David Henry Chase was born into a working-class Italian American family in Mount Vernon, New York. His father Henry Chase, a hardware store owner, had changed his surname from “DeCesare” to “Chase” well before his son was born. He was an only child and grew up in a small garden apartment in Clifton, New Jersey, and in North Caldwell, New Jersey.
Chase started in Hollywood as a story editor for Kolchak: The Night Stalker and then produced episodes of The Rockford Files and Northern Exposure, among other series. He also worked as a writer of 19 episodes while on The Rockford Files—a show which he worked on in various capacities for more than four years. He won several Emmy awards, including one for a television movie, Off the Minnesota Strip, the story of a runaway he scripted in 1980.
Chase worked in relative anonymity before The Sopranos debuted. Chase had been fascinated by organized crime and the mafia from an early age, witnessing such people growing up. He also was raised on classic gangster films such as The Public Enemy and the crime series The Untouchables. The series is partly inspired by the Richard Boiardo family, a prominent New Jersey organized crime family when Chase was growing up, and partly on New Jersey’s DeCavalcante family. He has mentioned American playwrights Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams as influences on the show’s writing, and Italian director Federico Fellini as an important influence on the show’s cinematic style. The series was named after high school friends of his.
Chase’s feature film debut was released on December 21, 2012. It centers on the lead singer of a teenage rock ‘n’ roll band (played by John Magaro) in 1960s New Jersey. Described as “a music-driven coming-of-age story,” the film reunites Chase with James Gandolfini (former star of Sopranos), who co-stars as Magaro’s father. Other cast members include Bella Heathcote, Christopher McDonald, Molly Price, Lisa Lampanelli, Jack Huston and Brad Garrett. Chase himself has described the film as about “a post-war, post-Depression-era parent who has given his kid every advantage that he didn’t have growing up, but now can’t help feeling jealous of the liberated, more adventurous destiny his son is able to enjoy.” Another former Sopranos cast member, Steven Van Zandt, served as music supervisor and executive producer.
After graduating from NYU in 1968, Chase moved to California and married his high school sweetheart Denise Kelly. He is the father of actress Michele DeCesare who appeared in six of The Sopranos episodes as Hunter Scangarelo.