Moviegoers of all ages probably recognize Joe Pesci from his streetwise,
fast-talking performances in films like "Goodfellas" and "Home Alone."
Pesci has stayed mostly out of the spotlight since the turn of the millennium,
but that doesn't mean he's disappeared entirely. Here is the untold truth of Joe Pesci.
Born Joseph Frank Pesci on February 9, 1943 in Newark, New Jersey, Joe Pesci was thrown into the
spotlight at an early age by his father, Angelo, who saw show business as a ticket to giving his
family a better life. By the time he was five years old, Pesci made his debut on "Star Time
Kids," a television variety series that aired from 1950 to 1955. The experience was, by Pesci's own
description, less than pleasurable: in a 1992 interview with The New York Times, he said,
"My father loved me so much that he did not want me to be a laborer or anything.
I don't know if it's the right thing to do — push your kids into something and
then stay on them until they do it. Let them pick what they want to do."
Though Pesci was less than enthused about performing, it kept him afloat during his
pre-fame days. Pesci sang and played guitar in a string of pop and rock acts, most notably in the
touring version of the popular New York act Joey Dee and the Starliters, which provided him with
his first feature film appearance as an extra in the band's star vehicle, "Hey, Let's Twist!"
Pesci then made his bid for pop stardom in 1968 with the release of his first solo album,
"Little Joe Sure Can Sing!" But the LP wasn't a hit, so he returned to gigging alongside another
Jersey musician, Frank Vincent. However, live club music had fallen out of fashion by the early '70s,
so the pair turned to comedy, forming the duo Vincent and Pesci.
"I'm funny how, you mean I'm funny like a clown, like I amuse you? I make you laugh?"
Decades after they hung up the act, Vincent would remain Pesci's friend
off-camera and frequent nemesis on film: Pesci brutalized Vincent in "Raging Bull" and beat him
to death in "Goodfellas," while Vincent returned the favor by bashing in Pesci's skull in "Casino."
In 1976, Pesci had his first credited movie role in "Family Enforcer," also known as "The Death
Collector," a low-budget Mafia thriller starring Pesci and Joe Cortese as muscle for the Mob.
Solid reviews prompted Pesci to head to Hollywood, but a lack of further
success sent him packing back to the Bronx, where he worked as a restaurant manager.
It was at this low point that Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro came calling;
the director and star had seen Pesci in "Family Enforcer" and sought him out for their next
project, the boxing drama "Raging Bull." Pesci played Joey LaMotta, the brother, manager,
and eventual enemy of short-tempered boxer Jake LaMotta, which earned him a nomination for Best
Supporting Actor at the Oscars the following year and made his name one to remember.
From 1980 to 1998, Pesci lent his unique charm to a handful of iconic movies,
from Scorcese collaborations such as "Goodfellas'' and "Casino" to comedies like "Home Alone" and "My
Cousin Vinny." He had a small part opposite De Niro in the legendary Sergio Leone's last film,
"Once Upon a Time in America," portrayed real-life pilot David Ferrie in "JFK,"
and had a recurring role as Leo Getz in the "Lethal Weapon" franchise.
However, many of Pesci's credits are likely to be total obscurities to even the most
seasoned moviegoers. For instance, in 1983, Pesci starred as a bowling
alley owner with dreams of stardom in the West German musical "Dear Mr. Wonderful."
It's also likely that you missed Pesci as the uncle of the bride in "Betsy's Wedding,"
or his thinly veiled take on legendary photographer Weegee in "The Public Eye."
The takeaway? Pesci's hits are very big, but his misses disappear, with little in between.
Pesci has given few interviews since announcing his retirement, so his reasons for the decision
remain solely with him. However, it's possible that he simply lost his taste for the projects
that were being offered to him. As far back as 1992, Pesci told The New York Times that
many of the roles brought to him were, quote, "stupid, ethnic Italian parts [with] pizza-pie
stupid jokes." While he mostly avoided that characterization in his film work, Pesci did
withstand a barrage of jokes about his height in the dismal NBC action-comedy "Half Nelson."
Pesci was top-billed as Rocky Nelson, an NYPD detective who works for a private security firm
while trying to launch an acting career. The series, co-created by Glen A. Larson,
paired Pesci with "Saturday Night Live" alum Victoria Jackson as a scatterbrained secretary,
former football player Fred Williamson as Rocky's boss, and a visibly unwell Dean Martin as himself.
