by Vince Chiarelli | Mar 15, 2021 | Film, Musicians, Television
Jason Francesco Schwartzman was born in Los Angeles on June 26, 1980, the son of actress Talia Shire (Coppola) and film producer Jack Schwartzman. His paternal grandparents were Polish Jews, while his mother is an Italian-American Catholic. His younger brother, Robert Schwartzman, is also an actor and musician. His paternal half-siblings are Stephanie and cinematographer John Schwartzman. As a member of the Coppola family, many of his relatives are also involved in the entertainment industry—he is the nephew of filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola and opera conductor Anton Coppola; the cousin of actor Nicolas Cage and filmmakers Sofia Coppola, Roman Coppola, and Christopher Coppola; and the grandson of Coppola family matriarch Italia Coppola (Pennino) and composer Carmine Coppola. He attended Windward School in the Mar Vista neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Schwartzman’s acting career began in 1998, at which point he was 17 years old, when he starred in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. Shortly after in 2000, Jason had a guest role in the short-lived series Freaks and Geeks. In 2001, he starred in CQ, a film by his cousin Roman Coppola. In 2002, he starred in the comedy film Slackers, and in 2003 headlined the drama Spun. In 2004, he starred in I Heart Huckabees, and Shopgirl in 2005. He also appeared in various television shows, such as Cracking Up. In 2006, he starred in Marie Antoinette under the direction of his cousin, Sofia Coppola, in which he appeared as King Louis XVI.
Schwartzman made a cameo appearance as Ringo Starr in the biopic spoof Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. In 2009, he appeared as C-list television star Mark in Funny People. He also voiced Ash Fox in Wes Anderson’s animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox, which he described as “the best movie [he’s] ever been a part of”. He starred in the HBO show Bored to Death, in which he played a writer who moonlights as a private detective and puts himself up for hire on Craigslist. In 2009, he starred in The Marc Pease Experience. In 2010, he played Gideon Graves in the film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, the movie adaptation of the comics by Bryan Lee O’Malley.
In 2011, Schwartzman made a cameo appearance as Vincent van Gogh in the Beastie Boys short film Fight for Your Right Revisited. In 2013, he made a cameo appearance as himself in an episode of the television show Key & Peele. In 2014, he played himself in the Tim & Eric’s Bedtime Stories episode “The Endorsement”. In 2020, he began starring as Italian crime boss Josto Fadda in the fourth season of the FX anthology series Fargo.
Prior to acting, Schwartzman was the drummer and a songwriter for the band Phantom Planet. He appeared in the music video for the rock remix of “It’s All About the Benjamins” by Puff Daddy, and contributed to Ben Lee’s 2005 album Awake Is the New Sleep. In 2007, he created the indie rock solo act Coconut Records. The first album, entitled Nighttiming, was produced by Michael Einziger and features a cover photo from Roman Coppola. The album was first released on iTunes on March 20, 2007. It had musical contributions by members of Incubus, as well as appearances by actresses Zooey Deschanel and Kirsten Dunst and Schwartzman’s brother Robert. His second album, Davy, was released on iTunes on January 20, 2009. Schwartzman performed the musical score for Funny People and the theme song for Bored to Death. He has also written tracks for Smallville and Slackers. Schwartzman also played the drums on Phoenix’s rendition of The Beach Boys’ song “Alone on Christmas Day” in 2015. The song was featured in Bill Murray’s Netflix special, A Very Murray Christmas.
Schwartzman’s work has also been featured in many films and television programs. In 2009, he composed the theme song to his HBO series Bored to Death, in which he also starred, under his Coconut Records title. That same year, he also contributed to the film score to the film Funny People with composer Michael Andrews. The original soundtrack is downloadable, as well as available in vinyl LP, on Coconut Records’ official Cinder Block store. His song, “Microphone” was featured in the 2012 coming of age comedy, LOL.
Schwartzman married his long-time girlfriend, art and design director Brady Cunningham, at their home in the San Fernando Valley on July 11, 2009. Cunningham is the co-owner of TENOVERSIX in Los Angeles.
In 2009, he was named one of the “Top 10 Most Stylish Men in America” by GQ magazine. In 2011, he narrated a video called What to Eat: The Environmental Impacts of Our Food for Farm Sanctuary.
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by Vince Chiarelli | Mar 9, 2021 | Film, Television
Dennis Farina was born in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood, the fourth son and youngest of the seven children of Joseph and Yolanda Farina. Farina’s father, who was from Villalba, Sicily, was a Chicago-area doctor, and his mother a homemaker. The Farinas raised their children in a North Avenue home in Old Town, a working-class neighborhood with a broad ethnic mixture, with Italians and Germans being the two predominant ethnicities.
