In passing

Mimis Chrysomallis, Greek actor

Athens, Greece Mimis Chrysomallis, a popular Greek actor, died Friday of a heart attack, a hospital said Saturday. He was 66.

Chrysomallis had been starring in a Greek adaptation of Neil Simon’s play “The Odd Couple.”

He studied at the prestigious Karolos Kuhn acting school in Athens before embarking on a career in film and theater that spanned four decades.

He became famous with Greece’s “Free Theater” group in the early 1970s and earned acclaim for his part in theatrical adaptations of works by Shakespeare and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Thomas Foglietta, politician

Philadelphia

Thomas Foglietta, a South Philadelphia politician who served for 17 years in Congress and later was named U.S. ambassador to Italy, died Saturday at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, a hospital spokesman said. He was 75.

Foglietta had been at the hospital since Oct. 30, when he experienced breathing problems, according to family members.

The son of a city councilman from a heavily Italian ward, Foglietta was elected to the City Council when he was 26. Then a Republican, he lost a 1975 campaign to unseat Democratic Mayor Frank Rizzo.

Foglietta won election to Congress as an independent in 1980 and eventually switched to the Democratic Party. President Clinton named him ambassador to Italy in 1997, and he later returned to Philadelphia, where he worked as a lawyer and lobbyist for international clients.

Ed Kemmer, television actor

New York Actor Ed Kemmer, who played the intrepid Cmdr. Buzz Corry in the popular 1950s children’s television show “Space Patrol” before becoming a regular on daytime soap operas, died Tuesday after suffering a stroke on Nov. 5, family friend Jean-Noel Bassior said. He was 84.

“Space Patrol” chronicled the adventures of Corry, who fought intergalactic villains of the 30th century while flying around in his Terra V spacecraft with comic sidekick Cadet Happy.

The series, which also spawned a radio version, ran from 1950 to 1955 and was broadcast live on ABC as a weekly half-hour program.

Kemmer later switched to playing bad guys with appearances on shows including “Perry Mason,” “Gunsmoke” and “Maverick.” He moved to New York in 1964 and spent the next 19 years starring regularly on soap operas such as “The Edge of Night,” “As the World Turns,” “All My Children” and “Guiding Light.”

Kemmer spent 11 months in a German prisoner of war camp during World War II after his plane was shot down over France in 1944. He and others in the POW camp staged plays, and after the war he studied acting.

Carlo Rustichelli, Italian composer

Rome Carlo Rustichelli, an Italian film composer who worked on hundreds of soundtracks and wrote music for the Oscar-winning “Divorce, Italian Style,” died Saturday, the ANSA news agency said. He was 87.

The report did not provide the cause of death, though it said he had long been ill.

Rustichelli was known for his range of musical styles for films from light comedies to historical dramas.

The composer often worked with director Pietro Germi, who made the 1961 farce “Divorce, Italian Style,” starring Marcello Mastroianni as a Sicilian who plots to kill his wife so he can marry another woman. The movie garnered several Academy Award nominations and won for best screenplay.

Rustichelli also composed music for many films starring noted Italian comedian Toto, and for “The Four Days of Naples.” The 1962 movie, about a revolt against the Nazis during World War II, was nominated for best foreign-language film and best screenplay at the Oscars.