Francesco Tamagno heard on the stages of London and New York during the late-Victorian Era. Tamagno, however, refused to perform Wagnerian works, even in Italian translation; he believed that the tessitura of the music written for Wagner's tenor heroes lay too low to suit his vocal range. Tamagno lived long enough to witness the rise to fame of the young Enrico Caruso (1873–1921). He admired Caruso's ability, predicting as far back as 1898 that Caruso would go on to become the number-one Italian tenor of the 20th century. As M. J. Phillips-Matz observes in her 2002 Puccini biography, Tamagno and Caruso actually
David Caruso and Edward G. Robinson. He said: The ethics of certain actors certainly had a power over me. These guys taught me how to be what I call a stand-up kind of guy. Caruso's first movie appearance was in the 1980 film "Getting Wasted" as Danny. He credits his role as Topper Daniels, "the cadet who nearly drowned", in "An Officer and a Gentleman" (1982) as what got him noticed. Caruso then spent most of the decade in supporting roles in films including "First Blood" (1982), "Blue City" (1986), "China Girl" (1987) and "Twins" (1988). On television, Caruso had a recurring