Scolari was born in New Rochelle, New York, on September 12, 1955. He has described his father as an abusive, "rageful man", and his mother as an alcoholic, and has said that their marriage was tumultuous. "They stayed together for the kids and also because they were hopelessly in love with each other, but they were totally incompatible," he said in an interview with The Toronto Star.
Career
Television
Scolari's first ongoing role was in his first short-lived 1980 sitcom Goodtime Girls, as the juggling neighbor of the title characters. He was then cast co-starring with then-unknown Tom Hanks, in another sitcom Bosom Buddies, as two young creative professionals who disguise themselves as women to get an affordable apartment in a women-only building. After Bosom Buddies was cancelled in 1982, and still struggling as an actor, Scolari joined the cast of Newhart, opposite Bob Newhart, in 1984, where he played Michael Harris, the yuppie local TV producer, until the series' conclusion in 1990. He has remained close to Newhart, with whom he frequently plays golf, since the show's last season. Following central roles in the unsuccessful series Family Album and Dweebs, Scolari spent three seasons playing inventor Wayne Szalinski, a role originated on film by Rick Moranis, in the of the Disney film . He later had a recurring role as the father of Lena Dunham's character on HBO's Girls, for which he won an Emmy in 2016. He also portrayed Gotham City’s corrupt police commissioner, Gillian B. Loeb, in Fox’s superhero crime drama Gotham.
Scolari has appeared on Broadway in Wicked, Sly Fox, Hairspray, and Lucky Guy, which reunited him with his Bosom Buddies co-star Tom Hanks. Scolari also appeared Off Broadway in Old Man Joseph and His Family, The Exonerated, In the Wings, The Music Man, and White's Lies. In 1996, Scolari starred in a version of the stage musical Stop the World – I Want to Get Off produced for the A&E television network. In 2014, Scolari portrayed Yogi Berra in Bronx Bombers. His wife Tracey Shayne played Berra's wife Carmen. Subsequently, he played the part of The Wizard in the Broadway musicalWicked.
Personal life
He was married to Debra Steagal, and later to actress Cathy Trien, with whom he has two children. One of his children is an aspiring pop star. He married long-time girlfriend Tracy Shayne in June 2013. A 2014 episode of brought up Scolari's substance abuse and his struggle with bipolar disorder.
