John Saxon, rugged screen veteran who starred in ‘Enter the Dragon,’ dies at 83

Before appearing in Wes Craven’s “Nightmare on Elm Street” films and fighting alongside Bruce Lee in “Enter the Dragon,” John Saxon was just a high school student playing hooky, skipping class to see a movie at New York’s Paramount Theatre.

Known at the time as Carmine Orrico, he was the only son of an Italian immigrant painter and dock worker, with dark hair, dramatic eyebrows and chiseled features that caught the eye of a male-modeling agent, who handed his business card to the teenager as he walked out of the Times Square movie palace.