Joe Pantoliano

Joseph Peter Pantoliano (born September 12, 1951) is an American actor who has played over 150 roles across film, television, and theater. He is best known for portraying Francis Fratelli in The Goonies (1985), Captain Conrad Howard in the Bad Boys film series (1995–2024), Cypher in the Wachowskis' sci-fi action film The Matrix (1999), Teddy in Christopher Nolan's psychological thriller film Memento (2000), and Ralph "Ralphie" Cifaretto on the HBO crime drama The Sopranos (2001–2004), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series.

Other notable film credits include Risky Business (1983), Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun (1987), La Bamba (1987), Midnight Run (1988), The Fugitive (1993), Baby's Day Out (1994), the Wachowskis' directorial debut Bound (1996), and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010). In 2025, he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his performance in The Last of Us.

Pantoliano has published two memoirs and is active in the field of mental health, having documented his mother's issues and his own. He founded the nonprofit No Kidding, Me Too! which is dedicated to removing the stigma from mental illness.

Joseph Peter Pantoliano was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, on September 12, 1951, the son of Italian-American parents Mary (née Centrella) and Dominic "Monk" Pantoliano. His mother was a bookmaker and seamstress, while his father was a hearse driver and factory foreman. His family moved to Cliffside Park, New Jersey, where he attended Cliffside Park High School. He attended the HB Studio and studied extensively under actors Herbert Berghof and John Lehne.

Pantoliano first grew to fame as Guido the killer pimp in 1983's Risky Business. In 1985 he appeared as the villainous Francis Fratelli in teen classic The Goonies. He gained fame among a new generation as Cypher in the 1999 landmark sci-fi film The Matrix. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the role of 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 Conrad Howard in Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Bad Boys for Life and Bad Boys: Ride or Die, 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 played Deputy U.S. 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.

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." From 2015 to 2018 he played Michael Gorski in the Wachowskis' Netflix series Sense8.