Tony Danza Biography
Tony Danza (born Anthony Salvatore Iadanza; April 21, 1951) is an American actor and retired professional boxer. He is known for co-starring in the television series Taxi (1978–1983) and Who's the Boss? (1984–1992), for which he 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 work on the 1997 sitcom The Tony Danza Show (not to be confused with his 2004–2006 daytime variety talk show of the same name). He has also appeared in films such as The Hollywood Knights (1980), Going Ape! (1981), She's Out of Control (1989), Angels in the Outfield (1994), Crash (2004), and Don Jon (2013).
Early life
Danza was born on April 21, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Anna Mary (née Camisa; 1925–1993) and Matthew Anthony "Matty" Iadanza (1920–1983). His mother was a bookkeeper and his father worked as a waste collector in Brooklyn. Danza's paternal grandparents were from Pietrelcina, Benevento, Campania, Italy, and his mother was an immigrant from the town of Campobello di Mazara in the Sicilian province of Trapani. He has a younger brother, Matty Jr. (born 1954), a Los Angeles restaurant owner. He lived in East New York, Brooklyn until he was 14, and his family relocated to Malverne, New York, on Long Island. Danza attended Malverne Senior High School, graduating in 1968. In the first episode of his show Teach: Tony Danza, Danza describes himself as a "bad student" in high school. He earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1972 from the University of Dubuque, which he attended on a wrestling scholarship. In 1975, as a joke, Danza's friends entered him in the New York City Golden Gloves Tournament. After knocking out his first six opponents all in the first round, Danza was knocked out in the finals.
During his first year of college, he had the Robert Crumb "Keep on Truckin'" character tattooed 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." Danza also sports a "Keep Punching" boxing gloves tattoo on his right shoulder as well as "Tracy", his (former) wife's name, on his chest. In college, Danza met and married his first wife.
Career
Boxing
Danza was a professional boxer with a record of 9 wins and 3 losses (9 knockouts, 7 in the first round). He competed from 1976 until 1979 in the middleweight division.
Acting and show business
Danza in 1995Danza in 2012Shortly after his college graduation from the University of Dubuque, Danza was discovered by a producer at a boxing gymnasium in New York. He then earned a spot on the television show Taxi (1978-1983), playing a cab driver and part-time boxer Tony Banta, and later starred on Who's the Boss? (1984–1992), in which he portrayed Tony Micelli, a former baseball player, housekeeper, and single father. For his contribution to the television industry, in 1988, Danza was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard.
Danza's movie debut was in the comedy The Hollywood Knights (1980), which was followed by Going Ape! (1981), Cannonball Run II (1984), and She's Out of Control (1989). Later films included the role of Mel Clark, a baseball player, in Angels in the Outfield (1994), Juror No. 7 in the TV-movie 12 Angry Men (1997), and Fred in Crash (2004).
Danza also starred in the short-lived sitcoms Hudson Street (1995) and The Tony Danza Show (1997), not to be confused with his 2004–2006 talk show, The Tony Danza Show. 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. 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 (2004-2006), that was produced each weekday morning in his hometown of New York and was syndicated across the US. 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, and both were uninjured. 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.
He starred on Broadway as Max Bialystock in The Producers, from December 19, 2006, to March 11, 2007, and reprised his role at the Paris Las Vegas from August 13, 2007, to February 9, 2008.
Danza hosted the 4th season of The Contender in 2008.
A Broadway adaptation of the 1992 film Honeymoon in Vegas opened on a pre-Broadway run at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse on September 26, 2013, co-starring Danza and Tony nominee Rob McClure, with Gary Griffin directing. Danza was inducted into the Ride of Fame in December 2014, and the double-decker sightseeing bus commemorated his role in the Broadway musical.
Danza portrayed Jon Martello Sr. in Don Jon (2013). He also starred as Tony Caruso Sr. in the 2018 Netflix series, The Good Cop as "a disgraced, former NYPD officer who never followed the rules." It was cancelled after one season.
Teaching
During the 2009–2010 school year Danza filmed A&E reality show Teach: Tony Danza, in which he co-instructed a 10th grade English cl* at Northeast High School in Philadelphia. It premiered on October 1, 2010. The book I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High (ISBN:9780307887863), which was released in 2012, was based on his year of teaching.
Personal life
Danza's first marriage was to Rhonda Yeoman. They wed in 1970 and divorced in 1974. They have two children, a boy and a girl. Their son Marc appeared with Danza on Taxi in two episodes as Brian Sims.
In 1986, Danza married Tracy Robinson. The couple separated in 2006 and filed for divorce on March 10, 2011; the divorce was finalized on February 6, 2013. They have two daughters.
In 2008, Danza and his son Marc co-aut*d a cookbook, Don't Fill Up on the Antipasto: Tony Danza's Father-Son Cookbook.
At one point Danza was a partner in Alleva Dairy, promoted as America's oldest cheese shop, on Grand Street in the Little Italy section of Manhattan.
Boxing record
Source:
Filmography
Film
Television
Books
- Danza, Tony and Marc (2008). Don't Fill Up on the Antipasto: Tony Danza's Father-Son Cookbook. Scribner. ISBN:978-1-41654-487-6.
- Danza, Tony (2012). I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High. Crown Archetype. ISBN:978-0-30788-786-3.
Awards and nominations
- Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film for Taxi (1979)
- Nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy for Who's the Boss? (1986)
- Nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy for Who's the Boss? (1987)
- Nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy for Who's the Boss? (1989)
- Nominated - Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor for She's Out of Control (1989)
- Nominated - TV Land Award for Single Dad of the Year for Who's the Boss?
- Won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a Television Series for The Tony Danza Show (1997)
- Nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for The Practice (1998)
References
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tony Danza.- Tony Danza at IMDb
- Tony Danza at the Internet Broadway Database
- Tony Danza at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Boxing record for Tony Danza from BoxRec (registration required)
- Tony Danza at The Interviews: An Oral History of Television
