradley in the episode "Annie's Old Beau" on the NBC children's western series, Buckskin.