Joseph Peter Pantoliano is an American character actor who has appeared in over 150 film, television, and stage productions. After his early roles in the television series M*A*S*H and the 1983 comedyRisky Business, he gained recognition for his numerous supporting roles in high-profile films and television series; including Hill Street Blues, The Goonies, La Bamba, Empire of the Sun, The Fugitive, NYPD Blue, Memento, and Bad Boys and its sequels. He starred as Caesar in the Wachowskis' directorial debut Bound and played Cypher in their second film The Matrix. His role as Ralph Cifaretto on the HBO crime drama The Sopranos won him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. Pantoliano is a published author and is active in the field of mental health, having documented his mother's and his own issues. He founded the nonprofit No Kidding, Me Too! dedicated to removing the stigma from mental illness.
He first grew to fame as "Guido the Killer Pimp" in Risky Business and continued to rise in 1985 when he appeared as the villainous Francis Fratelli in teen classic The Goonies. He gained fame among a new generation as Cypher in the 1999 landmark sci-fi filmThe Matrix and won a Primetime Emmy Award as Ralph Cifaretto in HBO's The Sopranos. Pantoliano is also known for his role as Eddie Moscone, the foul-mouthed, double-crossing bail bondsman, in the Robert De Niro comedy Midnight Run, as Captain Conrad Howard in Bad Boys and its sequels Bad Boys II and Bad Boys for Life, as double-crossed mafioso Caesar in Bound, as John "Teddy" Gammell in Memento, and as investigative journalistBen Urich in Mark Steven Johnson's 2003 Daredevil adaptation. He also played Deputy U.S. Marshal Cosmo Renfro in The Fugitive along with Tommy Lee Jones and reprised the role in the sequel U.S. Marshals. In 2003 Pantoliano replaced Stanley Tucci in the Broadway playFrankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. That same year he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for The Sopranos. In 2012 Pantoliano starred as the eccentric pawn broker Oswald Oswald in the film adaptation of Wendy Mass's popular children's book Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, written and directed by Tamar Halpern. In 2013, he was cast as Yogi Berra in the Broadway production of Bronx Bombers, but dropped out during rehearsals due to "creative differences." When not acting, Pantoliano writes. He is the author of two memoirs: Who's Sorry Now: The True Story of a Stand-Up Guy, and Asylum: Hollywood Tales From My Great Depression: Brain Dis-Ease, Recovery and Being My Mother's Son. In the latter, he writes about his addictions to alcohol, food, sex, Vicodin, and Percocet, before being diagnosed with clinical depression.
Personal life
Pantoliano and his wife, former model Nancy Sheppard, have four children. He was introduced to his wife by his friend actress Samantha Phillips. On October 9, 2007, Pantoliano announced on the National Alliance on Mental Illness blog that he has been suffering from clinical depression for the last decade, although he was only formally diagnosed recently. He claims that his 2006 film Canvas helped him come to terms with his depression. Rather than hide his illness from the public, he has chosen to speak out about it to remove some of the stigmas commonly associated with mental illness. He founded a nonprofit organization, No Kidding, Me Too!, to unite members of the entertainment industry in educating the public about mental illness. The title comes from the response he has frequently heard after divulging how mental illness affected him and his family. He is also filming a documentary called No Kidding, Me Too! He is also dyslexic. After a Sopranos episode in which his character brutally beat a young stripper to death, during an interview he stated, "After the episode aired a lot more women started hitting on me. I thought it was very revealing." During his tenure on the show, Pantoliano struggled to stay anonymous in New Jersey. To avoid being recognized by fans he wore a wig based on the hair style of Christopher Nolan, with whom he had worked in Memento. On May 1, 2020, Pantoliano was struck by a vehicle while walking, and suffered a concussion and chest trauma.
