BloG
Stories & Articles about Italian Americans who have contributed to the entertainment industry.
Dom Irrera – Italian American Comedian
Domenick Jack "Dom" Irrera is an Italian American actor and stand-up comedian. Much of his material is in the form of stories about his life, especially his childhood years and growing up in an Italian American family. Irrera has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show,...
James Darren – Italian American Actor
James William Ercolani, known by his stage name James Darren, was born in Philadelphia, on June 8, 1936, of Italian descent. He wanted to be an actor and studied in New York City with Stella Adler for a number of years. Darren was discovered by talent agent and...
Dino De Laurentiis – Italian American Film Producer
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis was born in 1919 in Torre Annunziata in the province of Naples, and grew up selling spaghetti made by his father's pasta factory. He started his studies at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome in the years 1937–1938 then...
Rudolph Valentino – Italian American Actor
Rudolph Valentino, (Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguolla), was an Italian-born American actor who was idolized as the “Great Lover” of the 1920s. When Rudolph was 11, his father, a veterinarian, died from malaria. After being...
Dan Castellaneta – Italian American Voice Actor
Daniel Louis Castellaneta was born in 1957 at Roseland Community Hospital on Chicago's south side and was raised in River Forest and Oak Park, Illinois. He is of Italian descent, born to Elsie Lagorio and Louis Castellaneta. Castellaneta became adept at...
Lou Costello – Italian American Comedian
Italian American comedian Louis Francis Cristillo was born on March 6, 1906, in Paterson, New Jersey. Growing up, Lou was a gifted athlete and played a number of sports in high school, but his main pasion was acting. Lou grew up admiring silent films and actors,...
Tony Danza – Italian American Actor
Antonio Salvatore Iadanza (Tony Danza) was born in 1951 in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Anne Cammisa and Matty Anthony Iadanza. His mother was a bookkeeper and his father worked as a waste collector in Brooklyn. Danza's father was of Italian ancestry and Danza's...
Frank Mancuso – Film Studio Executive
Frank G. Mancuso (born July 25, 1933) is an Italian American former film studio executive. Mancuso was the chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures between 1984 and 1991, and of MGM between 1993 and 1999, when he retired. Mancuso started as an usher in a theater in...
Anne Bancroft – Italian American Actress
Anna Maria Louisa Italiano was born in 1931 in the Bronx, New York. She was the middle of three daughters of parents Mildred DiNapoli, a telephone operator, and Michael G. Italiano a dress pattern maker. Her parents were both children of Italian immigrants. In an...
Alan Alda – Italian American Actor
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo was born in 1936 in the Bronx, New York City. Alda spent his childhood with his parents travelling around the United States in support of his father's job as a performer in burlesque theatres. His Italian father Robert Alda (born Alfonso...
Carmine Coppola – Italian American Composer
Carmine Valentino Coppola was born in 1910 in New York City. He was the son of Maria Zasa and Agostino Coppola, who came to the United States from Bernalda, Basilicata. His brother was opera conductor and composer Anton Coppola. Coppola played the flute. He studied at...
Charles Atlas – Italian American Bodybuilder
Angelo Siciliano was born in Acri, Calabria, Italy, on October 30, 1892. Eleven years later, he and his family traveled through Ellis Island and settled in Brooklyn, New York. As a young boy, Angelo was often teased and bullied about his small stature. He was inspired...