John Turturro

John Michael Turturro (born February 28, 1957) is an Italian-American character actor, writer and filmmaker known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing (1989), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Quiz Show (1994), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and four entries in the Transformers film series, most recently The Last Knight (2017). He has appeared in over sixty films and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler and Spike Lee.
An Emmy Award winner, Turturro has also been nominated for four Screen Actors Guild Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.
==Early life==
John Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Katherine Florence (Incerella) and Nicholas Turturro. His mother was born in the U.S., to Italian parents with roots in Sicily, and was an amateur jazz singer, who had worked in a naval yard during World War II. His father had immigrated to the United States from Giovinazzo, Italy, at age six and later worked as a carpenter and construction worker before joining the U.S. Navy during the war. Serving as a sailor, he was with the D-Day fleet supporting the landing operations of Allied troops in Normandy, France, in 1944.
Turturro was raised a Roman Catholic and moved to the Rosedale section of Queens, New York with his family, when he was six. He majored in Theatre Arts at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and completed his MFA at the Yale School of Drama.
==Career==
Turturro's first film appearance was a non-speaking extra role in Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed Raging Bull (1980). He created the title role of John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at the Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in 1983. He repeated it the following year Off-Broadway and won an Obie Award. Turturro had a notable supporting role in William Friedkin's action film To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), as the henchman of the villainous counterfeiter played by Willem Dafoe.
Spike Lee liked Turturro's performance in Five Corners (1987) so much that he cast him in Do the Right Thing (1989). This movie was the first of a long-standing collaboration between the director and Turturro, which includes work together on a total of nine films—more than any other actor in the Lee oeuvre-- including Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Clockers (1995), Girl 6 (1996), He Got Game (1998), Summer of Sam (1999), She Hate Me (2004), and Miracle at St. Anna (2008).
Turturro has appeared in both comedy and drama films, and engaged in an extended collaboration with the Coen Brothers—he appeared in their films Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991, in the lead role), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). Turtutto has also appeared in several of Adam Sandler's movies, such as Mr. Deeds (2002) and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008). He played a severely disturbed patient of Jack Nicholson's character in the comedy Anger Management and played Johnny Depp's character's antagonist in Secret Window.
Turturro hosted Saturday Night Live in 1994, where he spoofed his then-recently made film, Quiz Show, being told he was ineligible to host unless he answered questions in a booth and if he failed, the honor of hosting would go to Joey Buttafuoco, who was actually backstage to witness Turturro's test. He won an Emmy award for his portrayal of Adrian Monk's brother Ambrose in the USA Network series Monk, and reprised the role on numerous occasions. He has also been nominated and won many awards from film organizations such as Screen Actors Guild, Cannes Film Festival, Golden Globes and others.
Turturro produced and directed, as well as acted in, the film Illuminata (1999), which also starred his wife, actress Katherine Borowitz. He wrote and directed the film Romance and Cigarettes (2005). In 2006 he appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd, and as the Sector 7 agent Simmons in four films of the Transformers live-action series. In 2010, he directed (and had cameo on-screen appearances in) Passione, which chronicles the rich musical heritage of Naples, Italy.
His stage directorial debut was in October 2011, with the Broadway play Relatively Speaking, in which he guided an ensemble of veteran actors in a production of three comedic one-act plays, written by Elaine May, Woody Allen and Ethan Coen. The cast included Julie Kavner, Marlo Thomas, Mark Linn-Baker and Steve Guttenberg.
Turturro's fifth directorial film Fading Gigolo premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in mid-September 2013. Turturro also acts in the film alongside Woody Allen, who played a novice pimp overseeing the sex work of Turturro's character. During a September 2013 interview, Turturro expressed his intention to draw parallels between sex work and acting, explaining that the latter is a "service business" in which actors are "acting out people's wishes or fantasies." In March 2014, Turturro received the Career Achievement tribute and award at the 31st Edition of the Miami International Film Festival at the Olympia Theater in Downtown Miami.
