Dominic Chianese :: Actor Biography Biographies Chianese Essays

Dominic ChianeseToday, Dominic Chianese is best known for his post on the television series The Sopranos, but he has a biography that spans decades and includes field of honor, movies, and music. Dominic Chianese was born on February 24th, 1931, in an Italian neighborhood in the Bronx, overbold York. Dominics grandparents emigrated to American in the early 1900s from Naples and Sorrento, Italy (Internet Movie Database, 2005). Dominics theatre career began in 1952 with The American Savoyard, which was a small gilbert and Sullivan company of singers, actors, and musicians. Several years later, he began taking acting lessons at HB Studios in Manhattan, New York. Dominic has a great love for theatre and has performed in numerous Broadway and off Broadway orders from the 1960s to the present. His first on Broadway show was Oliver in 1965 (Dominic Chianeses Biography, 2003). On his website, Dominic tells a story of his audition for the gigabyte and Sullivan repertory company. He was working as a bricklayer in 1951 for his father. On the way home one day, he saw an ad in The New York Times which called for singers for a new gilbert and Sullivan company. He explainsThe Bronx great deal was approaching Manhattan, when I closed the newspaper, and walked to the front of the passenger vehicle, where my father sat, arms crossed. The bus was rolling down Second Avenue, rapidly approaching 74th St. Pop, is it okay if I get off the bus at 74th St., I asked.What for? asked my father. An audition I replied... Whats that? Its singing.My father thought about it for a long five seconds, and at last said O.K.I got off the bus, knocked on the door of the church root cellar and walked in. Near the end ... I sang a song I think it was That Old Devil Moon. I was asked to come patronize the next day with a song sheet and a Gilbert and Sullivan piece. I did and was hired on the spot for the tour of The Mikado and longanimity (Dominic Chianese in the Theatre, 2003). The tour lasted about 10 months and was the beginning of Dominic Chianeses passkey career. His first major role in a motion cinema was in Francis Ford Coppolas The Godfather Part II as greyback Ola. In 1971 while performing in a play in Boston, Dominics agent called him to meet Coppola to read for The Godfather.