Recent from talks
Joe Viterelli
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Joe Viterelli
Joseph Viterelli (March 10, 1937 – January 28, 2004) was an American actor. He was best known for playing Italian-American mobsters. He gained widespread recognition for portraying Jelly in Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002).
Viterelli was born on March 10, 1937, in New York City and grew up in a tough neighborhood on Manhattan's Lower East Side. He played classical guitar but did not tell his friends about it. "They woulda thought I was a sissy", he said. "I used to save my hard-robbed money and sneak off to Carnegie Hall and Broadway theaters."
While in his 20s, he inherited four music schools in Queens that had been started by his family. "I actually taught classical guitar. But things went wrong. Then I opened a few bars. I drove a truck. I owned a cleaning service. I even had a job drilling holes in bowling balls to feed my five kids."
Viterelli moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s. While living in Malibu, Viterelli became friends with director Leo Penn, who saw the screen possibilities in Viterelli's tough-guy visage. Penn thought Viterelli's tough-guy features would play well in the movies and on television.
Viterelli told Larry King that before he acted, "I had a couple of beer joints that I sold in New York and I came out here (in California) and I was looking around."
"(Leo Penn) asked me to be in some movies and TV, but I always declined," said Viterelli. "I said, 'For half my life, I've been keeping a low profile and now you want to put my mug on a 40-foot screen?'"
Years later, Viterelli got a call from Penn's actor son, Sean, who was in New York City to make the 1990 gangster melodrama State of Grace. Viterelli recalled: "(Sean) said, 'Joe, we're looking for a character that's from your neighborhood. We've seen about 50 to 60 people and nobody's right.' He said the key words, 'Would you do me a favor?'" Viterelli did and, proving to be a natural actor, launched his new career. Viterelli later appeared in Penn's The Crossing Guard (1995).
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Viterelli had appeared in more than 40 movies, playing guys with such names as Nick Valenti (Bullets Over Broadway; 1994), Joe Profaci (Mobsters; 1991), Fat Tommy Carducci (What She Doesn't Know; 1992), Vinnie "The Shrimp" (Mickey Blue Eyes; 1999) and Fat Tony Ragoni (The Cure for Boredom; 2001). He also had a supporting role in Shallow Hal (2001) and played Joseph Valachi in Ruby (1992). He also appeared in Eraser (1996).
Hub AI
Joe Viterelli AI simulator
(@Joe Viterelli_simulator)
Joe Viterelli
Joseph Viterelli (March 10, 1937 – January 28, 2004) was an American actor. He was best known for playing Italian-American mobsters. He gained widespread recognition for portraying Jelly in Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002).
Viterelli was born on March 10, 1937, in New York City and grew up in a tough neighborhood on Manhattan's Lower East Side. He played classical guitar but did not tell his friends about it. "They woulda thought I was a sissy", he said. "I used to save my hard-robbed money and sneak off to Carnegie Hall and Broadway theaters."
While in his 20s, he inherited four music schools in Queens that had been started by his family. "I actually taught classical guitar. But things went wrong. Then I opened a few bars. I drove a truck. I owned a cleaning service. I even had a job drilling holes in bowling balls to feed my five kids."
Viterelli moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s. While living in Malibu, Viterelli became friends with director Leo Penn, who saw the screen possibilities in Viterelli's tough-guy visage. Penn thought Viterelli's tough-guy features would play well in the movies and on television.
Viterelli told Larry King that before he acted, "I had a couple of beer joints that I sold in New York and I came out here (in California) and I was looking around."
"(Leo Penn) asked me to be in some movies and TV, but I always declined," said Viterelli. "I said, 'For half my life, I've been keeping a low profile and now you want to put my mug on a 40-foot screen?'"
Years later, Viterelli got a call from Penn's actor son, Sean, who was in New York City to make the 1990 gangster melodrama State of Grace. Viterelli recalled: "(Sean) said, 'Joe, we're looking for a character that's from your neighborhood. We've seen about 50 to 60 people and nobody's right.' He said the key words, 'Would you do me a favor?'" Viterelli did and, proving to be a natural actor, launched his new career. Viterelli later appeared in Penn's The Crossing Guard (1995).
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Viterelli had appeared in more than 40 movies, playing guys with such names as Nick Valenti (Bullets Over Broadway; 1994), Joe Profaci (Mobsters; 1991), Fat Tommy Carducci (What She Doesn't Know; 1992), Vinnie "The Shrimp" (Mickey Blue Eyes; 1999) and Fat Tony Ragoni (The Cure for Boredom; 2001). He also had a supporting role in Shallow Hal (2001) and played Joseph Valachi in Ruby (1992). He also appeared in Eraser (1996).