Tony Danza
(born Anthony Salvatore Iadanza on April 21, 1951 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American actor best known for starring on the TV series Taxi
and Who's the Boss?
, for which Danza was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards. In 1998, Danza won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Series for his role on the sitcom The Tony Danza Show.
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Personal life
Danza was born
Anthony Salvatore Iadanza
in
Brooklyn, New York, to parents Anne (1925-1993) and Matty (1920-1983) Iadanza. Anne was born in
Sicily and immigrated to the United States with five brothers and sisters in 1929. Danza has one younger brother, Matty Jr. (born 1954), who owns a restaurant in Los Angeles called . When Danza was 14, he and his family relocated to the
Long Island community of
Malverne, and Danza attended Malverne High School, graduating in 1969 and was said to score a near perfect SAT score. Danza earned a bachelor's degree in history education from the
University of Dubuque, which he attended on a wrestling scholarship, graduating in 1973. It was during his first year of college that he got the
Robert Crumb Keep on Truckin' tattoo on his upper right arm. In a 1985 interview in
Us Weekly
magazine, Danza remarked, "I was playing pool with a guy who had all these tattoos, and I wanted to be friends."
[1] Danza now also sports a "Keep Punching"/boxing gloves tattoo on his right shoulder.
[2] Also while in college, Danza met and married his first wife, Rhonda (Yeoman) Iadanza, and they have two children together.
Shortly after his college graduation, Danza was discovered by a producer at a boxing gymnasium in New York. He then earned a spot on the television show
Taxi
.
From 1976 to 1979, Danza was a professional
boxer with a 9-3 record, with all of his fights, wins and losses, ending by
knockout.
[3]
In 1986, Danza married for the second time, to Tracy Robinson. The couple divorced in 2007 and have two daughters, Katherine (born 1987) and Emily (born 1993).
In 2005, Tony Danza became a grandfather when his son Marc and his wife, Julie, had a son, Nicholas. In 2008, Danza and his son Marc published a cookbook
Acting and show business
Danza is best known for his roles in
Taxi
(1978-1983), in which he played
cab driver and
part-time boxer, "Tony Banta," and
Who's the Boss?
(1984-1992), portraying
housekeeper and single father, "Tony Micelli."
Danza also starred in the short-lived sitcoms
Hudson Street
(1995) and
The Tony Danza Show
(1997), not to be confused
with his talk show of the same name. He had a role in the TV drama
Family Law
from 2000 until 2002.
He was nominated for an
Emmy Award for a guest-starring 1998 role in the TV series
The Practice
. His
movie debut was in the comedy
The Hollywood Knights
(
1980), which was followed by
Going Ape!
(
1981). He received critical acclaim for his performance in the 1999
Broadway revival of the
Eugene O'Neill play The Iceman Cometh
.
In 2002, Danza released his debut album
The House I Live In
as a 1950s-style
crooner.
Danza hosted his own TV
talk show,
The Tony Danza Show
, a nationally
syndicated program produced each weekday morning in his hometown of New York (where it aired live). On
May 9,
2005, during a
go-kart race with
NASCAR star
Rusty Wallace, who was a guest on the show, Danza's kart flipped after Wallace accidentally bumped him. Neither he nor Wallace was wearing a
helmet at the time. Danza returned to go-kart racing on
October 20,
2005, to challenge
IndyCar driver
Danica Patrick, but his brakes malfunctioned and he skidded into a wall, unharmed. His daytime talk show ended in May 2006; the last live episode aired on
May 26,
2006. The last episode was celebrated with performers from the Ringling Brothers Traveling Circus.
He starred on
Broadway as "
Max Bialystock" in
The Producers
, from December 19, 2006, to March 11, 2007.
[4]
As of August 2007, he is continuing his starring role in
The Producers
at the
Paris Las Vegas.
[5]
He reprised his role as "
Max Bialystock" in
The Producers
, at the
Paris Las Vegas from August 13, 2007,
[6]
to February 9, 2008.
[7]
In May 2008, Danza released,
Don't Fill Up On the Antipasto: Tony Danza's Father-Son Cookbook
,
[8] a cookbook written by him and his son Marc, a chef.
