Joe Pantoliano

Early life

Pantoliano was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, the son of Italian American parents Mary (née Centrella), a bookie and seamstress, and Dominic "Monk" Pantoliano, a hearse driver and factory foreman. Pantoliano's family moved to Cliffside Park, New Jersey, where he attended Cliffside Park High School.

He attended HB Studio, and studied extensively with actors John Lehne and Herbert Berghof.

Career

He first grew to fame as "Guido the Killer Pimp" in Risky Business, and continued to rise in 1985 when he appeared as the villainous Francis Fratelli in teen classic The Goonies. He gained fame amongst a new generation as Cypher in the 1999 landmark sci-fi film The Matrix, and won a Primetime Emmy Award as Ralph Cifaretto in HBO's The Sopranos. Pantoliano is also known for his role as Eddie Moscone, the foul-mouthed, double-crossing bail bondsman, in the Robert De Niro comedy Midnight Run, as Captain Howard in Bad Boys and its sequel Bad Boys 2, as double-crossed mafioso Caesar in Bound, as John "Teddy" Gammell in Memento, and as investigative journalist Ben Urich in Mark Steven Johnson's 2003 Daredevil adaptation. He also played Deputy US Marshal Cosmo Renfro in The Fugitive along with Tommy Lee Jones, and reprised the role in the sequel U.S. Marshals.

In 2003, Pantoliano replaced Stanley Tucci in the Broadway play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. That same year he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for The Sopranos.

In 2012, Pantoliano starred as the eccentric pawn broker Oswald Oswald in the film adaptation of Wendy Mass's popular children's book Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, written and directed by Tamar Halpern. In 2013, he was cast as Yogi Berra in the Broadway production of Bronx Bombers, but dropped out during rehearsals due to "creative differences".

When not acting, Pantoliano also writes. He is the author of two memoirs: Who's Sorry Now: The True Story of a Stand-Up Guy and Asylum: Hollywood Tales From My Great Depression: Brain Dis-Ease, Recovery and Being My Mother's Son. In the latter, he writes about his addictions to alcohol, food, sex, Vicodin and Percocet before being diagnosed with clinical depression.

Personal life

Pantoliano and his wife, former model Nancy Sheppard, have four children. He was introduced to his wife by his friend, actress Samantha Phillips.

On October 9, 2007, Pantoliano announced on the National Alliance on Mental Illness blog that he has been suffering from clinical depression for the last decade, although he was only formally diagnosed recently. He claims that his recent film Canvas was what helped him come to terms with his depression.

Rather than hide his struggle from the public, he has chosen to speak out about it to remove some of the stigmas that are commonly associated with mental illness. He founded a non-profit organization, "No Kidding, Me Too!", to unite members of the entertainment industry in educating the public about mental illness. He is also dyslexic. The title comes from the response he has frequently heard after divulging how mental illness affected him and his family. He is also filming a documentary called No Kidding, Me Too!

After a Sopranos episode in which his character brutally beat a young stripper to death, during an interview he stated, "After the episode aired a lot more women started hitting on me. I thought it was very revealing."