Who is Joe Pantoliano?

Joe Pantoliano is an American actor of the screen and stage, Joe has over 150 credits to his name. On the big screen, he is known for his roles in such films as "The Goonies," "La Bamba," "The Fugitive," "The Matrix," "Memento," and the "Bad Boys" trilogy. Pantoliano has also appeared on numerous television series over the years, including "Hill Street Blues," "NYPD Blue," "The Sopranos," and "Sense8." Some of his best career roles include Ralph Cifaretto on The Sopranos, Bob Keane in La Bamba, Cypher in The Matrix, Teddy in Memento, Francis Fratelli in The Goonies, Guido "the Killer Pimp" in Risky Business and Jennifer Tilly's violent mobster boyfriend Caesar in Bound. He also played Deputy U.S. Marshal Cosmo Renfro in both The Fugitive and U.S. Marshals. He won an Emmy in 2003 for Best Supporting Actor for his work on The Sopranos. He is often referred to as "Joey Pants", because of the difficulty some people have pronouncing his Italian surname Pantoliano.

As a youth, Pantoliano moved to the New Jersey borough of Cliffside Park, where he went to Cliffside Park High School. Later, he studied at the performing arts organization HB Studio in New York City.

Overview

Nicknames
Joe Pantiliano, Joe Peter Pantoliano, Joseph Pantoliano

Trivia

  • Founded the charity organization "No Kidding, Me Too!" (nkm2.org) to foster education and awareness of mental illness. The foundation's goal is to "Stomp the Stigma" associated with mental illness and encourage those suffering to seek help.
  • Has suffered from Clinical Depression since the mid-1990s.
  • At age seventeen he moved to Manhattan to study to become a barber.
  • He has appeared in four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Goonies (1985), La Bamba (1987), The Matrix (1999) and Memento (2000).
  • He landed his first professional role in 1972 when he played Billy Bibbit in the national touring company of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He worked in regional theater appearing in more than 40 Off-Broadway productions including Vision of Kerouac at the Lion Theater and The Death Star at the Theater of St. Clements.