Before becoming an actor, Farina served three years in the United States Army during the Vietnam Era, followed by 18 years in the Chicago Police Department, advancing in rank from 1967 to 1985.
Farina began working for director Michael Mann as a police consultant, which led Mann to cast him in a small role in the 1981 film Thief. He moonlighted as an actor in Chicago-based films (like Code of Silence, a 1985 Chuck Norris film) and theater before Mann chose him for his Crime Story series, which aired on NBC from 1986 to 1988. Farina played mobster Albert Lombard in Mann’s previous hit television show, Miami Vice. He later starred as the title character in Buddy Faro, a short-lived 1998 private detective series on CBS.
Farina played mob boss Jimmy Serrano in Midnight Run, and Ray “Bones” Barboni, a rival criminal to Chili Palmer in Get Shorty. Farina also played FBI Agent Jack Crawford in the first Hannibal Lecter crime film, Michael Mann’s Manhunter.
Other movies he was cast in include Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, Striking Distance, Another Stakeout, Snatch, The Mod Squad, Reindeer Games, Men of Respect, Big Trouble and Out of Sight. He played a baseball manager in Little Big League and a nemesis basketball coach in Eddie.
In a leading-man role and a departure from his usual parts, he co-starred in 1997 with Bette Midler in a romantic comedy, That Old Feeling, directed by Carl Reiner.
Farina won an American Comedy Award for his performance in Get Shorty and starred in a television sitcom, In-Laws, from 2002 until 2003. He appeared in the 2002 film Stealing Harvard, a comedy in which he played a tough-talking, overprotective father-in-law. He also had a comic role opposite Ed Harris and Helen Hunt in the HBO production of Empire Falls in 2005 and opposite Alan Rickman in the 2008 Bottle Shock.
Working as a voice-actor beginning in early 2005, he provided the voice of aging boxer-turned-superhero Wildcat on Justice League Unlimited. In early 2013, he voiced the father of Daffy Duck’s girlfriend on The Looney Tunes Show, and played himself in an April 13, 2014, episode of the animated series Family Guy called “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” aired posthumously, one of his final acting roles.
In 2004, the producers of the television series Law & Order hired him as Detective Joe Fontana; following the departure of longtime cast member Jerry Orbach. Farina stayed on the show for two seasons. In May 2006, it was announced he was leaving Law & Order for other projects, including the 2007 You Kill Me opposite Ben Kingsley and the 2008 What Happens in Vegas with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher.
His role of Detective Lt. Mike Torello on Crime Story was as a Chicago police officer, who was assigned to the U.S. Justice Department. Farina’s Law & Order character, Detective Fontana, worked for Chicago Homicide before his transfer to the NYPD. Fontana shared a number of other characteristics with the actor who played him; they came from the same Chicago neighborhood, attended the same parochial school, and had the same tastes in clothes and music and were fans of the Chicago Cubs.
He appeared in two television network miniseries’ based on Joe McGinniss’s true-crime books, Blind Faith (1990) and Cruel Doubt (1992). He made a rare western, portraying legendary lawman Charlie Siringo in a 1995 television movie, Bonanza: Under Attack, a followup to the hit 1960s series.
In October 2008, he became the new host of Unsolved Mysteries when it returned to television with a new five-season, 175-episode run on Spike TV. Farina replaced Robert Stack, who had hosted the series for its prior 15-year run. This version featured re-edited segments from previous incarnations on NBC, CBS, and Lifetime.
He played the title role in a 2011 independent film, The Last Rites of Joe May, written and directed by Joe Maggio, shot on location in Chicago. He was among the stars of a 2014 release, Authors Anonymous, playing a wannabe novelist with a fantasy of becoming another Tom Clancy.
Again on television, Farina co-starred in the 2012 HBO horse-race gambling series Luck, with Dustin Hoffman, directed by Michael Mann. He had a recurring guest role in 2013 in the television comedy series New Girl, though his character was killed off prior to his death.
Farina’s last film role was as an aging Italian playboy in a film version of the Off-Broadway musical Lucky Stiff co-starring Dominic Marsh, Nikki M. James, and Jason Alexander. The film, released posthumously in 2014, was dedicated to his memory.
He died on July 22, 2013, in a Scottsdale, Arizona hospital from a pulmonary embolism. His body was buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery at Hillside, Illinois.
