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Rewind: The many faces of Danny Aiello
The late-starting actor has evolved from mobster to sweeter - sexier? - characters.
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 20, 2002
Danny Aiello, 69 today, debuted in a 1973 spoof, The Godmothers.
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If you stare really, really hard at a map of the Bronx, it might wind up looking like Danny Aiello's face. This actor's lived-in countenance has become as much a Big Apple symbol in the movies as the Empire State Building, and just as imposing and solid.
Aiello, celebrating his 69th birthday today, got a late start in acting after serving as a Greyhound bus union president and a nightclub bouncer. After making his debut in a 1973 spoof titled The Godmothers, Aiello's first significant role was as a baseball player that year in Bang the Drum Slowly, which was partly filmed in Pinellas County.
Francis Ford Coppola noticed his 6-foot-3 physique and Italian-American face and hired him as a mobster for The Godfather: Part II. The rest, as Aiello's characters might say, is history, so fuggedaboudit.
Over the years, a sweeter -- some say sexier -- side of Aiello has emerged from behind that intimidating face. He's still nobody you want to meet in a dark alley, but these home video highlights from his career will make him welcome in your living room:
Moonstruck -- After 14 years as window dressing, Aiello got his first meaty role in Norman Jewison's ode to Italian-American romance. He played Mr. Johnny Cammareri, a shy and successful businessman engaged to Loretta Castorini (Oscar winner Cher) but losing her to his one-handed brother (Nicolas Cage). Do the Right Thing -- Aiello's only Academy Award nomination so far has come for his multifaceted portrayal of a pizza shop owner facing racial tension in an African-American neighborhood. Spike Lee's raw, riveting film was one of the best of the 1980s. City Hall -- Aiello steals a scene or two from Al Pacino, playing a Brooklyn neighborhood "fixer" involved with a policeman's shooting of a child. Pacino plays the mayor keeping a lid on an urban pressure cooker in Harold Becker's film. 2 Days in the Valley -- One of Aiello's best performances was wasted in a movie few people saw. Check out his clinically depressed hit man Dosmo Pizzo, who hates dogs and loves to cook. Both qualities become important during 48 hours of intersecting L.A. lives in John Herzfeld's offbeat crime flick. The Cemetery Club -- Aiello beat typecasting to play a Jewish suitor for Ellen Burstyn, leader of a coffee klatch of widows (also including Olympia Dukakis and Diane Ladd). The scene in which Aiello and Burstyn compare time's ravages on their bodies is an effective piece of writing and acting. 29th Street -- Based on the story of Frank Pesce Jr., who won the New York lottery and didn't want to claim the money, Aiello portrays the reason: a stern father who looks like a loser after mobsters stole his trucking business. This is a wonderful movie, full of pasta-and-cannoli atmosphere and anchored by Aiello. Ruby -- The poor box office showing of this film is why Aiello doesn't get to carry many films on his own. He's a dead ringer for Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner who killed alleged JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. The film arrived a year after Oliver Stone's JFK seemed to be the last word on the subject. Jacob's Ladder -- A Vietnam veteran (Tim Robbins) confronts foxhole demons in a moody mind trip from director Adrian Lyne. Aiello is wonderful as the troubled man's chiropractor -- or could he be an angel sent from heaven?
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