Joe Mantegna

Joe Mantegna is an American actor born on November 13, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois, to Italian American parents. His father, Joseph Henry Mantegna, was an insurance salesman with roots in Calascibetta, Sicily, who died in 1971 of tuberculosis. His mother, Mary Ann Novelli, was born in Acquaviva delle Fonti, Apulia, Italy, and worked as a shipping clerk. Raised Catholic in Cicero, Illinois, Mantegna attended J. Sterling Morton High School East before enrolling at Morton College and the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago, now affiliated with DePaul University, which he left just before graduation in 1969.

Mantegna launched his performing career in 1969 with the Chicago production of the stage musical Hair. His Broadway debut came in 1978 with Working, and his stage career continued through 1988. Additional Broadway credits include Godspell, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Speed-the-Plow. His portrayal of Richard Roma in the first American production of David Mamet's Pulitzer Prize–winning play Glengarry Glen Ross earned him both a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Work, both in 1984, as well as a Joseph Jefferson Award. That production marked the beginning of a sustained collaboration with Mamet that also encompassed the Broadway premieres of A Life in the Theatre, The Disappearance of the Jews, and Speed-the-Plow. Mantegna additionally directed a Los Angeles production of Mamet's Lakeboat. Earlier in his career, he co-wrote Bleacher Bums, a play that premiered at Chicago's Organic Theater Company, where he was also a member of the original cast.

His work with Mamet extended into film. Mantegna appeared in Mamet's House of Games in 1987 and Things Change in 1988, the latter earning him the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, shared with co-star Don Ameche. He returned to Mamet's work in the 1991 police thriller Homicide and again in Redbelt in 2008. His feature film debut had come earlier, in Medusa Challenger in 1977, and he went on to supporting roles in films including The Money Pit, Weeds, and Suspect, all in the mid-to-late 1980s. Broader commercial recognition came through roles in Three Amigos in 1986, The Godfather Part III in 1990, in which he played mobster Joey Zasa, Forget Paris in 1995, and Up Close and Personal in 1996.

On television, Mantegna received Emmy Award nominations for his performances in three separate miniseries: The Last Don in 1997, The Rat Pack in 1998, in which he portrayed Dean Martin, and The Starter Wife in 2007. He starred in the CBS drama First Monday in 2002, playing Associate Justice Joseph Novelli, and appeared in Joan of Arcadia from 2003 to 2005. In August 2007, he joined the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds as FBI Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi, replacing Mandy Patinkin. Beginning with the show's ninth season, he also directed several episodes. Since 2006, Mantegna has co-narrated the National Memorial Day Concert on the Mall in Washington, D.C., alongside Gary Sinise.

Mantegna has voiced the recurring character of mob boss Fat Tony on the animated series The Simpsons since the 1991 episode "Bart the Murderer," and reprised the role in The Simpsons Movie in 2007. He also directed the film version of Lakeboat, released in 2000, and has served as executive producer on projects including Corduroy in 1984, Hoods in 1998, and Lakeboat. Between 1999 and 2001, he played fictional detective Spenser in three made-for-television films based on Robert B. Parker's novels and has narrated audiobook recordings of the Spenser series.

Among the honors Mantegna has received outside of Broadway, he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 29, 2011, and received a star on the Italian Walk of Fame in Toronto in 2014. His hometown of Cicero, Illinois, marked his contributions with an honorary street sign, Joe Mantegna Boulevard, on June 6, 2011, at the corner of Austin Boulevard and 25th Street near his former high school. On May 3, 2017, the city of Chicago dedicated Joe Mantegna Way along a section of Armitage Avenue where he lived during his early acting years. He received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Los Angeles Italian Film Festival in 2004 and from the Riverside International Film Festival in 2015.