Date of Birth: February 9, 1943

A phone call changed Joe Pesci's life.

The son of working class parents in Newark, New Jersey, Pesci began performing on stage when he was only five and by the time he was 10 years old he was a regular on a TV variety show called Startime Kids. By the time he was in his early 20s, Pesci was supporting himself as a nightclub singer and even pressed a few albums under the name of Joe Ritchie. A man of many talents, Pesci moved on playing guitar with a band called Joey Dee and the Starlighters before hooking up with Frank Vincent in a night club comedy act that they toured around.

But it was Pesci's performance in a low budget film shot in New Jersey in 1975 called The Death Collector that led to the phone call that changed his life. After appearing in this film, Pesci headed west to try his luck in Hollywood. "In coming to Hollywood," he says, "there are all the frustrations trying to get in. You just have to be lucky." But the luck he got on the West Coast was mostly bad.

While in Hollywood making the rounds of auditions and hoping for a break, he worked as a barber, postal clerk and grocer's helper, which weren't quite the roles he envisioned for himself when he made the trip west. Dejected, he moved back to New Jersey and had just about decided to give up on being an actor when the phone rang. It was Robert De Niro on the other end who'd happened to catch Pesci's act in The Death Collector and wondered if he'd like to try out for a role in Raging Bull (1980). Of course he would. He got the role, that of Jake LaMotta's (De Niro) brother. He also got an Oscar nomination for his efforts, an award he would later win for his role in Goodfellas (1990).

FILMOGRAPHY:

Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
Gone Fishin' (1997)
8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1996)
Casino (1995)
Jimmy Hollywood (1994)
With Honors (1994)
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)
Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
The Public Eye (1992)
Ruby's Dream (1992)
JFK (1991)
The Super (1991)
Betsy's Wedding (1990)
Goodfellas (1990)
Home Alone (1990)
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
Man on Fire (1987)
Once Upon A Time In America (1984)
Easy Money (1983)
I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can (1982)
Eureka! (1981)
Raging Bull (1980)
Family Enforcer (1976)