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Chazz Palminteri

Chazz Palminteri is an Oscar-nominated American actor and writer.

Palminteri, a Sicilian/Italian American was born Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri in the Bronx, New York. He has appeared in several popular feature films, including A Bronx Tale, Analyze This, The Usual Suspects, and most recently in the 2006 Sundance film festival hit, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1994 for Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway.

As a playwright, Palminteri authored A Bronx Tale and Faithful, and as a screenwriter, he adapted both of these stage productions into motion pictures. A Bronx Tale, which Palminteri has claimed to be semi-autobiographical, is particularly relevant to his career. Because he had spent the majority of his acting career in small character roles, he sold the play's film rights to Robert De Niro, with the condition that Palminteri himself be allowed to play the role of Machiavellian mafia boss Sonny. This was his first notable major role in cinema. It was also Robert De Niro’s directorial debut.

In 2001 Palminteri starred in a made for TV movie Boss of Bosses, in which he played the role of real life mobster Paul Castellano. He also has had starring roles in features such as Running Scared, Poolhall Junkies, Mulholland Drive, and Diaboligue, as well as Independent film roles in the critically recognized Hurlyburly and The Perez Family.

He made his directorial debut with the 2002 television film Women vs. Men. He also directed the 2004 film Noel, starring Paul Walker, Penelope Cruz, Susan Sarandon, and Alan Arkin.

Palminteri is also well known for playing a mob boss in several commercials for Vanilla Coke in 2002, opposite celebrities such as Simon Cowell and Missy Elliott. In contrast to several roles as Mafia boss, he portrayed anti-Mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone in the 1999 movie Excellent Cadavers.

He lives in Bedford, New York.