The Mafia
by mgrad784 | created - 07 Feb 2012 | updated - 25 Jun 2012 | PublicItalian actors in mob movies and tv shows (and two directors).
1. Joe Pesci
Actor | Goodfellas
Compact Italian-American actor Joe Pesci was born February 9, 1943 in Newark, New Jersey, to Mary (Mesce), a part-time barber, and Angelo Pesci, a bartender and forklift driver. Pesci first broke into entertainment as a child actor, and by the mid-1950s, was starring on the series "Star Time Kids"....
2. Frank Vincent
Actor | Goodfellas
"Go home and get your shine box....", so said ill-fated Billy Batts in Goodfellas (1990). However, Billy Batts is better known to a legion of crime-film fans as the talented actor, musician, and comedian Frank Vincent. He was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, but was raised in the Greenville ...
3. Vincent Pastore
Actor | The Sopranos
Pastore was born to an Italian-American family in the Bronx, New York City, and grew up in New Rochelle, New York. Following his graduation from high school, he enlisted as a sailor in the United States Navy and then attended Pace University for three years, before eventually going into the acting ...
4. Martin Scorsese
Producer | Killers of the Flower Moon
Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later ...
5. Robert De Niro
Actor | Cape Fear
One of the greatest actors of all time, Robert De Niro was born on August 17, 1943 in Manhattan, New York City, to artists Virginia (Admiral) and Robert De Niro Sr. His paternal grandfather was of Italian descent, and his other ancestry is Irish, English, Dutch, German, and French. He was trained ...
6. Al Pacino
Actor | Serpico
Alfredo James "Al" 'Pacino established himself as a film actor during one of cinema's most vibrant decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies.
He was born April 25, 1940 in Manhattan, New York City, to Italian-American parents, Rose (nee Gerardi)...
7. James Gandolfini
Actor | The Sopranos
James Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey, to Santa (Penna), a high school lunchlady, and James Joseph Gandolfini, Sr., a bricklayer and head school janitor. His parents were both of Italian origin. Gandolfini began acting in the New York theater. His Broadway debut was in the 1992 revival ...
8. Edie Falco
Actress | The Sopranos
Edith Falco, called Edie, was born on July 5, 1963 in Brooklyn, New York, to Judith Anderson, an actress, and Frank Falco, a jazz drummer. She is of Italian (father) and Swedish, English, and Cornish (mother) descent. Edie grew up on Long Island and attended SUNY Purchase, where she was trained in ...
9. Marlon Brando
Actor | Apocalypse Now
Marlon Brando is widely considered the greatest movie actor of all time, rivaled only by the more theatrically oriented Laurence Olivier in terms of esteem. Unlike Olivier, who preferred the stage to the screen, Brando concentrated his talents on movies after bidding the Broadway stage adieu in ...
10. John Cazale
Actor | Dog Day Afternoon
John Cazale was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to an Irish-American mother, Cecilia (Holland), and an Italian-American father, John Cazale. Cazale made only five feature films in his career, which fans and critics alike call classics. But before his film debut, in the short The American Way (1962),...
11. Ray Liotta
Actor | Narc
Intense was the word for Ray Liotta. He specialized in psychopathic characters who hide behind a cultivated charm. Even in his nice-guy roles in Field of Dreams (1989) and Operation Dumbo Drop (1995), you get the impression that something is smoldering inside of him. He was born in Newark, New ...
12. Lorraine Bracco
Actress | Goodfellas
Lorraine was voted the "ugliest girl in the 6th grade" at her Long Island grade school. She moved to France in 1974 where she became a fashion superstar for Jean-Paul Gaultier. Her sister is Elizabeth Bracco. Has two daughters, Stella Keitel by ex-boyfriend Harvey Keitel and Margaux Guerard by ...
13. Chazz Palminteri
Actor | The Usual Suspects
Bronx-born and raised Chazz Palminteri was a natural choice to continue the Italianate torch in film. In the tradition set forth in the 1970s by such icons as director Martin Scorsese and actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, John Cazale and Joe Pesci, Palminteri has brought grit, muscle and an ...
14. Kathrine Narducci
Actress | A Bronx Tale
Kathrine Narducci was born on November 22, 1960 in East Harlem, New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for A Bronx Tale (1993), The Irishman (2019) and Bad Education (2019).
15. Michael Imperioli
Actor | The Sopranos
Imperioli was born Michael Imperioli in Mt. Vernon, New York on March 26, 1966. His film work began in the late 1980s. An early part that brought him recognition was in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990), as Spider, a local kid who works for the gangsters and has a run-in with a psychopathic mob ...
16. Drea de Matteo
Actress | The Sopranos
Andrea Donna de Matteo, called Drea (pronounced "dray"), was born on January 19, 1972 in Queens, New York, into an affluent family, the youngest of three children and the only girl. She is the daughter of Donna, a playwright and playwriting teacher at HB Studio in New York, and Albert A. De Matteo,...
17. Tony Sirico
Actor | The Sopranos
Tony Sirico was born in New York City on July 29, 1942 to a family of Italian descent. He grew up in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of East Flatbush and Bensonhurst. His brother, Father Robert Sirico, is a Catholic priest and co-founder of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty. The ...
18. Joe Viterelli
Actor | Bullets Over Broadway
Joe Viterelli was born on March 10, 1937 in The Bronx, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Bullets Over Broadway (1994), Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002). He was married to Catherine Brennan. He died on January 28, 2004 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
19. Francis Ford Coppola
Producer | Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated ...
