Trivia

Close friend of Mickey Rooney, from whom he received his stage moniker.

He did over 76 films and was a very successful businessman after he left the movie industry.

Played a gangster alongside Steve Cochran in two films: the James Cagney classic, White Heat, and the film noir Highway 301, both with Warner Brothers.

At 103, he was the longest- lived cast member of "Sands of Iwo Jima "-1949.

He began in films in 1942 as mainly a character actor appearing in many war films including Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), Flying Leathernecks (1951), and starring in Story of G.I. Joe (1945). He later appeared in a number of westerns and gangster films.

Cassell's daughter, Cindy Cassell, became an actress. At age 13, she had the role of Pony Hutchinson in the Walt Disney Studios film Emil and the Detectives (1964).

Mickey Rooney, with whom Cassell appears in the 1950 film noir Quicksand, is credited with suggesting the change of name to Wally Cassell.

Cassell was married to actress and singer Marcy McGuire.

Began in films under contract to MGM.

Cassell began his film career in 1942, initially working in small, uncredited roles.

As a youngster, Cassell was a dancer, but he abandoned dancing to concentrate on acting.

Castellano was born in Agrigento, Sicily, and moved with his family to the United States when he was two years of age. (Another source says that his parents brought him to Brooklyn, New York, "when I was a babe in arms.").

Cassell also guest-starred in several television series, including The Loretta Young Show (1955), as "Oley" in James Arness's TV Western series Gunsmoke in the 1956 episode "Hack Prine" (S1E26), the 1959 premiere episode of The Untouchables ("The Empty Chair"), Rawhide (1960), and The Beverly Hillbillies (1963).

Rooney is also credited with helping Cassell gain a screen test and a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

A 1951 newspaper article gives Cassell's real name as Osvaldo Tripolini Ronaldo Vincennes Castelleno.