Frank Vincent

Frank Vincent (born Frank Vincent Gattuso on 4 August, 1939) is an Italian-American actor.

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4 August - 1939 - Italian-American - Actor

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He was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, but was raised in Jersey City, New Jersey. His father was also called Frank. His mother was Mary (nee Ricci). Frank has two brothers: Nick and Jimmy. Frank's father was one of six children, all born in the USA to Sicilian immigrants: Niccolo Gattuso and Francesca di Peri.

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North Adams, Massachusetts - Jersey City, New Jersey

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As an accomplished player of the drums, trumpet and piano, Frank Vincent originally intended on a career in music but in 1975, aged thirty-six, he starred in a low-budget gangster movie called Death Collector where he was spotted by Martin Scorcese. Scorcese was impressed and hired Vincent to star in Raging Bull. Joe Pesci co-starred with Vincent in The Death Collector and the two were re-united in several other movies; another familiar co-star of Vincent is Robert De Niro.

Related Topics:
Drums - Trumpet - Piano - 1975 - Martin Scorcese - Raging Bull - Joe Pesci - Robert De Niro

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Vincent is often typecast as a gangster due to many roles as one, most recently in The Sopranos where he plays Phil Leotardo. In the 1990 movie, Goodfellas, Vincent played the doomed Billy Batts, who suffers a grisly end at the hands of Tommy (Pesci) after foolishly taunting Tommy by telling him to "go get your fucking shinebox!". Another gangster role he took was in Scorcese's 1995 film Casino. In the TV movie, Gotti, Vincent played Robert DeBinardo, an associate of Mafia boss John Gotti, whose life the film chronicled. Vincent had leading role in the heist movie This Thing of Ours in 2003.

Related Topics:
Typecast - Gangster - The Sopranos - 1990 - Goodfellas - 1995 - Casino - TV movie - Mafia - John Gotti - This Thing of Ours - 2003

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In 1999 he won the Italian American Entertainer of the Year Award.

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In 2001, Frank Vincent lent his voice to a criminal in the controversial video game Grand Theft Auto III and later reprised that role in 2004's

Related Topics:
2001 - Video game - Grand Theft Auto III - 2004

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One of his more light-hearted roles came recently when he was in a British television commercial for Peugeot cars. In early 2005, Frank vincent appeared on Irish television in a series of television commercials for Irish building society Permanent TSB. As of August 2005, his image can still be seen on the homepage of the Permanent TSB website.

Related Topics:
British - Television commercial - Peugeot - 2005 - Irish - Permanent TSB

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Frank Vincent and his wife Kathy have three children and two grandhildren.

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