Joe Pesci Biography
Born: February 09, 1943
A consummate character actor, Joe Pesci rose to success on the strength of a series of Martin_Scorsese films which took full advantage of his gift for outlandishly menacing supporting performances. Born February 9, 1943, in Newark, NJ, Pesci was a child actor who began his radio career at the age of four. Broadway beckoned just a year later, and by 1953 he was a regular on the television variety program Star Time Kids. His acting career stalled during his teen years, however, and by the mid-'60s, he mounted a musical career under the name Joe Ritchie, recording an LP titled Little Joe Sure Can Sing and later playing guitar in the pop band Joey Dee & the Starliters. He also formed a vaudeville-style nightclub comedy act with Frank_Vincent. Outside of 1961's Hey,_Let's_Twist!, Pesci did not appear in films prior to the little-seen 1975 feature The_Death_Collector; the film earned virtually no notice upon its release and he dropped out of acting, dejectedly returning to New York to run an Italian restaurant.
While few people saw The_Death_Collector, one of those who did was actor Robert De Niro, who was so impressed by Pesci's performance that he brought the film to the attention of Scorsese, who cast Pesci in his 1980 masterpiece Raging_Bull. The performance earned Pesci an Academy Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category, and he became one of the busiest character actors in the business, steadily appearing in films ranging from the 1983 Rodney_Dangerfield comedy Easy_Money to the 1984 Sergio_Leone epic Once Upon a Time in America. After starring in a failed 1985 sitcom, Half Nelson, Pesci's onscreen visibility diminished, and over the next four years he appeared in only one film, 1987's Man on Fire. In 1989, however, he co-starred opposite Mel_Gibson and Danny_Glover in the hit Lethal_Weapon_2, a performance which put his talent for comic relief to such fine use that he later reappeared in the third chapter of the franchise, issued in 1992.
By that point, Pesci had already become a star; 1990 was his breakthrough year, as he appeared in the family comedy blockbuster Home_Alone and Scorsese's brilliant GoodFellas, winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his vivid portrayal of a psychotic mobster. While his first major starring role in 1991's The Super proved disastrous, he won good notices for his supporting turn in Oliver_Stone's JFK and in 1992 starred in the hit courtroom comedy My_Cousin_Vinny. While neither 1994's Jimmy_Hollywood nor With_Honors performed well, in 1995 he reunited with Scorsese and De Niro for the epic Casino, essaying a variation on his GoodFellas character. However, a pair of poorly received 1997 comedies -- Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag and Gone_Fishin' -- again called Pesci's capabilities as a lead actor into question. He found more success reprising his supporting role in Lethal_Weapon_4, released in 1998. Jason Ankeny, Rovi
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