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by Vince Chiarelli | Mar 3, 2021 | Television
Bartolo “Buddy” Valastro Jr. was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, and grew up there and in Little Ferry, New Jersey. His mother was born in Altamura, Italy, and is the daughter of Italian-American immigrants who moved to New Jersey when she was six years old. His father, Buddy Sr was born in Lipari, Italy. Valastro grew up with four sisters: Grace, Mary, Maddalena and Lisa.
He attended Ridgefield Park High School and took baking courses at the Bergen County Technical High School, Teterboro Campus.
Valastro began working at his family’s business, Carlo’s Bakery at age 11, alongside his father. When his father died in 1994, Valastro was 17. Valastro took over the family business.
Valastro is the owner and head baker of Carlo’s Bakery, the bakery featured on the TLC show Cake Boss. Carlo’s has since opened 17 more bakeries due to the popularity of the show. In January 2012, as a result of the attention that the shop and the TV series had brought to the city of Hoboken, the Hudson Reporter named Valastro as an honorable mention in its list of Hudson County’s 50 most influential people.
Carlo’s Bakery has seven locations in New Jersey—Hoboken, Marlton, Morristown, Red Bank, Ridgewood, Wayne, and Westfield. Outside of New Jersey, the bakery operates locations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Westbury and New York, New York; Orlando, Florida; Frisco, Dallas, and The Woodlands, Texas; São Paulo, Brazil; Uncasville, Connecticut; Las Vegas and most recently in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Lackawanna Factory in nearby Jersey City serves as the corporate office for the business and is used as additional space to create wedding and specialty cakes, and to bake specialty baked goods for shipment across the country.
Valastro launched an event planning and catering company, Buddy V’s Events, in June 2014.
In 2016 Valastro partnered with Whole Earth Sweetener Co. on the campaign “Rethink Sweet.” The company said Valastro would serve as brand ambassador for a “new line of zero- and lower-calorie sweeteners, and will work to help his fans make healthy lifestyle choices”, as they provide recipes using the product.
In 2018 Valastro partnered with The Pound Bakery, a pet treat manufacturing company to redesign and launch a new line of pet treats. “We wanted to create palatable treats for dogs that are inspired by classic Italian entrees and desserts,” said Lexie Berglund, President of The Pound Bakery. Buddy also worked with several other companies to launch a full line of ready-to-use fondant, buttercream icing, and Italian Biscotti cookies under the new brand name Buddy Valastro Foods in 2018.
Valastro, a supporter of the Special Olympics, baked a commemorative cake for the 2011 announcement that the 2014 Special Olympics USA National Games would be held in New Jersey.
Buddy and Lisa Valastro married on October 14, 2001. Until 2014, Valastro resided in East Hanover Township, New Jersey, with her and their four children: Sofia, Bartolo “Buddy” III, Marco, and Carlo. He has four sisters and a stepfather, Sergio. As of 2014, he resided in Montville, New Jersey.
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by Vince Chiarelli | Feb 26, 2021 | Film, Television
John Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Katherine Incerella and Nicholas Turturro. His mother was born in the U.S., to Italian parents with roots in Sicily, and was an amateur jazz singer, who had worked in a naval yard during World War II. His father had immigrated to the United States from Giovinazzo, Italy, at age six and later worked as a carpenter and construction worker before joining the U.S. Navy.
Turturro was raised a Roman Catholic and moved to the Rosedale section of Queens, New York with his family, when he was six. He majored in Theatre Arts at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and completed his MFA at the Yale School of Drama.
Turturro’s first film appearance was a non-speaking extra role in Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed Raging Bull (1980). He created the title role of John Patrick Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at the Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center in 1983. He repeated it the following year Off-Broadway and won an Obie Award. Turturro had a notable supporting role in William Friedkin’s action film To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), as the henchman of the villainous counterfeiter played by Willem Dafoe.
Spike Lee liked Turturro’s performance in Five Corners (1987) so much that he cast him in Do the Right Thing (1989). This movie was the first of a long-standing collaboration between the director and Turturro, which includes work together on a total of nine films—more than any other actor in the Lee oeuvre—including Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Clockers (1995), Girl 6 (1996), He Got Game (1998), Summer of Sam (1999), She Hate Me (2004), and Miracle at St. Anna (2008).
