Actor. He is best remembered for his portrayal of the stern Milton Goeller in the motion picture "Rent Control" (1981). Born into a working-class family, the first of three children of restaurateurs, after attaining his degree in theatrical arts from St. Bonaventure University, he served in the United States Army. Upon his discharge, he settled in New York City, New York, and after studying at the HB Studio through the G.I. Bill, he made his formal debut in "The Flowering Peach." From there, he would go on to enjoy a fruitful career as a character actor appearing in over 70 productions in a successful stage career that would span for the course of 40 years; often typecast as husbands, fathers, bachelors, doctors, politicians, curmudgeons, soldiers, eccentrics, businessmen, playboys, historical figures, detectives, reporters, aristocrats, blue-collared guys, shrinks, con-men, clergymen, lawyers, jurors, medics, villains, sidekicks, city slickers, gigolos, policemen, authority figures, and patriarchs. He appeared in such features as "Both Ends Meet," "The Bad Seed," "Sailor Beware!," "Separate Tables," "Sing Me No Lullaby," "Twelve Angry Men," "The Rainmaker," "The Desperate Hours," "No Time for Sergeants," "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?," "A View from the Bridge," "The Desperate Hours," "A Memory of Two Mondays," "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll," "The House by the Lake," "Long Day's Journey into Night," "Towards Zero," "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs," "Holiday for Lovers," "Look Homeward, Angel," "Orpheus Descending," "Epitaph for George Dillion," "The Gazebo," "Say, Darling," "Handful of Fire," "Goodbye Charlie," "Sweet Bird of Youth," "Advise and Consent," "Boeing-Boeing," "Happy Birthday, Wanda June," "Toys in the Attic," "Period of Adjustment," "The Night of the Iguana," "All the King's Horses," "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," "Barefoot in the Park," "Alfie," "Enter Laughing," "Sunday in New York," "And Things That Go Bump in the Night," "Dutchman," "The Killing of Sister George," "A Severed Head," "All in Good Time," "Catch Me If You Can," "The Odd Couple," "A Delicate Balance," "A Hand is on the Gate," "America Hurrah," "The Deer Park," "Johnny No-Trump," "The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald," "More Stately Mansions," "Dinner at Eight," and "Forty Carats." During his career, he wrote over 60 plays, was a theatrical instructor for the Neighborhood Playhouse, was a regular parishioner of the Catholic church, had been supportive of the New York State Democratic Committee, was a chairman for his local divisions of the American Red Cross and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, was an honorary member of Actors Equity, served as one of the founding members of the Theatre for the New City, and he served as a vice-president of the Actors Fund. In 1994, Melfi, who never married nor had any children, retired from acting due to health related issues and withdrew from public life becoming immensely introverted. After developing a pattern of heavy drinking during his final years, he died from complications of congestive heart failure.