Salvatore Mauriello; Barber

Salvatore Mauriello, longtime North Hollywood barber who became a hero when he caught a child falling from a fifth-story window, has died at his Van Nuys home. He was 84.

Mauriello died Thursday in his sleep of heart failure, said his daughter, Marjorie Baker of Mar Vista.

Born in Port-de-Bouc, France, and raised on the Italian island of Ischia, Mauriello came to the United States when he was 14. He opened a barber shop in Brooklyn, N.Y., in the 1930s and moved to Los Angeles in 1948. The following year, Mauriello opened The Barber Bowl in Echo Park, and in 1953 he moved his one-man operation to a shop across from North Hollywood High School. In the mid-1970s he moved Mauriello’s Barber Shop to Chandler Boulevard, where he worked until the time of his death.

Mauriello’s moment in the spotlight came in 1945 when he rescued a 2-year-old boy who had crawled onto the ledge of an apartment building in Brooklyn. Mauriello was walking home from work when he heard a woman scream and saw the boy fall. He reached out and caught him. Four years ago, he was reunited in New York with Marvin Goldstein, whom he saved more than four decades earlier.

In addition to his daughter, Marjorie, Mauriello is survived by his wife of 60 years, Rachel Mauriello; son and former Dodgers pitcher Ralph Mauriello of West Hills; daughter Gina Garcia of Kerikeri, New Zealand; sisters Michelina Regine of Ischia, Leora Covatta and Mima Amalfitano, both of Naples, Italy; six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Another daughter, Mary Taylor, died in 1986.

Visitation is planned from 3 to 8 p.m. Monday at Praiswater Funeral Home, 5849 Van Nuys Blvd., Van Nuys, which is handling the arrangements. A funeral is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at the mortuary with burial to follow at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills. Donations can be made in Mauriello’s name to the American Cancer Society.