Joe Pesci

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Joe Pesci (2009)

Joseph "Joe" Francesco DeLores Eliot Pesci (born February 9, 1943 in Newark , New Jersey ) is an American actor and singer . He was best known for his portrayals of violent characters, often crooks and mafiosi. For his role in the film Good Fellas - Three Decades in the Mafia , he was awarded an Oscar in 1991 . Other highlights of his career include Like a Wild Bull , Once Upon a Time in America , Home Alone Kevin , Casino and The Irishman .

Life

Early life

At the age of four, the son of an Italian-American family appeared on a radio show, and when he was ten he was a member of the Star Time Kids TV series alongside Connie Francis . As a teenager he played in various plays and also hired himself as a night club singer. In the mid-1960s , Pesci , who was interested in jazz , published the unsuccessful record Little Joe Sure Can Sing under the name Joe Ritchie and was guitarist in numerous bands. From the late 1960s he formed a show duo with his colleague Frank Vincent , which appeared more often in small theaters in New Jersey and performed, for example, skits by Abbott and Costello . In addition to his acting appearances, he had to earn money as a hairdresser, and in the early 1970s he opened his own salon.

Pesci also brought together musicians Tommy DeVito, who Pesci was friends with from a young age, and Bob Gaudio , who would later become successful as The Four Seasons . In the world premiere of the musical Jersey Boys , which tells the story of the Four Seasons, Pesci was portrayed by Michael Longoria in 2005 . In the film of the same from the year 2014 took Joey Russo its role.

Film career

Pesci made his film debut in 1976 in the cheap crime film Bloody Payday at the side of his friend Frank Vincent. In the period that followed, no further roles were offered. From then on, Pesci worked as a bricklayer and opened an Italian restaurant, increasingly turning away from the acting business. But in 1980 his breakthrough came alongside Robert De Niro in Like a Wild Bull by Martin Scorsese , in which he played De Niro's younger brother Joey . De Niro had seen Pesci's film debut and convinced Scorsese to cast the stranger. Pesci was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and received the British Film Award for Best Newcomer . Several smaller films followed, such as the German-American production Dear Mr. Wonderful (1982) directed by Peter Lilienthal or the comedy Easy Money (1983) with Rodney Dangerfield . In 1984 Pesci played the gangster Frankie Minaldi in Sergio Leone's mafia epic Once Upon a Time in America , again alongside Robert De Niro.

Pesci had now established himself in Hollywood and mainly played threatening, often foreign-looking supporting roles. He won an Oscar for his portrayal of the psychopathic mafioso Tommy DeVito in Good Fellas - Three Decades in the Mafia . This was followed by other gangster films with Pesci in leading and supporting roles such as Casino from 1995, in which he was directed by Scorsese for the third time. These grown his role as a gangster or mobster satirized it in numerous films, including as a money launderer Leo Getz in the Lethal Weapon series and as unhappy acting burglars Harry in the comedies Kevin - Home Alone and Kevin - In New York alone . He was able to play a sympathetic role as a goofy lawyer in the title role of the film My Vetter Winnie .

His most frequent German voice actor is Mogens von Gadow .

Increasing withdrawal and music career

In 1999, Joe Pesci announced that he would largely withdraw from the acting business because he wanted to devote more of his time to his music career. Since then, he has rarely been in front of the camera. The albums Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just For You and Joey DeFrancesco featuring Joe Doggs, Falling in Love Again with the jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco were released , but they were not very successful. His recordings are kind of a mixture of jazz and hip-hop .

In 2004 Pesci announced his involvement in the film The Good Shepherd , which was released in 2006 with him in a supporting role. This film was the sixth work that brought him together with Robert De Niro, who directed the film for the second time (after In The Streets of the Bronx ). In 2010, Pesci played the main character, a brothel owner and gangster, alongside Oscar-winning actress Helen Mirren in Taylor Hackford's film Love Ranch . So he returned to his original genre . He was back in front of the camera in 2019 for the first time in nine years: in the gangster film The Irishman , in which he played the mafioso Russell Bufalino , he worked again with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro after a long time.

Private

Pesci was married three times. All marriages ended in divorce. From his marriage to the actress Claudia Haro from 1989 to 1992 he has a daughter. Haro was sentenced to a long prison term in 2005 for hiring a killer in 2000 to kill her second husband, Garrett Warren.

Pesci has the rare anomaly of iris heterochromia , in which the rainbow skins of the eyes have different colors due to a disruption of the pigmentation.

Filmography

Discography

  • 1965: Little Joe Sure Can Sing
  • 1998: Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just For You
  • 2000: Joey DeFrancesco featuring Joe Doggs, Falling in Love Again

Awards

Web links

Commons : Joe Pesci  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article in Entertainment Weekly
  2. ↑ How Accurate Is Jersey Boys? at slate.com, accessed August 11, 2014
  3. ↑ Joe Pesci at Allmovie
  4. ^ The Mysterious Disappearing Act of Joe Pesci at Yahoo
  5. ↑ Now They're Good Fellas at articles.philly.com, accessed August 11, 2014
  6. ↑ Joe Pesci Biography (1943-) at filmreference.com, accessed August 11, 2014
  7. ↑ Garrett Warren Talks Ex-Wife's Plot To Kill Him On 'The Jeff Probst Show' at huffingtonpost.com, accessed August 11, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Pesci, Joe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pesci, Joseph Francesco DeLores Eliot (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Newark , New Jersey, United States