Joe Pantoliano

Born: 12th September, 1951
Where: Hoboken, New Jersey

By 17, Joe only had a reading age of 8, and decided that acting was a way out of a life that seemed to be leading to criminal behaviour.

Because of his comprehension skills, he had to memorise his scenes just to audition, but it paid off as his literacy and confidence increased.

Joe moved to Manhattan where he waited tables, took acting lessons and built up stage credits.

He had his first professional stage appearance in New York at the age of 17, and portrayed Billy Bibbit in a stage production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1972.

Then in 1976, Joe moved to LA where he found work in TV sitcoms.

Joe's feature acting debut came in 1980 with The Idolmaker; but his breakthrough feature supporting role came when he played Guido 'The Killer Pimp' in Risky Business in 1983.

He went on to regular work in film and TV in strong supporting roles; as the anti-Communist lawyer, Roy Cohn, in the miniseries Robert Kennedy and His Times; and a bumbling criminal outwitted by kids in both The Goonies and Baby's Day Out.

He then went on to play a seedy character opposite Guy Pearce and Matrix co-star Carrie-Anne Moss, in the stylish thriller Memento, as well as joining the cast of the popular series The Sopranos in 2001.

In July 2001 he began work on a novel about his hometown, Hoboken, entitled Who's Sorry Now?