"Juke Girl" "They Drive By Night" "Desert Fury" "Thieves Highway" "On Dangerous Ground" "Kiss Me Deadly" "Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
Valley influenced Bezzerides' writing Author grew up in Fresno in same era as Saroyan. By Jim Steinberg / The Fresno Bee
Albert Isaac "Buzz" Bezzerides, born in Ottoman Turkey to an Armenian mother and Greek father, grew up in Fresno in the same era as author William Saroyan. Like Saroyan, Mr. Bezzerides wrote novels influenced by his life in the San Joaquin Valley during the early part of the last century.
He may have been best known as the author of "The Long Haul," which was made into the film "They Drive By Night," starring George Raft, Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino. He also wrote the books "There is a Happy Land" and "Thieves' Market."
Mr. Bezzerides, who moved to Southern California as an adult, fell and suffered a broken hip late last year. He died New Year's Day in a Los Angeles hospital. He was 98.
Ronald Reagan played a politically liberal trucker in the film "Juke Girl," written by Mr. Bezzerides. The movie portrayed immigrants from Oklahoma's Dust Bowl who made their way to the San Joaquin Valley in the 1930s.
Mr. Bezzerides' daughter, Zoe Ohl, called her father "a complex man."
She said, "They had a showing of his films at UCLA. He was not afraid to be tenderhearted, but he was a very tough man. He was strong, and faced reality."
Mr. Bezzerides came of age in a more rural Fresno teeming with fruit orchards and home to immigrants from Armenia and Europe.
"In those days, everybody had apple, cherry, peach or olive orchards," said Zabelle Melkonian of Visalia. "We all grew up together in Fresno. We saw Albert almost every week." Friends began calling him Buzz.
"He was master of ceremonies at my wedding, a big sit-down dinner at the old Belmont Inn," said Melkonian. "He gave a brief account of our lives."
Mr. Bezzerides attended the University of California at Berkeley, studying electrical engineering, but soon realized he wanted to be a writer. He dropped out of UC Berkeley, moved to Los Angeles and became that writer. He never considered Fresno his home again, Melkonian said:
"We just visited Albert in Woodland Hills on our Thanksgiving trip. We talked about the olden days. I'm 86, and he was 98. He had lost some hearing, but his mind was clear. I understand he was writing another book."
Mr. Bezzerides gained considerable attention from his novel "Thieves' Market," about the tough world of fruit and vegetable production.
Maritza Kiramidjian of San Francisco remembered Mr. Bezzerides as a good athlete and early ham radio operator who influenced her husband, Ludwig, to write.
A Greek film crew interviewed Kiramidjian for its forthcoming biographical film "Buzz," she said.
Because he grew up a Fresno Armenian, like Saroyan, Mr. Bezzerides made a point not to read Saroyan's work, a precaution against appearing like a second Saroyan.
Both contributed stories to "Story" magazine, but Mr. Bezzerides worked more closely with author William Faulkner.
"He and Faulkner took care of each other," said screenwriter Eric Nazarian. "Faulkner visited Buzz on his way to Mississippi after giving up Hollywood. He was very encouraging to Buzz."
Mr. Bezzerides created the Barbara Stanwyck television series "The Big Valley," but complained that Hollywood bleached out its ethnic richness.
Although he was often described as a film noir artist, he was adamant that he did not write pulp fiction, Nazarian said:
"He was a working-class writer from the bare-knuckles school of writing. He thought you needed to write reality. He had a love for the truth. When I visited him, he still had ink spots on his fingers."
Funeral arrangements are pending.