Joe Mantegna

Born: 13 November 1947
Where: Chicago, Illinois

Joe Mantegna first gained national prominence working in collaboration with writer-director David Mamet in the 1980s and early 90s.

He began to develop an interest in theatrics while in high school, and after completing his degree at the Goodman Theater School, Mantegna landed his first professional job in a touring production of the musical Hair.

Returning home, he portrayed Judas in "Jesus Christ Superstar" before joining the Organic Theatre where he acted in several productions, and became friends with such future notables as Dennis Franz, Meshach Taylor and David Mamet.

It was Mamet who provided Mantegna with several fine roles both on stage and in films.

Their theatrical collaboration began with 1976's A Life in the Theater, and on the big screen under Mamet's direction, Mantegna played a con man in House of Games, a Mafioso in Things Change (for which he received the Venice Film Festival best actor award), and a detective investigating a murder in Homicide.

With his dark Italian looks, Hollywood has often cast Mantegna as heavies or gangsters notably in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Part III.

Other filmmakers have tapped into different sides of the actor - Woody Allen cast him in Alice and Celebrity while Steve Zaillian saw him as an average father of a chess prodigy who puts too much pressure on his son in Searching for Bobby Fischer.

In Barry Levinson's Bugsy, Mantegna played Hollywood tough guy George Raft and the pair teamed up again for Levinson's semi-autobiographical Liberty Heights.

Since 1991 he has provided the voice of the recurring character Fat Tony in episodes of The Simpsons.

Mantegna teamed with Sam Rockwell to play a pair of hit men in the well-received Jerry and Tom, screened at the Sundance Film Festival, then in 2000 made his feature directorial debut, Lakeboat.