American actor, filmmaker and playwright Chazz Palminteri was born 73 years ago in New York City as Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri, is married and has 2 children.
Chazz’s grandparents were from Sicily, but emigrated to the US after getting married, so his mum and dad were born in the US. His acting career began in 1983, when he performed in theatrical plays off Broadway as well as working as a bouncer. Apart from striving to become an actor, Chazz was fired from his bouncer job after he refused to let in the club a famous dealmaker, so he ended up unemployed and without money.
After this mishap, in late 1988, Palminteri began to write the autobiographical one-man play ‘A Bronx Tale’ which he performed on Broadway for 18 weeks, interpreting 18 roles. Since 2002, he performed in 5 more theatrical productions, two of which he wrote as well.
In 1983, Chazz made his big screen debut in the movie ‘Home Free All’ as a truck hijacker. Over the years, he starred in numerous films of different genres and is probably best known for his interpretation in the 1993 film ‘A Bronx Tale’ alongside Robert De Niro, which was an adaptation of the play he wrote 10 years earlier. Other significant movies include: ‘Bullets Over Broadway’, ‘The Usual Suspects’, ‘Diabolique’, ‘Analyze This’ and ‘Down to Earth’.
Palminteri also acted in numerous TV series, films and documentaries as well as voiced animated movie characters, particularly Smokey in ‘Stuart Little’ and Woolworth in ‘Hoodwinked’. He guest-starred in ‘Matlock’, ‘Dallas’, ‘Sydney’, ‘Dr Vegas’, Kevin Can Wait’ etc, and had recurring roles in ‘Wiseguy’, ‘Kojak’, ‘Rizzoli & Isles’, ‘Modern Family’, ‘Blue Bloods’, ‘Godfathers of Harlem’ and ‘Gravesend’. In addition, he voiced a video game character and appeared in several TV commercials.
During his long career, Chazz won 4 awards: An Independent Spirit, a National Board of Review, a Sant Jordi and a Sundance Film Festival.
*Image: no infringement intended. Source: tvinsider.com