Chuck Zito was raised in the Bronx and New Rochelle.
45 Facts About Chuck Zito
2.
The son of a professional welterweight boxer, Chuck Zito was taught at an early age how to fight and defend himself.
3.
Chuck Zito's father boxed under the ring name Al LaBarba and fought in 228 professional matches.
4.
At the age of seventeen, Chuck Zito dropped out of New Rochelle High School and married his high school sweetheart, Kathy.
5.
Chuck Zito worked as a bouncer at Cafe Central on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
6.
Chuck Zito then defeated Michael Nesbitt in the tournament's third round at the Audubon Ballroom on February 19,1973, before losing to Orlando Nieves in the fourth round of the competition at the Felt Forum on February 23,1973.
7.
Chuck Zito returned to the Golden Gloves on February 2,1978, losing to Gaylord Bryant at the Felt Forum in the 160 pounds open division.
8.
Chuck Zito began studying martial arts at the age of 18 and earned black belts in six different disciplines, including jujutsu.
9.
Chuck Zito developed friendships with Arturo Gatti, Vinny Pazienza and Mike Tyson.
10.
Chuck Zito first met Gatti in 1996 and accompanied the boxer to the ring for several high profile fights.
11.
In 2003, Chuck Zito began his career as a broadcaster with a role as a sideline reporter on Monday Night Fights broadcasts on HBO.
12.
Chuck Zito was a correspondent at the Affliction: Day of Reckoning mixed martial arts event on January 24,2009.
13.
Chuck Zito met Sandy Alexander, the president of the New York City chapter of the Hells Angels and a professional boxer, while they both trained at the Gramercy Gym on East 14th Street in Manhattan.
14.
Chuck Zito allegedly earned his membership in the club by attempting to murder Robert Giangarra, a Queens pizzeria owner who had previously shot and injured Hells Angels biker Cortland "Chip" Candow in a Manhattan bar.
15.
Chuck Zito was never charged with the bombing, although he was variously convicted of weapons possession, when police discovered a loaded pistol, ammunition and brass knuckles in his car, criminal possession of a controlled substance, and disorderly conduct.
16.
Chuck Zito served as president of the Nomads chapter for ten years.
17.
Chuck Zito pleaded guilty to one felony drug count in late 1986 and was sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.
18.
Chuck Zito's sentence was reduced to seven years' in 1988, and he ultimately served six years at nineteen different federal prisons.
19.
Chuck Zito has stated that he "did six years for a phone call that [he] didn't make to a man who sold drugs", and claims that he was bodyguarding actor Mickey Rourke on the set of Year of the Dragon in Vancouver when the phone call allegedly took place.
20.
Chuck Zito was among a group of twenty Hells Angels arrested by a task force composed of agents from the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Illinois State Police, and the Chicago Police Department at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago after a high-speed car chase along the Northwest Tollway on December 11,1994.
21.
Chuck Zito was present at the Hellraiser Ball, a tattoo and motorcycle trade exposition in Plainview, New York sponsored by the Long Island chapter of the HAMC, which was ambushed by dozens of members of the rival Pagan's Motorcycle Club on February 23,2002, resulting in one biker being killed and at least ten injured.
22.
Chuck Zito attended the funeral of Gambino crime family boss John Gotti in Queens on June 14,2002.
23.
Chuck Zito declined to comment when he was approached by reporters after the wake.
24.
In 2004, Chuck Zito left the Hells Angels, after 25 years of membership in the club, to focus on his acting career.
25.
Chuck Zito resigned from the club in "good standing", an option reportedly extended only to the Hells Angels' most respected members.
26.
In 1979, after assisting the bodyguards of actor Robert Conrad at a motorcycle convention at the New York Coliseum, Chuck Zito began his own bodyguard agency, Charlie's Angels Bodyguard Service.
27.
Chuck Zito initially provided protection for actress Lorna Luft and later was hired by her half-sister Liza Minnelli.
28.
Chuck Zito's brother-in-law was a policeman, which allowed him to hire moonlighting police officers to bodyguard celebrities at public events which required additional manpower, such as award shows.
29.
Chuck Zito later worked on over 50 films such as Nowhere to Run, The Specialist, True Lies, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Heat, Eraser, The Juror and The Rock.
30.
Chuck Zito acted as stunt coordinator for the first time on Santa with Muscles.
31.
Chuck Zito then began landing small acting roles in films, including Heaven's Prisoners, No Code of Conduct and Gia.
32.
In 1996, after a meeting with producer Tom Fontana, Zito joined the HBO prison drama Oz as mobster Chucky Pancamo.
33.
Chuck Zito was a cast member until the show ended in 2003, after six seasons.
34.
Chuck Zito is purported to have punched Jean-Claude Van Damme, who had previously been a bodyguarding client of his, in another incident at Scores on February 5,1998.
35.
Chuck Zito appeared on the January 11,1999 edition of WCW Monday Nitro accompanying Hollywood Hulk Hogan to the ring alongside several other members of the Hells Angels.
36.
In 2002, Chuck Zito released his autobiography, Street Justice, co-authored with Joe Layden.
37.
Chuck Zito released a self-defense and dieting video, Chuck Zito's Street Survival System, in 2005.
38.
Chuck Zito appeared in Carlito's Way: Rise to Power the same year.
39.
Chuck Zito hosted Chuck Zito's Italian Bad Boy Hour on WVOX.
40.
In 2010, Chuck Zito filed a $5 million lawsuit against the cable network FX, alleging that he had a development meeting with them in 2006, in which he pitched the idea of an outlaw motorcycle group.
41.
Chuck Zito alleges that FX blew him off and then stole his idea, which became the FX show Sons of Anarchy.
42.
Chuck Zito appeared in Sons of Anarchy season 5, as Frankie Diamonds.
43.
Chuck Zito appeared in SOA creator Kurt Sutter's Discovery Channel documentary series, Outlaw Empires.
44.
Chuck Zito's daughter became an entertainment lawyer for Conde Nast in Manhattan.
45.
At the time, Chuck Zito had not spoken to his daughter Lisa in five years and therefore had never met his two grandchildren.