At the time of its release, critic David Handler described "Half Nelson" as, quote,
"[managing] to leave you feeling both bored and soiled,"
which undoubtedly helped capsize the series after just seven episodes.
Joe Pesci's Oscar win for his portrayal of gangster Tommy DeVito in "Goodfellas" helped
to wipe away any residue from "Half Nelson" or his other early obscurities, and it's likely that he
saw his win as the start of a new and improved phase of his career. He told The New York Times,
"I love to star in movies, but I want to have good roles. It doesn't help to
get starring roles in something that's no good. I mean, that will just kill you."
Although he netted several box office hits, much of his output during the 1990s was dismissed by
critics and audiences alike. Attempts to fashion Pesci into a comedic leading man in "The Super"
and "Gone Fishin'" were busts, as was his attempt at tugging heartstrings in the terminally soggy
"With Honors," which cast him as a homeless man with a big heart and a scholar's brain. By 1998,
Pesci had clearly lost his patience with the industry: after logging his third and
final turn as machine gun-mouthed Leo Getz in "Lethal Weapon 4" — which earned him a Razzie
nomination — he retired from acting as a full-time profession and focused his energies elsewhere.
"I'm sorry, okay, okay, okay, okay! Whatever, whatever!"
With several notable exceptions, Pesci mostly stuck to his decision to put acting on the back
burner. Instead, he focused his energy on golf and, to the surprise of many,
went back to singing. In 1998, Pesci released his second album, "Vincent LaGuardia Gambini
Sings Just for You," named for his character in "My Cousin Vinny." Despite his ill-advised
pass at hip-hop with the infamous single "Wise Guy," Pesci still proved his musical prowess
with renditions of "What a Wonderful World" and the Ray Charles number "I've Got News For You."
Although critics and listeners alike largely dismissed the album as a vanity project, Pesci
kept his hand in music. As "Joe Doggs," he earned respectable reviews for "Falling in Love Again," a
collaboration with jazz organist Joey DeFrancesco, and held his own alongside his onetime idol,
Little Jimmy Scott, on "The Folks Who Live on the Hill," a duet featured on the legendary
vocalist's final studio album, "I Go Back Home." Two years later, Pesci released his third album,
"Still Singing," which featured two duets with Maroon 5's Adam Levine.
In a 2016 interview, comedy legend Don Rickles,
who appeared with Pesci in "Casino," said of his co-star,
"I think sometimes he believed he was with the Mob. But he got over it."
Given Pesci's multitude of terrifying gangster performances, it's understandable how some might
misconstrue him as a made man in the real world. While there are tales of the actor
interacting with career criminals, Pesci has kept himself out of trouble offscreen. Well, mostly.
In 2006, Pesci was involved in an alleged assault against an overzealous fan in Florida.
According to a police report, Pesci struck a man who ignored his request to refrain from taking
his picture, but prosecutors dismissed the allegations over a lack of evidence.
A half-decade later, Pesci was involved in not one, but two legal cases: the first,
in 2012, involved his ex-wife, actress Claudia Haro, who was sentenced to 12
years for allegedly hiring a hitman to whack her second husband, stuntman Garrett Warren.
Pesci was briefly considered as the supposed source of financing for the failed hit,
though the allegations were eventually dismissed. The following year, Pesci was awarded an
unspecified court settlement from Fiore Pictures after he sued the company for allegedly reducing
his salary and role in what would become the infamous 2018 biopic "Gotti" with John Travolta.
There's no question that Joe Pesci is a complicated individual.
Even he's noted as much: in an interview with the Baltimore Sun,
he recalled having an existential crisis while playing a game of golf, saying:
"I didn't know who the hell was about to hit that golf ball. Was it Leo Getz
or David Ferrie or Tommy or Harry or Joe? I've spent so much time as somebody else,
and so little time as myself, I lost sight of who I was for an instant."
Pesci is an enormously talented actor, and if his quietly menacing performance in "The
Irishman" is any indication, one still capable of mesmerizing audiences well into his 70s.
However, he seems to prefer to focus on other outlets that appear to have a
greater hold on his heart, including singing and tending to his own personal well-being.
If acting has left him feeling misunderstood, misrepresented,
and even unsure of who he really is, it's hard to blame him for choosing to step away from it.
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