==Personal life==
Turturro's brother is actor Nicholas Turturro. Artist Ralph Turturro, composer and film director Richard Termini, and actress Aida Turturro are his cousins. He has two sons: Amedeo (born 1990) and Diego (born 2000), with his wife, actress Katherine Borowitz.
John Turturro participates as a member of the Jury for the New York International Children's Film Festival (NYICFF), which is dedicated to screening films for children between the ages of 3 and 18. In January 2011, Turturro received his Italian passport, and holds dual Italian and U.S. citizenship.
==Filmography==
===Film===
Year	Title 	Role 	Notes
1980	Raging Bull 	Man at table 	Uncredited
1984	Exterminator 2 	Guy #1 	
1984	 	Ted from Pinky's 	
1985	Desperately Seeking Susan 	Ray 	
1985	To Live and Die in L.A. 	Carl Cody 	
1986	Hannah and Her Sisters 	Writer 	
1986	 	Julian 	
1986	Gung Ho 	Willie 	
1986	Off Beat 	Neil Pepper 	
1987	Five Corners 	Heinz Zabantino 	Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
1987	 	Pisciotta 	
1989	Do the Right Thing 	Pino 	
1990	Catchfire 	Pinella 	
1990	State of Grace 	Nick 	
1990	Mo' Better Blues 	Moe Flatbush 	
1990	Miller's Crossing 	Bernie Bernbaum 	Nominated—National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
1991	Men of Respect 	Mike Battaglia 	
1991	Jungle Fever 	Paulie Carbone 	
1991	Barton Fink 	Barton Fink 	
1992	Mac 	Niccolò Vitelli 	Also director and writerCaméra d'OrNominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best DirectorNominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature
1992	Brain Donors 	Roland T. Flakfizer 	
1993	Being Human 	Lucinnius 	
1993	Fearless 	Bill Pearlman 	
1994	Quiz Show 	Herb Stempel 	Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting ActorNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion PictureNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
1994	 	Disco Bean 	
1995	Search and Destroy 	Ron 	
1995	Unstrung Heroes 	Sidney Lidz 	
1995	Clockers 	Det. Larry Mazilla 	
1996	Girl 6 	Murray 	
1996	Box of Moonlight 	Al Fountain 	Nominated—Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male
1996	Grace of My Heart 	Joel Milner 	
1997	The Last Bet 	Leon 	
1997	 	Primo Levi 	
1998	Illuminata 	Tuccio 	Also director, writer and producerNominated—Palme d'Or
1998	Rounders 	Joey Knish 	
1998	He Got Game 	Billy Sunday 	
1998	O.K. Garage 	Jonny 	
1998	 	Jesus Quintana 	
1998	Animals with the Tollkeeper 	Tuxedo Man 	
1999	Summer of Sam 	Harvey the Dog 	Voice
1999	Cradle Will Rock 	Aldo Silvana 	
2000	O Brother, Where Art Thou? 	Pete 	Nominated—MTV Movie Award for On-Screen Team
2000	 	Dante Dominio 	
2000	Company Man 	Crocker Johnson 	
2000	Two Thousand and None 	Benjamin Kasparian 	
2000	 	Alexander Luzhin 	
2001	Monkeybone 	Monkeybone 	Voice
2001	Thirteen Conversations About One Thing 	Walker 	Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast
2002	Collateral Damage 	Armstrong 	
2002	Mr. Deeds 	Emilio Lopez 	
2003	Fear X 	Harry 	
2003	Anger Management 	Chuck 	
2003	Opopomoz 	John 	Voice
2004	Secret Passage 	Paolo Zane 	
2004	Secret Window 	John Shooter 	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
2004	She Hate Me 	Don Angelo Bonasera 	
2004	2BPerfectlyHonest 	Sal / Roberto 	
2005	Romance and Cigarettes 	Male dancer and singer 	Also director, writer and producerNominated—Golden Lion
2005	The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation	Son 	Voice; short film
2006	 	Ray Brocco 	
2006	A Few Days in September 	William Pound 	
2007	Transformers 	Agent Seymour Simmons 	
2007	Margot at the Wedding 	Jim 	Nominated—Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast
2007	Slipstream 	Harvey Brickman 	
2007	Joulutarina 	Iisakki 	Voice; english dub
2008	What Just Happened 	Dick Bell 	
