Joe Viterelli

Joe Viterelli

Actor

Biography

Joseph Viterelli (March 10, 1937 – January 28, 2004) was an American actor, best remembered for playing Italian-American mobsters. He portrayed Jelly in Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002). Viterelli was born in New York City and grew up in a tough neighborhood on Manhattan's Lower East Side. He played classical guitar but did not tell his friends about it. "They woulda thought I was a sissy," he said. "I used to save my hard-robbed money and sneak off to Carnegie Hall and Broadway theaters." Although he played numerous such roles during his career, Viterelli was never associated with the Italian Mafia in real life. While in his 20s, he inherited four music schools in Queens that had been started by his family. "I actually taught classical guitar. But things went wrong. Then I opened a few bars. I drove a truck. I owned a cleaning service. I even had a job drilling holes in bowling balls to feed my five kids."Viterelli moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s. While living in Malibu, Viterelli became friends with director Leo Penn, who saw the screen possibilities in Viterelli's tough-guy visage. Penn thought Viterelli's tough-guy features would play well in the movies and on television. Viterelli told Larry King that before he acted, "I had a couple of beer joints that I sold in New York and I came out here (in California) and I was looking around. "Ninety percent of my fan mail is from kids 6 through 19," he told the New York Daily News in 2000. "They send me graduation pictures and report cards. Look at me, I'm a role model." Viterelli never had an agent or a manager. Viterelli participated in a roast of Magic Johnson, during which he told a joke about finding the former NBA star handcuffed to a tree naked, just after he had gotten robbed. Viterelli, a West Los Angeles resident, died on January 28, 2004 of complications from heart surgery at Valley Hospital in Las Vegas. He was 66 years old. Vitarelli is survived by his wife, Catherine, and five children, including his son, the film composer Joseph Vitarelli, who spells his last name differently. One of his children is a lawyer.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Viterelli

Filmography
Actors
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