Film Career
The bulk of Joe Kirk’s early film career consisted of playing bit parts, often uncredited, in low budget productions. Typical roles for him were "ethnic" Sicilian-Americans - gangsters, bartenders, bookies, and henchmen. He appeared in several films produced at Monogram Pictures, including Spooks Run Wild (1941), Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc. (1941), Mr. Wise Guy (1942), and Smart Alecks (1942). Kirk appeared as the villager Schwartz in Universal's "House Of Frankenstein" (1944). He was occasionally billed as Joseph I. Kirk, the "I" standing for his birth-name, Ignazio.
Through his marriage to Marie Cristillo, the sister of Lou Costello, Kirk secured steady appearances (albeit in small roles) in Abbott and Costello films. His more prominent parts included the pet shop owner in Rio Rita (1942), Honest Dan the Bookie in Here Come the Co-Eds (1946), the shady real estate agent in Buck Privates Come Home (1947),uncredited by-stander in "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" (1948) and Dr. Orvilla in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953).
Kirk continued acting through the late 1950s, with appearances in The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), the 1956 Bowery Boys comedy Hot Shots and Fritz Lang’s drama Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956). He also took small roles in television shows such as Adventures of Superman, Sheriff of Cochise and U.S. Marshal, before retiring from show business in 1958.
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