A big, brawny villain of many 1940s and 1950s films, Ted de Corsia was an actor in touring companies and on radio before making a memorable film debut as the killer in La dame de Shanghai (1947). Although he occasionally played such sympathetic roles as a judge or prison warden, de Corsia's imposing size, tough New York street demeanor - he was born and raised in Brooklyn - and gravelly voice assured him steady work playing murderous street thugs, outlaw gang leaders or organized-crime bosses. One of his best-remembered roles was as the head of a murder-for-hire gang who turns state's evidence in the Humphrey Bogart crime thriller La femme à abattre (1951).