Turturro has appeared in both comedy and drama films, and engaged in an extended collaboration with the Coen Brothers—he appeared in their films Miller’s Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991, in the lead role), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). Turturro has also appeared in several of Adam Sandler’s movies, such as Mr. Deeds (2002) and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan (2008). He played a severely disturbed patient of Jack Nicholson’s character in the comedy Anger Management and played Johnny Depp’s character’s antagonist in Secret Window.
He won an Emmy award for his portrayal of Adrian Monk’s brother Ambrose in the USA Network series Monk, and reprised the role on numerous occasions. He has also been nominated and won many awards from film organizations such as Screen Actors Guild, Cannes Film Festival, Golden Globes and others.
Turturro produced and directed, as well as acted in, the film Illuminata (1999), which also starred his wife, actress Katherine Borowitz. He wrote and directed the film Romance and Cigarettes (2005). In 2006 he appeared in Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd, and as the Sector 7 agent Seymour Simmons in four films of the Transformers live-action series. In 2010, he directed (and had cameo on-screen appearances in) Passione, which chronicles the rich musical heritage of Naples, Italy.
Turturro’s brother is actor Nicholas Turturro. Abstract painter Ralph Turturro, composer and film director Richard Termini, and actress Aida Turturro are his cousins. He has two sons: Amedeo (born 1990) and Diego (born 2000), with his wife, actress Katherine Borowitz, who moved on to a social work career in 2016.
John Turturro participates as a member of the Jury for the New York International Children’s Film Festival (NYICFF), which is dedicated to screening films for children between the ages of 3 and 18. Turturro holds dual Italian and American citizenship as of January 2011.
He has lived in Park Slope in Brooklyn, New York since 1988.
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by Vince Chiarelli | Feb 6, 2021 | Film, Television
Robert Michael Cannavale was born and raised in Union City, New Jersey, the son of Isabel and Salvatore “Sal” Cannavale. His father is of Italian descent, while his mother is Cuban and moved to the U.S. in 1960. He was raised Catholic and attended St. Michael’s Catholic School, where he participated in a number of extracurricular activities, including being an altar boy and member of the chorus. When he was eight, Cannavale secured the plum role of the lisping boy, Winthrop, in his school’s production of The Music Man and later played a gangster in Guys and Dolls, which cemented his love for performing. Cannavale’s parents divorced when he was 13 and his mother moved the family to Puerto Rico. After two years in the American territory, they settled in Margate, Florida. After being kicked out of his high school in Florida during his senior year, Cannavale returned to New Jersey in order to be closer to New York to launch his acting career and went to summer school to earn a diploma from Union Hill High School.
Cannavale began his acting career in the theater – with no acting training – and gained early film roles in Night Falls on Manhattan (1997) and The Bone Collector (1999), Cannavale became well known when he starred as Bobby Caffey for two seasons on Third Watch. Following this, in 2001, he starred with Alan Arkin in 100 Centre Street – which was written and directed by Sidney Lumet, his then-father-in-law.
In 2002, he joined the cast of Ally McBeal for the last five episodes, but the show was then cancelled. Following this, he starred with Yancey Arias and Sheryl Lee in the miniseries Kingpin. In 2003, Cannavale briefly appeared on the last two episodes of Oz. He also appeared in the film The Station Agent as a man who befriends a little person removed from society. From 2004 to 2006, he had a recurring guest role on Will & Grace as Vince D’Angelo, the boyfriend (and eventual husband) of Will Truman (Eric McCormack). However, in the reboot, they are revealed not to be married. For this role, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2005. He has also appeared in the films Snakes on a Plane, The Guru (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004) and Romance & Cigarettes (2005), and guest starred in Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Oz, Law & Order – and its spin-off series Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He appeared in “The Other Guys” 2010 The Take (2007) alongside John Leguizamo and Tyrese Gibson, as Agent Steve Perelli.
In 2008, he received a Tony Award nomination for his role as Dennis in the Broadway play, Mauritius. In 2009, CBS announced Cannavale would reprise his role of Det. Eddie Saccardo on the television show, Cold Case, for three episodes, starting with the third episode of Season 7.[13] Cannavale was also in the film Win Win in 2011, as Terry Delfino. He later starred in the Broadway play The Motherfucker with the Hat alongside Chris Rock and Annabella Sciorra. On May 3, 2011 (his 41st birthday), he was nominated for a Tony Award for his leading role in that production.