2008	You Don't Mess With The Zohan 	Fatoush 'The Phantom' Hakbarah	
2008	Miracle at St. Anna 	Detective Antonio 'Tony' Ricci	Nominated—Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble
2009	 	Camonetti 	
2009	Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen 	Seymour Simmons 	
2009	Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy 	Himself 	DocumentaryAlso writer and executive producer
2010	Passione 	Himself/Narrator 	DocumentaryAlso director and co-write
2010	 	The Rat King 	
2011	Cars 2 	Francesco Bernoulli 	Voice
2011	Transformers: Dark of the Moon 	Seymour Simmons 	
2011	Somewhere Tonight 	Leroy 	
2013	Fading Gigolo 	Fioravante 	Also director and writer
2013	Gods Behaving Badly 	Hades 	
2014	God's Pocket 	Arthur 'Bird' Capezio 	
2014	Exodus: Gods and Kings 	Seti I 	
2014	Rio, I Love You 	Homem 	Segment "Quando não há Mais Amor"Also director and writer
2015	Mia Madre 	Barry Huggins 	
2015	Partly Cloudy with Sunny Spells 	Lombelli 	
2015	The Ridiculous 6 	Abner Doubleday 	
2016	Hands of Stone 	Frankie Carbo 	
2017	Landline 	Alan Jacobs 	
2017	Hair 	John Turturro 	Short film; also writer and director
2017	Transformers: The Last Knight 	Seymour Simmons 	
2018	Gloria Bell 	Arnold 	
2019	The True Adventures of Wolfboy 	Mr. Silk 	Post-production
2019	Going Places 	Jesus Quintana 	Post-productionAlso writer and director
===Television===
Year 	Title 	Role 	Notes
1985 	Miami Vice 	David Traynor 	Episode: "Rites of Passage"
1988 	The Fortunate Pilgrim 	Larry 	3 episodes
1994 	Saturday Night Live 	Himself (host)	Episode: "John Turturro/Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers"
1995 	Sugartime 	Sam Giancana 	Television film
2001 	Biography 	Narrator 	Voice; 2 episodes
2002 	Monday Night Mayhem 	Howard Cosell 	Television filmNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2002 	Frasier 	Grant 	VoiceEpisode: "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"
2004–2008	Monk 	Ambrose Monk 	3 episodesPrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
2007 	The Bronx Is Burning 	Billy Martin 	8 episodes Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
2007 	Flight of the Conchords	Credits Cop 	Episode: "The Actor"
2016 	The New Yorker Presents	Patient 	Episode: "Episode #1.8"
2016 	The Night Of 	John Stone 	8 episodes Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Miniseries or Television FilmNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television MovieNominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie
2017 	Difficult People 	Dusty 	Episode: "Bernie and Blythe"
===Video games===
*Cars 2: The Video Game, 2011, as Francesco Bernoulli
===Audiobooks===
*World War Z, 2007, as Serosha Garcia Alvarez
===Commericals===
*NBA on TNT, as Claude X
==External links==
*John Turturro on IMDb
*John Turturro at the Internet Broadway Database
*John Turturro at Internet Off-Broadway Database
*John Turturro at AllMovie
Category:1957 births
Category:American people of Italian descent
Category:American people of Sicilian descent
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:21st-century American male actors
Category:Male actors from New York City
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male screenwriters
Category:American male stage actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:David di Donatello winners
Category:Film directors from New York City
Category:Living people
Category:Male actors of Italian descent
Category:Obie Award recipients
Category:People from Brooklyn
Category:People from Queens, New York
Category:People of Apulian descent
Category:Primetime Emmy Award winners
Category:State University of New York at New Paltz alumni
Category:Yale School of Drama alumni
Category:Screenwriters from New York (state)