In a year that has seen the loss of so many icons I had missed the death of Joseph Mascolo on 8 December 2016. Mascolo, who brought a sense of charisma and style to his portrayal of Gus Mascola in Shaft’s Big Score! Mascolo (born 13 March 1929) was of Italian descent, his parents having emigrated from Naples. He studied acting under Stella Adler and was also a trained classical musician – he would famously use his clarinet skills to flesh out his portrayal for Gus Mascola. He had worked his way through TV and theatre from the late 1950s. He was a regular on TV through to the late 1980s and is probably best remembered for his portrayal of soap villain Stefano DiMera from 1982 to 2016 on NBC’s Days of Our Lives. In the last couple of years he had experienced deteriorating health, having suffered a stroke in 2015 and battling Alzheimer’s disease, from which he eventually died. He is survived by his wife, Patricia Schultz-Mascolo, his son Peter, his step-daughter Laura, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
