Ben Gazzara, an intense actor whose long career included playing Brick in the original “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on Broadway, roles in influential films by John Cassavetes and work with several generations of top Hollywood directors, died on Friday afternoon in Manhattan. He was 81. He died of pancreatic cancer at Bellevue Hospital Center, his lawyer, Jay Julien, said. Mr. Gazzara lived in Manhattan.