Joseph Frank Pesci is an American actor and musician.
34 Facts About Joe Pesci
2.
Joe Pesci is known for portraying tough, volatile characters in a variety of genres and for his collaborations with Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese in the films Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Irishman.
3.
Joe Pesci appeared in Once Upon a Time in America, Moonwalker, JFK, A Bronx Tale, and The Good Shepherd.
4.
Joe Pesci announced his retirement from acting in 1999, but has returned to act in 4 films since then.
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Joe Pesci was born on February 9,1943, in Newark, New Jersey.
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Joe Pesci's mother, Maria worked part time as a barber, and his father, Angelo Pesci, was a forklift truck driver for General Motors and a bartender.
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Joe Pesci is of Italian descent with family origins both in Turin and Aquilonia in the province of Avellino.
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Joe Pesci was raised in Belleville, New Jersey, and graduated from Belleville High School.
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Joe Pesci later joined Frank Vincent as a comedy duo, performing as "Vincent and Joe Pesci" from 1970 to 1976.
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The first film Joe Pesci starred in was the 1976 low-budget crime film The Death Collector alongside Frank Vincent.
11.
In 1979, Pesci received a telephone call from Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, who were impressed with his performance in The Death Collector and asked him to co-star in Scorsese's Raging Bull as Joey LaMotta.
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Joe Pesci won the BAFTA Film Award for Newcomer to Leading Film Roles in 1981 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
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Joe Pesci appeared as Leo Getz, a comedic sidekick and best friend to protagonist detectives Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh in the Lethal Weapon sequels, released in 1989,1992 and 1998.
14.
Joe Pesci made transcripts of these sessions, took the lines the actors came up with that he liked best, and put them into a revised script that the cast worked from during principal photography.
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Joe Pesci was working as a waiter when he thought he was making a compliment to a mobster by saying he was "funny"; however, the comment was not taken well.
16.
Joe Pesci co-starred in the blockbuster Home Alone in 1990, playing Harry Lyme, one of two bumbling burglars who attempt to burgle the house of the young character played by Macaulay Culkin.
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Two years later, Joe Pesci reprised his role in the sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
18.
Joe Pesci hosted the sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live on October 10,1992, while doing publicity for My Cousin Vinny.
19.
In 1993, Joe Pesci made an appearance in A Bronx Tale as Carmine.
20.
In 1995, Joe Pesci had his third collaboration with Scorsese and De Niro in the film Casino, playing Nicky Santoro, based on real-life Mob enforcer Anthony Spilotro, along with Sharon Stone and James Woods; Joe Pesci had previously co-starred with the latter in Once Upon a Time in America.
21.
In 1996, Joe Pesci was considered to play Myron Larabee, the stressed-out postman, in Jingle All the Way opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the part was ultimately given to Sinbad, whose physical size was more comparable to Schwarzenegger's.
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Joe Pesci had starring roles in several other films, including Man on Fire, The Super, Jimmy Hollywood, With Honors and Gone Fishin'.
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Joe Pesci's role in With Honors was a dramatic role in which he played a homeless man living on the campus of Harvard.
24.
In 1999, Joe Pesci announced his retirement from acting to pursue a musical career and to enjoy life away from the camera.
25.
Joe Pesci returned to acting when he did a cameo in De Niro's 2006 film The Good Shepherd.
26.
Joe Pesci appeared with Don Rickles in a 2011 Snickers advertisement in which he portrays the angry alter ego of a young man who attends a party and becomes agitated by two women until he is calmed down by eating a Snickers bar.
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In 2011, Joe Pesci sued Fiore Films, the producers of the film Gotti saying they had broken their promise to cast him in the film as real-life mobster Angelo Ruggiero.
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Joe Pesci stated that he had gained 30 pounds for the role.
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Joe Pesci sued them for $3 million, which was the payment he had been promised.
30.
Joe Pesci appears in the 2016 music documentary Jimmy Scott: I Go Back Home in which he is filmed recording "The Folks Who Live on the Hill" from Scott's 2017 posthumous album I Go Back Home.
31.
In 2017, Joe Pesci was cast alongside Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in The Irishman, a crime film directed by Martin Scorsese.
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Joe Pesci returned to music with his third album and his first in 21 years, titled Joe Pesci.
33.
In 2007, Joe Pesci was engaged to Angie Everhart but the couple broke up in 2008.
34.
Joe Pesci has received numerous awards nominations including three Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Irishman.