(April 20, 1904–May 3, 1972; birth name: Etienne Pelissier Jacques de Bujac): American tough-guy actor who portrayed casino boss Bert Saxby in Diamonds Are Forever. Cabot’s rugged features were perfectly suited to the film’s Las Vegas atmosphere, crowded with underworld diamond smugglers, tough-talking women, and mysterious assassins.
A native of Carlsbad, New Mexico, Bruce Cabot made his credited featured debut as Fred Dykes in director J. Walter Ruben’s The Roadhouse Murder (1932) for RKO Pictures. The following year, he won what was to be his most celebrated role: John Driscoll, the writer who rescues Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) from the eponymous giant ape in King Kong (1933). In 1947, he costarred in Angel and the Badman, the first of many films he made with his good friend John Wayne.