Chazz Palminteri

Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri, known professionally as Chazz Palminteri, was born on May 15, 1952, in the Bronx, New York. He is the son of Lorenzo Palminteri, a bus driver, and Rose Palminteri, a homemaker, both of whom were born in New York to Sicilian immigrant parents. Palminteri was raised in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx, and all four of his grandparents emigrated to the United States from Sicily. His paternal grandparents, Calogero Palminteri and Rosa Bonfante, left Menfi in the province of Agrigento in 1910, having married two years earlier. At nine years old, Palminteri allegedly witnessed the murder of a mobster outside his apartment building; when questioned by police, he stated he had not seen the incident.

Before establishing himself as a performer, Palminteri divided his time between off-Broadway productions and working as a bouncer, a job he held alongside Dolph Lundgren. The circumstances that led him to write A Bronx Tale began in 1988, when he was working at a New York nightclub hosting a party for Hollywood talent agent Irving Paul Lazar. Palminteri denied Lazar entry, not recognizing him, and was subsequently fired. Unemployed and without acting offers, he wrote A Bronx Tale as a vehicle for himself.

Palminteri first performed A Bronx Tale at Theatre West in Los Angeles in 1989, the same year the play ran for two months at Playhouse 91. The autobiographical one-man show, in which he portrays 18 roles depicting a rough childhood on the streets of the Bronx, moved to Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre, where it began previews on October 4, 1988, opened on October 25, and ran for 18 weeks. The production was directed by Jerry Zaks with music by John Gromada. Robert De Niro attended the Broadway production in 1990, which led to a partnership between the two to adapt the play into a film. Palminteri wrote the screenplay and starred as Sonny, the gangster the protagonist Calogero encounters, while De Niro directed the 1993 film in his directorial debut and co-starred as Calogero's father, Lorenzo.

Palminteri's Broadway credits span from 2007 to 2016. He appeared as a performer in A Bronx Tale: The Musical in 2007 and returned to that production in 2016 as both writer and performer. In 2013, he appeared in Human as both performer and writer, and in 2014 he played Sal Sicuso in Unorganized Crime, a mafia-themed drama written by Kenny D'Aquila, opposite D'Aquila himself. Palminteri also participated in A Bronx Tale: The Musical in 2018. His off-Broadway work includes the original 1989 production of A Bronx Tale, in which he served as both writer and performer, and a 2002 production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, in which he played Ernesto Roma.

In 1994, Palminteri played mob henchman Cheech in Woody Allen's black comedy Bullets Over Broadway, earning a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He went on to appear in The Usual Suspects in 1995, followed by films including Mulholland Falls, A Night at the Roxbury, Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, Little Man, Once Upon a Time in Queens, and Legend. He voiced the character Smokey in Stuart Little and Woolworth in Hoodwinked, and provided both the voice and likeness for the character Sal De Luca in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops II. Palminteri made his directorial debut with an episode of the television series Oz, followed by the television film Women vs. Men and the 2004 feature film Noel. In 2004, he received the Indie Hero Award from the Method Fest Independent Film Festival.

On television, Palminteri is known for recurring roles in Wiseguy, which aired in 1989, and Kojak in 2005. Beginning in June 2010, he guest-starred on the TNT drama Rizzoli & Isles as Frank Rizzoli, Sr., a role he continued through 2014. He first appeared on Modern Family on January 20, 2010, as the recurring character Shorty, reprising the role in November 2011, twice more in season five, and continuing through 2019. He also appeared twice on Blue Bloods as Angelo Gallo, a mob lawyer and childhood friend of the main character Frank Reagan, and portrayed deceased mobster Paul Castellano in the 2001 television film Boss of Bosses. His role in Godfather of Harlem ran from 2019 to 2021.

Outside of performing, Palminteri opened a restaurant called Chazz: A Bronx Original in Baltimore's Little Italy neighborhood in 2011, which offered coal-fired pizza and Italian food before closing in 2015. In 2016, he opened Chazz Palminteri Ristorante Italiano in New York City, and in 2021 he opened Chazz Palminteri Italian Restaurant in White Plains, New York, with an additional New York City location. On February 15, 2021, he launched The Chazz Palminteri Show podcast on YouTube, with guests including William Baldwin, Fat Joe, Mario Cantone, and Shaquille O'Neal. Palminteri married Gianna Ranaudo in 1992, and the couple has two children. He resides in Bedford, in Westchester County, New York, and describes himself as a devout Roman Catholic.