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Joe Pesci
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Spouse
'Marti Harro' (1989 - 1992) (divorced); 1 daughter
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Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
Alternately hilarious and horrifying as the loud-mouthed, vicious mobster in GoodFellas (1990), Pesci snagged a well-deserved Academy Award for that finely tuned characterization-one of many he's delivered over the years. No one has achieved greater success playing comical urban types and sinister criminals in recent years, though Pesci's range is broader than his frequent typecasting might indicate. His first appearance on film was an incidental one, as a guitarist with Joey Dee and the Starliters in Hey, Let's Twist! (1961). Impressed by Pesci's performance in the obscure, low-budget crime film Death Collector (1975), director Martin Scorsese first cast the pugnacious actor as Robert De Niro's boorish brother-in-law in the Jake LaMotta biopic Raging Bull (1980); Pesci was rewarded with a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his stunning portrayal. He had strong supporting roles in I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982) and Easy Money (1983, very funny as Rodney Dangerfield's best friend) before he worked again with De Niro in Sergio Leone's period gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in America (1984). The following year he popped up on TV in "Half-Nelson" (1985), a shortlived sitcom about a pint-sized private investigator, but left the silver screen for a couple of years, resurfacing as cartoonishly shrill police informant Leo Getz in Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) and in a small role in Alan Alda's Betsy's Wedding (1990).
Following his stunning work in GoodFellas Pesci turned comic again as one of the bungling burglars in the smash hit Home Alone (1990), then headlined his first starring vehicle, The Super (also 1991), an unfortunate comedy misfire. Those who would write him off as a onenote actor sat up and took notice of his riveting perfomrnace (in makeup and toupee) as hyperkinetic conspirator David Ferrie in JFK (also 1991). In 1992 he found a pair of strong starring vehicles, the fish-out-of-water comedy My Cousin Vinny and the 1940s period piece The Public Eye (as a streetwise photographer inspired by the real-life Weegee), reprised the role of Leo Getz in Lethal Weapon 3 then suffered more abuse at the hands of Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York He made a cameo appearance for Robert De Niro in the latter's debut film as director, A Bronx Tale (1993), then starred in a pair of films With Honors and Jimmy Hollywood both 1994) whose commercial and critical failure had some questioning Pesci's ability to "carry" a movie. He then teamed up with Scorsese and De Niro for Casino (1995). On television, the actor has guest-starred on "Tales from the Crypt," in an amusing dual role (as a guy who adopts two identities) and as real-estate tycoon "Ronald Grump" in a "Sesame Street" 25thAnniversary prime-time special. |  |