In September 2008, it was reported that Danza will host
The Contender
Season 4. The full season was recorded in
Singapore and will start December 3, 2008, on the
Versus TV sports channel.
[9]
In August 2009, it was reported that Danza will star in a new
A&E reality show "Teach" in which he will co-instruct a 10th Grade English class in
Philadelphia, pending approval from city school board officials.
[10]
The
mathcore band
The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza is named after Tony Danza.
Danza is also mentioned in the
System of a Down song "Old School Hollywood." The lyric is "Tony Danza cuts in line."
Filmography
- The Hollywood Knights
(1980) ... Duke
- Going Ape!
(1981) ... Foster
- Cannonball Run II
(1984) ... Terry
- Mr. Thompson and His Bananas
(1988) ... Geraldo Thompson
- She's Out of Control
(1989) ... Doug Simpson
- I'm From Hollywood
(1992) ... Cameo
- Angels in the Outfield
(1994) ... Mel Clark
- Illtown
(1996) ... D'Avalon
- Dear God
(1996) ... Himself
- 12 Angry Men (1997 film)
(1997) ...Juror #7
- Glam
(1997) ... Sid
- The Girl Gets Moe
(1997) (on video) ... Moe
- A Brooklyn State of Mind
(1997) ... Louie Crisci
- Meet Wally Sparks
(1997) ... New York Cab Driver
- Crash
(2005) ... Fred
- The Nail: The Story of Joey Nardone
(2009) (post-production) ...Chickie
TV appearances
- Taxi
(1978) (series) ... Tony Banta
- Murder Can Hurt You
(1980) ... Pony Lambretta
- Single Bars, Single Women
(1984) ... Dennis
- Who's the Boss?
(1984) (series) ... Anthony Morton "Tony" Micelli
- Doing Life
(1986) ... Jerry Rosenberg
- Freedom Fighter
(1988) ... Vic Ross
- The Whereabouts of Jenny
(1991) ... Rowdy Patron
- Baby Talk
(1991) (series) (voice) ... Baby Mickey Campbell
- Dead and Alive: The Race for Gus Farace
(1991) ... Constible Farace
- The Mighty Jungle
(1994) (series) (voice) ... Vinnie, the Alligator
- Deadly Whispers
(1995) ... Tom Acton
- Hudson Street
(1995) (series) ... Tony Canetti
- Sinatra: 80 Years My Way
(1995) ... Cameo
- Freakazoid!
(1996) ... Cameo Reference
- Bob Hope: Laughing with the Presidents
(1996) ... Co-host
- North Shore Fish
(1996) ... Sal
- 12 Angry Men
(1997) ... Juror #7
- The Tony Danza Show
(1997) (series) ... Tony DiMeo
- The Garbage Picking Field Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon
(1998) ... Barney Gorman
- Noah
(1998) ... Norman Waters
- The Practice
(1999)
- Family Law
(2000) ... Joe Celano
- Miss America Pageant
(2001) ... Host
- Stealing Christmas
(2003) ... Jack Clayton [11]
- The Tony Danza Show
(2004 – 2006) (talk show) ... Host
- All My Children
(2005) (guest) ... Hotel Mgr.
- Rita Rocks
(2008) ... Jay's Boss
- The Contender 4
(2008) ... Host
- Hannity
(2009) ... Special Guest
References
- "Danza, Father and (Finally) Grown-up" by Steve Pond ''Us Weekly'', August 26, 1985.
- http://www.maxim.com/tv/guy-tv/70062/tony-danza-president-puncher.html
- 'The Contender' to feature two ex-title challengers; TV star Danza to host
- http://www.producersonbroadway.com/
- Paris Las Vegas Events/Entertainment - The Producers
- Playbill News: Tony Danza to "Flaunt It" in Las Vegas Producers This Summer
- Playbill News: Vegas Production of The Producers Ends Feb. 9
- Simon & Schuster: Don't Fill Up on the Antipasto: Tony Danza's Father-Son Cookbook (Hardcover)
- http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/the-contender-reveals-fourth-season-cast-tony-danza-host-7804.php
- http://tv.yahoo.com/news/article/tv-news.en.ap.org/tv-news.en.ap.org-20090813-us_people_tony_danza
- Stealing Christmas (2003) (TV)