GLOUCESTER – On the 80th anniversary of D-Day, you’ll find Joseph Garrisi painting in his Gloucester apartment. As he runs the brush over the canvas, the 99-year-old World War II veteran can still remember the moment he was seriously injured in battle. While the incident led him to an acting career, you will now find him buried in his art.
Garrisi was in Italy during World War II. One day his platoon was sent to protect a monastery.
“Just before we got there, I fell. I had a machine gun tripod with me,” Garrisi said. “I did the carrying and the shooting. I didn’t let anyone do this.’
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He was told to go back for medical attention even though he thought he was fine.
“[The doctor] said, ‘Okay, take these pills.’ The black pills? I don’t know if it was charcoal or what?” laughed Garrisi.
When he returned to the battlefield, his story changed dramatically.
“Here come the Screaming Mimis, and you could hear them coming. They would scare the hell out of you, because when you hear them, you know they’re shooting at you. They hit, and then I got hit in the face. Then I hit me in the face, I turned around and another grenade hit my leg,” Garrisi recalled.
His heroics left him not only with a scar, but also with two Purple Heart medals.
Actor, restaurant owner after the war
After the war he came home, but his doctors suggested he move to California. They thought the climate would better suit his war injuries. It was there that his love for art blossomed.
He became a stage actor and worked with Dustin Hoffman. He later opened a restaurant that once housed President Gerald Ford. He and the First Lady continued to send him photos and letters. His restaurant also hosted Frank Sinatra’s 47th birthday.
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He did not start painting until he was sixty. His relatives say he stood still for decades before being convinced to pick up the thread again just before the pandemic hit. It is his art that got him through the war, as COVID restrictions left him alone in his apartment. He sees faces in his works of art.
“You can’t believe how many faces there are in that photo,” Garrisi said. “You’ll see the eyes, the nose, the mouth, the whole thing.”
It is in those swirls that he finds his peace.
Mike Sullivan