In 2012 and 2013, he guest starred in the fourth and fifth season of Showtime’s Nurse Jackie, for which he was nominated twice again for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2012 and 2013, as well as joining the cast of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, portraying the psychopathic Sicilian gangster Gyp Rosetti in the third season. His performance on Boardwalk Empire won critical acclaim, earning him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2013. That same year he also played Lewis, a vengeful clown on Modern Family during the third season, for which he was nominated for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series at the 2nd Critics’ Choice Television Awards in 2012. TV Guide, in its “Cheers & Jeers 2012” issue, praised Cannavale for this “trifecta of great performances”, commenting, “This guy is so good at playing bad, it’s scary.” He played what Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com called a “heroically moving” lead role in Danny Collins in 2015.
Since 2015, Cannavale has been involved with voice-over work for Playing On Air, a non-profit organization that “records short plays [for public radio and podcast] written by top playwrights and performed by outstanding actors.” He has starred in three short plays, including Crazy Eights by David Lindsay-Abaire, co-starring Rosie Perez and John Leguizamo; Mere Mortals by David Ives; and 2 Dads by David Auburn.
From 1994 to 2003, Cannavale was married to actress/screenwriter Jenny Lumet – director Sidney Lumet’s daughter and performer Lena Horne’s granddaughter – with whom he has a son, actor Jake Cannavale. Cannavale and Jake were cast as father and son in season four of Nurse Jackie.
Since 2012, Cannavale has been in a relationship with actress Rose Byrne. Cannavale and Byrne’s first child, Rocco Robin Cannavale, was born on February 1, 2016. He and Byrne had their second child together, a son named Rafa, in November 2017.
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by Vince Chiarelli | Jan 27, 2021 | Film, Television
Louis Jude Ferrigno Sr. was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Victoria and Matt Ferrigno, a police lieutenant. He is of Italian descent. Soon after he was born, Ferrigno says he believes he suffered a series of ear infections and lost 75 to 80% of his hearing, though his condition was not diagnosed until he was three years old. Hearing loss caused Ferrigno to be bullied by peers during his childhood: “They used to call me ‘deaf Louie, deaf mute’, because of my hearing and because of the way I sounded.”
Ferrigno started weight training at age 13, citing bodybuilder and Hercules star Steve Reeves as one of his role models. Because he could not afford to buy weights, he made his own using a broomstick and pails which he partially filled with cement. He was also a fan of the Hercules films that starred Reeves. Ferrigno attended St. Athanasius Grammar School and Brooklyn Technical High School, where he learned metal working.
After graduating from high school in 1969, Ferrigno won his first major title, IFBB Mr. America. Four years later, he won the title IFBB Mr. Universe. Early in his career he lived in Columbus, Ohio and trained with Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 1974, he came in second on his first attempt at the Mr. Olympia competition. He came in third the following year, and his attempt to beat Arnold Schwarzenegger was the subject of the 1977 documentary Pumping Iron. The documentary made Ferrigno famous.
These victories, however, did not provide enough income for him to earn a living. His first paying job was as a $10-an-hour sheet metal worker in a Brooklyn factory, where he worked for three years. He did not enjoy the dangerous work, and left after a friend and co-worker accidentally cut off his own hand one day.
Following this, Ferrigno left the competition circuit for many years, a period that included a brief stint as a defensive lineman for the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League. He had never played football, and was cut after two games. Ferrigno left the world of Canadian football after he broke the legs of a fellow player during a scrimmage. During competition, Ferrigno stood at almost 6 ft 5 in. Ferrigno competed in the first annual World’s Strongest Man competition in 1977, where he finished fourth in a field of eight competitors.
In 1977, Ferrigno was cast as the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk. Ferrigno continued playing the Hulk role until 1981—although the last two episodes were not broadcast until May 1982. Later, he co-starred in three The Incredible Hulk TV movies.
In November 1978 and again in May 1979 Ferrigno appeared in Battle of the Network Stars.
In 1983, Ferrigno appeared as John Six on the short-lived medical drama Trauma Center.
Ferrigno played himself during intermittent guest appearances on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens, beginning in 2000 and continuing until the program’s conclusion in 2007. He and his wife Carla were depicted as the main characters’ next-door neighbors. Because of his role as the title character on The Incredible Hulk, he is often the target of Hulk jokes by Doug and his friends.
He made cameo appearances as a security guard in both the 2003 film Hulk and the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk, in which he also voiced the Hulk. In the latter film, Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) bribes him with a pizza in order to gain entry into a university building. He has continued to voice the Hulk in Marvel Cinematic Universe films, uncredited. He continued to be known as the voice of the Hulk until 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. Ferrigno himself has been replaced by Mark Ruffalo since the 2012 film The Avengers as the voice of the Hulk.
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