Dominic Chianese

Dominic Chianese is an American actor, singer, and musician born on February 24, 1931, in the Bronx borough of New York City. His father worked as a bricklayer, and his paternal grandfather emigrated from Afragola, Italy, to New York in 1904. Chianese graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1948 and initially enrolled at Champlain College in Plattsburgh, New York, before the institution closed following the outbreak of the Korean War. He subsequently earned a bachelor's degree in speech and theater from Brooklyn College in 1961.

Following a decade of college study and off-Broadway work, Chianese trained at HB Studio in Manhattan under teacher Walt Witcover. His Broadway career began in 1965 with Oliver! and extended through 2005, encompassing productions including A Wonderful Life, Oliver Oliver, The Rose Tattoo, and Requiem for a Heavyweight. During periods when acting work was scarce, he played rhythm guitar and sang in taverns and restaurants, and hosted open mic nights at Gerdes Folk City in Greenwich Village.

Chianese's television career began after George C. Scott recommended him for the series East Side/West Side. In 1974, Francis Ford Coppola cast him as Johnny Ola in The Godfather Part II, launching a film career that brought him into repeated collaboration with Al Pacino across Dog Day Afternoon (1975), ...And Justice for All (1979), and Looking for Richard (1996), as well as shared stage work. Prior to his casting in The Godfather Part II, Chianese worked for the Drug Commission of New York as a recreational worker in rehabilitation, where he gave guitar lessons to women serving time for drug offenses.

His most prominent acting role came as Corrado "Junior" Soprano on the HBO series The Sopranos, which ran from 1999 to 2007. The performance earned him Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in both 2000 and 2001. He later appeared on HBO's Boardwalk Empire from 2011 to 2013 as Leander Whitlock, a retired lawyer and power broker.

A tenor, Chianese released an album titled Hits in 2000, featuring American and Italian songs. He performed Salvatore Cardillo's "Core 'ngrato" on the third-season finale of The Sopranos. In 2003, in partnership with AOL Music, he released a second album, Ungrateful Heart, comprising sixteen classic Neapolitan songs. During the 2000s, he performed weekly in a mandolin quartet at the Hotel Edison. In December 2018, Chianese and co-author Matthew Sargent published his biography Twelve Angels: The Women Who Taught Me How to Act, Live, and Love. In 2010, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his humanitarian efforts. Most recently, he starred in the 2024 short film Breathe Truth, a comedy directed by Thomas Vallety from a screenplay by Rebecca Scarpati, in which he plays an elderly actor auditioning for a Shakespeare production for the first time.