Joseph Peter Mascolo

 Joseph Peter Mascolo (March 13, 1929 – December 8, 2016)

During his long career, he acted in numerous motion pictures and television series. He played villain Stefano DiMera on Days of Our Lives from 1982 to 2016. He also starred as Massimo Marone on The Bold and the Beautiful from 2001 to 2006. He attended the United States Military Academy after graduating high school. Mascolo then attended the University of Miami. To support himself financially, he studied acting under famed acting coach Stella Adler in New York City. Mascolo's first film appearance was in 1968's Hot Spur as Carlo. He was also in 1972's neo-noir action crime–drama film Shaft's Big Score! as Gus Mascola, 1973's The Spook Who Sat by the Door, and 1978's Jaws 2 as Len Peterson. Mascolo also played a wide range of roles on many different TV series including (but not limited to) a Stefano-like villain named Nicholas Van Buren on General Hospital, and Carlos Alvarez on Santa Barbara. Before achieving his fame, he was seen in the earlier soap operas Where the Heart Is and From These Roots. He also made primetime television appearances on All in the Family, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Lou Grant and The Rockford Files.

Mascolo married Rose Maimone in 1953. Together they had a son named Peter. Maimone died in 1986. In 2005, he married his second wife, Patricia Schultz. In January 2016, Mascolo told Soap Opera Digest that he had suffered from a stroke in the spring of 2015. Mascolo died on December 8, 2016, in Santa Clarita, California at the age of 87 after years of battling Alzheimer's disease. He is buried at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills.