Oscar-nominated actor Danny Aiello dead at 86, star of ‘Moonstruck’ and ‘Do The Right Thing’

Aiello passed away Thursday night at a medical facility in New Jersey where he was being treated for a sudden illness. In a statement issued through publicist, Tracey Miller, who runs Tracey Miller & Associates, Aiello’s family asked for privacy.

Aiello appeared in many films, including Do The Right Thing, Moonstruck, The Godfather Part II, The Professional, Hudson Hawk, and more. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Do The Right Thing. Both on screen and off, Aiello was the quintessential New Yorker.

 

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I’m ?? Broken. Just Found Out My Brother DANNY AIELLO Made His Transition Last Night. Danny,We Made Cinema History Together With DO THE RIGHT THING. May You Rest In PARADISE.????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

A post shared by Spike Lee (@officialspikelee) on Dec 13, 2019 at 7:02am PST

Goodbye Dear #DannyAiello ??
Danny was a Great Actor, But a
Genius Comedic Actor.We Laughed so much. Making #Moonstruck ..It was one of the happiest times in my life,& He Was apart of that Happy time.
Goodbye #JohnnyCammareri
??Loretta

— Cher (@cher) December 13, 2019

All my life people asked – “are you related to Danny Aiello?” Finally met him in 1997. He wraps me in a bear hug and says “Tony! People keep asking if we’re related!”

This pic from 2012. Giving thanks for the legacy of a great actor and the life of a good man. #DannyAiello pic.twitter.com/n0fDZV1Uq2

— Tony Aiello (@AielloTV) December 13, 2019

Aiello, the fifth of six children, was born on West 68th Street, Manhattan, the son of parents, Frances Pietrocova, a seamstress, and Daniel Louis Aiello, a laborer, who deserted the family after his wife had lost her eyesight and become legally blind. For many years, Aiello publicly condemned his father but the two reconciled in 1993, although Aiello harbored a resentment of his father’s conduct. He was of Italian descent. He moved to the South Bronx when he was seven, and later attended James Monroe High School.

At the age of 16, Aiello lied about his age to enlist in the U.S. Army. After serving for three years, he returned to New York City and did various jobs in order to support himself and later his family. Aiello served as a union representative for Greyhound Bus workers and was a nightclub bouncer at the legendary New York City comedy club, The Improv.[citation needed] In the mid-eighties, he was a nightly regular at Café Central, a bistro frequented by celebrities on 79th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, in Manhattan, and at a club called Columbus on 66th Street and Columbus Avenue.

Career

Film and television

Aiello broke into films in the early 1970s. One of his earliest roles came as a ballplayer in the baseball drama, Bang the Drum Slowly,(1973) with Robert De Niro. Aiello had a walk-on role as small-time hood Tony Rosato in The Godfather Part II (1974), ad-libbing the line “Michael Corleone says hello!” during a hit on rival gangster Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo).

Aiello had a co-lead role with Jan Michael Vincent in Defiance (1980), about some Manhattan residents who fight back against the thugs terrorizing the neighborhood. He received considerable acclaim for playing a racist New York City cop in Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981) with Paul Newman. In 1981, Aiello won a Daytime Emmy Award for his appearance in an ABC Afterschool Special called A Family of Strangers.

He was paired with De Niro again for the Sergio Leone gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in America (1984), as a police chief whose name was also “Aiello.” His many film appearances included two for director Woody Allen, who cast him in The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) and Radio Days (1987). He played a main role in the 1985-86 television series Lady Blue.

Aiello played the pizzeria owner Sal in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing (1989). At the time of the film’s release, in an interview with the Chicago Tribune, he called the role his “first focal part”. He further identified the film as a very collaborative effort, during which Spike Lee at one point told him “Whatever you wanna do, you do.” Aiello went on to write a crucial scene he shared with John Turturro ten minutes prior to its production. The role earned him nominations for a Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, as well as film critic awards from Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Aiello also portrayed more sympathetic characters. He gained recognition as the befuddled fiancé of Cher opposite her Oscar-winning performance in the romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987), and made a comic appearance in drag for the Robert Altman fashion-industry film Prêt-à-Porter (1994). He also had sympathetic roles in the horror thriller Jacob’s Ladder (1990) and the comedy-drama 29th Street (1991).

Aiello played nightclub owner and Lee Harvey Oswald assassin Jack Ruby in the biopic Ruby (1992), the lead role in Paul Mazursky’s film business satire The Pickle (1993), the titular character in the Academy Award-winning short film Lieberman in Love (1995), and a political big shot with mob ties in City Hall (1996), starring Al Pacino. He later starred in the independent feature film Dolly Baby (2012), written and directed by Kevin Jordan; Aiello also starred in Jordan’s Brooklyn Lobster, which premiered at The Toronto Film Festival in 2005.

Music

Aiello’s singing was on display in films such as Hudson Hawk (1991), Once Around (1991), and Remedy (2005) that starred his son Ricky Aiello and Jonathan Doscher. He released several albums featuring a big-band including I Just Wanted to Hear The Words (2004), Live from Atlantic City (2008), and My Christmas Song for You (2010). Aiello and EMI songwriter Hasan Johnson released an album of standards fused with rap entitled Bridges in 2011.

He played the father for the video of Madonna’s song, “Papa Don’t Preach” (1986), and recorded his own answer song, “Papa Wants the Best for You”, written by Artie Schroeck.

Theater

Aiello’s Broadway theatre credits include Gemini, The Floating Light Bulb, Hurlyburly, and The House of Blue Leaves. He also was in the 1976 Broadway play Wheelbarrow Closers, directed by Paul Sorvino.

In July 2011, Aiello appeared Off Broadway in the two-act drama The Shoemaker, written by Susan Charlotte and directed by Antony Marsellis. The play is a stage version of his 2006 movie A Broken Sole, which began life in 2001 as a one-act play.

Personal life and death

Aiello lived in Ramsey, New Jersey, for many years and later moved to Saddle River, New Jersey.

He was the father of stuntman and actor Danny Aiello III, who died in 2010 of pancreatic cancer. His surviving children are Rick, Jaime, and Stacey Aiello.

In 2014, Aiello published his autobiography, I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else: My Life on the Street, on the Stage, and in the Movies via Simon & Schuster.

His nephew is Michael Kay, announcer for the New York Yankees.

Aiello died on December 12, 2019, at the age of 86 at a hospital in New Jersey, following a brief illness.