Celebrating the contributions of italian americans to the entertainment industry
Since Italians started immigrating to the United States, they’ve brought great contributions to the entertainment industry. Many of the great bands, shows, and artists we know of today have used these contributions our ancestors brought with them and influenced American society.
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Vince Guaraldi – Italian American Musician
On July 17, 1928, Vincent Anthony Dellaglio was born in San Francisco, CA. Vince changed his last name when he was a child to match that of his adoptive father. He attended Lincoln High School and San Francisco State College. During his time in high school and...
Vince Edwards – Italian American Actor
Vince Edward Zoine was born in 1928 in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York, to Julia and Vincento Zoine, an Italian-American bricklayer. He and his twin brother, Anthony, were the youngest of seven children. He studied aviation mechanics at East New York...
Jose Greco – Italian American Dancer
José Greco was born in Montorio nei Frentani, Italy of parents, Paolo Emilio Greco and Maria Carmela Bucci. His real name was Costanzo Greco but he later changed it to José Greco. When he was 10 years old, Greco and his family moved to New York City. He began dancing...
Ernest Borgnine – Italian American Actor
Ermes Effron Borgnino was born on January 24, 1917, in Hamden, Connecticut, the son of Italian immigrants. His mother, Anna Boselli hailed from Carpi, near Modena, while his father Camillo Borgnino was a native of Ottiglio near Alessandria. Borgnine's parents...
David Chase – Italian American Director & Producer
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...
Bob Montana – Italian American Artist
Robert William Montana was born in 1920 in Stockton, California, to Italian American parents Roberta Pandolfini and Ray Montana. Both were in show business: Roberta had been a Ziegfeld girl, and Ray performed banjo on the vaudeville circuit. As a result, Bob Montana...
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...