20. Danny Aiello
Actor | Do the Right Thing
Danny Aiello was an American actor of Italian descent, and enjoyed a lengthy career in film. He was once nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for his role as Salvatore "Sal" Frangione in the comedy-drama film "Do the Right Thing" (1989).
Aiello was born in Manhattan, New York ...
21. Armand Assante
Actor | Gotti
Known as an Actor's Actor, the Four time Golden Globe Nominee, Emmy Award Winning Actor ( Gotti 1996 ) Assante has received acclaim for his work for close to Five decades. Internationally he has been the recipient of Twelve Lifetime Achievement Awards in the past ten years.
Full Biography at ...
22. David Proval
Actor | Mean Streets
David Proval launched his acting career with a starring role in Mean Streets (1973), directed by Martin Scorsese, and has been working nonstop ever since. Notable features in which he has appeared include The Phantom (1996), The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) Four Rooms (1995) and The Shawshank Redemption...
23. Paul Sorvino
Actor | Repo! The Genetic Opera
Tall, dark and imposing American actor Paul Sorvino made a solid career of portraying authority figures.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York City. His mother, Angela (Renzi), was a piano teacher, of Italian descent. His father, Ford Sorvino, was an Italian immigrant who worked in a robe factory as a ...
24. Abe Vigoda
Actor | The Godfather
Tall, dour-faced and slouch-shouldered character actor Abe Vigoda proved himself in both gritty dramatic roles and as an actor with wonderful comedic timing.
Vigoda was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Lena (Moses) and Samuel Vigoda, a tailor -- both Russian Jewish immigrants. His father was a tailor ...
25. Steven Van Zandt
Actor | The Sopranos
Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, producer, actor, activist and author. He is best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin. He is also ...
26. James Russo
Actor | Not a Stranger
A Manhattan-born "tough guy" character lead and support, James (Vincent) Russo was born in New York City on April 23, 1953, to an Italian father and German mother. Raised in Flushing, New York, he graduated from the High School of Art and Design. He attended New York University where he wrote and ...
27. Bruno Kirby
Actor | City Slickers
Native New Yorker and Italianate Bruno Kirby tended towards assertive, pushy, streetwise characters and was armed with a highly distinctive scratchy tenor voice that complemented his slim eyes and droopy puss and accentuated his deadpan comedic instincts on film and TV. The well-regarded character ...
28. John Travolta
Actor | Pulp Fiction
John Joseph Travolta was born in Englewood, New Jersey, one of six children of Helen Travolta (née Helen Cecilia Burke) and Salvatore/Samuel J. Travolta. His father was of Italian descent and his mother was of Irish ancestry. His father owned a tire repair shop called Travolta Tires in Hillsdale, ...
29. Steve Buscemi
Actor | Fargo
Steve Buscemi was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Dorothy (Wilson), a restaurant hostess, and John Buscemi, a sanitation worker. He is of Italian (father) and English, Dutch, and Irish (mother) descent. He became interested in acting during his last year of high school. After graduating, he moved to...
30. Dominic Chianese
Actor | The Sopranos
Dominic Chianese is an American actor, singer, and musician. He is best known for his roles as Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos (1999-2007), Johnny Ola in The Godfather Part II (1974), and Leander in Boardwalk Empire (2011-2013). Chianese was born in the Bronx, New York. His ...
31. Talia Shire
Actress | Rocky
Talia Rose Shire is an American actress who played roles as Connie Corleone in The Godfather films and Adrian Balboa in the Rocky series. For her work in The Godfather Part II and Rocky, Shire was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress, respectively, and for the ...
32. Tony Darrow
Actor | Goodfellas
Tony Darrow was born in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Tony is an actor and writer, known for Goodfellas (1990), Mighty Aphrodite (1995) and Small Time Crooks (2000). Tony has been married to Mary Ann Augeri since May 7, 2015. Tony was previously married to Christine Marie Russ.
33. Vincent Curatola
Actor | The Sopranos
Vincent Curatola is an American actor and writer. Curatola's best-known role is that of the New York Mafioso Johnny Sack from the HBO drama The Sopranos. He is also a singer and has appeared onstage several times with the band Chicago. Curatola was born in and grew up in Englewood, New Jersey, ...
34. Joseph R. Gannascoli
Actor | The Sopranos
Joseph R. Gannascoli (born February 15, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Vito Spatafore on the HBO series The Sopranos. Prior to acting, Gannascoli was a professional chef. Gannascoli was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. In the 1980s, he attended St. John's ...
35. Arthur J. Nascarella
Actor | The Sopranos
Arthur J. Nascarella's appearance in films is often as a mobster or police officer, but he has also portrayed fathers, a priest, and other good men. His notable film credits include a corrupt cop in Cop Land (1997), the hypocritical ambulance Captain Barney in Martin Scorsese's film Bringing Out ...
36. Steve Schirripa
Actor | Blue Bloods
Steven Ralph Schirripa is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Bobby Baccalieri on The Sopranos and Detective Anthony Abetemarco on Blue Bloods. Schirripa is a producer and host of two Investigation Discovery series: Karma's A B*tech! and Nothing Personal. He was a regular cast member...
37. Dennis Farina
Actor | Get Shorty
Dennis Farina was one of Hollywood's busiest actors and a familiar face to moviegoers and television viewers alike. Recently, he appeared in the feature films, "The Grand," a comedy about a Vegas poker tournament with Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines and Ray Romano; "Bottle Shock," also starring Alan ...
38. Robert Loggia
Actor | Big
Born and raised in New York City, Robert Loggia studied journalism at the University of Missouri before moving back to New York to pursue acting. He trained at the Actors Studio while doing stage work. From the late 1950s he was a familiar face on TV, usually as authoritative figures. Loggia also ...
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