Danny Aiello

Daniel Louis Aiello Jr. (June 20, 1933 – December 12, 2019) was an American actor.

In the 1960s, Aiello served as president of New York Local 1202 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing Greyhound Bus workers.

In 1967, he presided over an unsanctioned wildcat strike when the company changed bus driver schedules.

The strike was called without authorization by the parent union and he was suspended for that action.

He called off the strike after one day.

He was also a bouncer at the legendary New York City comedy club, The Improv.

Aiello, the fifth of six children, was born on West 68th Street, Manhattan, the son of parents Frances Pietrocova, a seamstress from Naples, Italy, and Daniel Louis Aiello, a laborer who deserted the family after his wife lost her eyesight and became legally blind.

Aiello broke into films in the early 1970s.

One of his earliest roles came as a ballplayer in the baseball drama, Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), with Robert De Niro.

He appeared in numerous motion pictures, including The Godfather Part II (1974), The Front (1976), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Hide in Plain Sight (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Moonstruck (1987), Harlem Nights (1989), Do the Right Thing (1989), Jacob's Ladder (1990), Hudson Hawk (1991), Ruby (1992), Léon: The Professional (1994), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), Dinner Rush (2000), and Lucky Number Slevin (2006).

Aiello had a walk-on role as small-time hood Tony Rosato in The Godfather Part II (1974), ad-libbing the line "Michael Corleone says hello!"

during a hit on rival gangster Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo).

In the mid-1980s, he was a nightly regular at Café Central, a bistro frequented by celebrities on 79th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, in Manhattan, and at an eatery named Columbus restaurant on 66th Street and Columbus Avenue.

Aiello had a co-lead role with Jan-Michael Vincent in Defiance (1980), about some Manhattan residents who fight back against the thugs terrorizing the neighborhood.

He received considerable acclaim for playing a racist New York City cop in Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981) with Paul Newman.

In 1981, Aiello won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in Children's Programming for his appearance in an ABC Afterschool Special called A Family of Strangers.

He was paired with De Niro again for the Sergio Leone gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in America (1984), as a police chief whose name was also "Aiello."

His many film appearances included two for director Woody Allen, who cast him in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), and Radio Days (1987).

He played a main role in the 1985-86 television series Lady Blue.

He played the father for the video of Madonna's song, "Papa Don't Preach" (1986), and recorded his own answer song, "Papa Wants the Best for You", written by Artie Schroeck.

He gained recognition as the befuddled fiancé of Cher opposite her Oscar-winning performance in the romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987), and made a comic appearance in drag for the Robert Altman fashion-industry film Prêt-à-Porter (1994).

Aiello was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Salvatore "Sal" Frangione in the Spike Lee film Do the Right Thing (1989).

Aiello played the pizzeria owner Sal in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989).

At the time of the film's release, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, he called the role his "first focal part".

He further identified the film as a very collaborative effort, during which Spike Lee at one point told him, "Whatever you wanna do, you do."

Aiello went on to write a crucial scene he shared with John Turturro ten minutes prior to its production.

The role earned him nominations for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, while the film critics' associations of Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles each named him best supporting actor.

Aiello also portrayed more sympathetic characters.

He also had sympathetic roles in the horror thriller Jacob's Ladder (1990) and the comedy-drama 29th Street (1991).

Aiello's singing was on display in films such as Hudson Hawk (1991), Once Around (1991), and Remedy (2005) that starred his son Ricky Aiello and Jonathan Doscher.

Aiello played nightclub owner and Lee Harvey Oswald assassin Jack Ruby in the biopic Ruby (1992), the lead role in Paul Mazursky's film business satire The Pickle (1993), the titular character in the Academy Award-winning short film Lieberman in Love (1995), and a political big shot with mob ties in City Hall (1996), starring Al Pacino.

For many years, Aiello publicly condemned his father, but the two reconciled in 1993, although Aiello harbored a resentment of his father's conduct.

He was of Italian descent.

He moved to the South Bronx when he was seven, and later attended James Monroe High School.

At the age of 16, Aiello lied about his age to enlist in the United States Army.

After serving for three years, he returned to New York City and did various jobs in order to support himself and, later, his family.

He played Don Domenico Clericuzio in the miniseries The Last Don (1997).

He released several albums featuring a big-band including I Just Wanted to Hear The Words (2004), Live from Atlantic City (2008), and My Christmas Song for You (2010).

Aiello and EMI songwriter Hasan Johnson released an album of standards fused with rap entitled Bridges in 2011.

He later starred in the independent feature film Dolly Baby (2012), written and directed by Kevin Jordan; Aiello also starred in Jordan's Brooklyn Lobster, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005.