Frank Vincent
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| Frank Vincent | |
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| Born | Frank Vincent Gattuso April 4, 1939 North Adams, Massachusetts |
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Frank Vincent (born April 4, 1939) is an American actor and musician. Among other noted roles, he played Phil Leotardo in the HBO series The Sopranos.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Vincent, an Italian American, was born Frank Vincent Gattuso in North Adams, Massachusetts, but was raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. His father, Frank Vincent Gattuso, Sr., was an iron worker.[1][2] His mother was called Mary Ricci.[citation needed] Vincent has two brothers: Nick and Jimmy. His father was one of six children born in Sondrio, Italy to Sondrian immigrants Nicolò Gattuso and Francesca Di Peri.[citation needed]
[edit] Career
In the late '70s, Frank teamed up with Joe Pesci, performing in local clubs like the Arlington Lounge and other venues around Northern NJ as 'Vincent and Pesci'. The comedy duo's material was a play on Martin/Lewis and Abbott and Costello. As an accomplished player of the drums, trumpet and piano, Vincent originally intended on a career in music, but in 1975, he co-starred in the low-budget gangster movie, The Death Collector along with Joe Pesci, where he was spotted by Martin Scorsese. Scorsese was impressed and hired Vincent to appear in a major supporting role in Raging Bull, which saw him link up once again with Pesci. The two would go on to appear together in several other movies. Another familiar co-star and good friend of Vincent's is Robert De Niro, who is also friends with Pesci. Vincent is usually typecast as a gangster. He appeared in Scorcese's 1990 film Goodfellas, where he played Billy Batts, a 'made guy'. He also played a prominent role as gangster Frankie Marino in Scorsese's 1995 film Casino. In 1996, Vincent appeared in rap artist Nas' video "Street Dreams" as his character Frankie Marino from Casino. The video mirrors Casino at certain times. In the television movie, Gotti, Vincent played Robert "DiB" DiBernardo, an associate of Mafia boss John Gotti, whose life the film chronicled. In The Sopranos, he played New York Boss Phil Leotardo. Vincent also had a leading role in the heist movie This Thing of Ours in 2003. One of his more light-hearted roles came when he was in a British television commercial for Peugeot cars. In early 2005, Frank Vincent appeared on Irish television in a series of television commercials for Irish bank Permanent TSB.
In 1999, he won the Italian American Entertainer of the Year Award. Among Frank's other noted performances include his appearance in the 2003 film Remedy.
In 2001, Vincent lent his voice to Mafia Don Salvatore Leone in the controversial computer and video game Grand Theft Auto III. He later reprised that role in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2005).
In 2006, he released his first book, A Guy's Guide to Being a Man's Man to positive reviews. His idol is Dean Martin.[3] He has also released a line of premium signature series hand-rolled cigars which have his picture prominently displayed on the band.[4]
In the summer of 2008, he played Lieutenant Marino in the highly anticipated independent film The Tested directed by Russell Costanzo[5] and in 2009, he made a cameo appearance alongside fellow Sopranos actor Steve Schirripa in Stargate Atlantis episode "Vegas".[6]
