Born in the Bronx, N.Y., on June 20, 1933, Danny Aiello went on to make a career of playing gangsters and heavies from his home borough. With a varied background as a nightclub bouncer, announcer at the Improv Comedy Club and youngest-ever president of the Greyhound workers union, Aiello eventually landed onstage, winning critics' awards in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.A seasoned veteran of the theater, he made his film debut at age 39 in 1973's Bang the Drum Slowly, after which he appeared in The Godfather: Part II, The Purple Rose of Cairo and Moonstruck. His career-defining performance as Sal the pizzeria owner in 1989's Do the Right Thing brought him an Oscar nod.
Aiello has appeared in, among other films, Ruby (1992, in the title role), Harlem Nights, Once Around, 2 Days in the Valley, the 1997 miniseries The Last Don and 2006's Lucky Number Slevin.
AddDo the Right ThingWhat begins as an uproarious comedy evolves into a provocative, disquieting drama as director Spike Lee chronicles trivial events that bring festering racial tensions to the surface on a sweltering day in a largely black Brooklyn neighborhood. After a number of minor misunderstandings -- and an... Read More
AddDinner RushLouis (Danny Aiello) is an aging bookie and restauranteur who's bemoaning the transformation of Gigino's -- his restaurant in the TriBeCa area of New York City -- from a down-to-earth, mom-and-pop Italian eatery to a pretentious, see-and-be-seen establishment. To make matters worse, Louis's son Udo... Read More
Add2 Days in the ValleyThe lives of several strange characters intersect in John Herzfeld's quirky crime comedy. A depressed has-been director (Paul Mazursky), an arrogant art dealer and his long-suffering assistant, a loser hit man (Danny Aiello), a cold assassin (James Spader) and his girlfriend (Charlize Theron), all... Read More
AddPower of AttorneyMafia bigwig Joseph Scassi (Danny Aiello) faces a federal indictment of extortion and murder, so he brings all the power he can to bear and hires a brilliant U.S. Attorney, Paul Dell (Elias Koteas), to defend him. But Scassi, of course, doesn't play fair and intimidates the young legal eagle via... Read More
Add29th StreetBased on the life of Frank Pesce (Danny Aiello), an actor who won $6 million in the first New York State Lottery in 1976, this comedy focuses on the tight-knit Italian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn where Pesce grew up. It's also the story of how those gigantic winnings ended up becoming a curse... Read More
