John Turturro Biography

John Michael Turturro () (born February 28, 1957) is an Italian-American actor, writer and director 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 the first three films in the Transformers film series (2007-2011). 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 three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe Award.

Early life

Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Katherine, an amateur jazz singer who worked in a Navy yard during World War II, and Nicholas Turturro, a carpenter and construction worker who fought as a Navy sailor on D-Day. Turturro's mother was Sicilian (from Aragona near Agrigento) and his father immigrated from Giovinazzo, Bari, Italy at the age of six. 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.

Spike Lee liked Turturro's performance in Five Corners so much that he cast him in Do the Right Thing. 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), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). He 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 three 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.

Turturro participates as a member of the Jury for the NYICFF, a local New York City Film Festival 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 credits

Title	Year	Role	Notes
Raging Bull	1980	Man at table	Uncredited
Exterminator 2	1984	Guy #1
'	1984	Ted from Pinky's
Desperately Seeking Susan	1985	Ray
To Live and Die in L.A.	1985	Carl Cody
Hannah and Her Sisters	1986	Writer
'	1986	Julian
Gung Ho	1986	Willie
Off Beat	1986	Neil Pepper
Five Corners	1987	Heinz Zabantino	Nominated"?Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male
'	1987	Pisciotta
Do the Right Thing	1989	Pino
Catchfire	1990	Pinella
State of Grace	1990	Nick
Mo' Better Blues	1990	Moe Flatbush	Alongside his brother Nicholas Turturro
Miller's Crossing	1990	Bernie Bernbaum	Nominated"?National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated"?New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
Men of Respect	1991	Mike Battaglia
Jungle Fever	1991	Paulie Carbone
Barton Fink	1991	Barton Fink
Mac	1992	Niccol Vitelli
Brain Donors	1992	Roland T. Flakfizer
Being Human	1993	Lucinnius
Fearless	1993	Bill Pearlman
Quiz Show	1994	Herb Stempel
'	1994	Disco Bean
Search and Destroy	1995	Ron
Unstrung Heroes	1995	Sidney Lidz
Clockers	1995	Det. Larry Mazilla
Girl 6	1996	Murray
Box of Moonlight	1996	Al Fountain	Nominated"?Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Male
Grace of My Heart	1996	Joe Milner
The Last Bet	1997	Leon
'	1997	Primo Levi
Illuminata	1998	Tuccio
Rounders	1998	Joey Knish
He Got Game	1998	Billy Sunday
O.K. Garage	1998	Jonny
'	1998	Jesus Quintana
Summer of Sam	1999	Demon	Voice role
Cradle Will Rock	1999	Aldo Silvana
O Brother, Where Art Thou?	2000	Pete	Nominated"?MTV Movie Award for On-Screen Team
'	2000	Dante Dominio
Company Man	2000	Crocker Johnson
Two Thousand and None	2000	Benjamin Kasparian
'	2001	Alexander Luzhin
Monkeybone	2001	Monkeybone	Voice role
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing	2001	Walker	Florida Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cast
Collateral Damage	2002	Armstrong
Mr. Deeds	2002	Emilio Lopez
Fear X	2003	Harry
Anger Management	2003	Chuck
Opopomoz	2003		Voice role
Secret Passage	2004	Paolo Zane
Secret Window	2004	John Shooter	Nominated"?Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor
She Hate Me	2004	Don Angelo Bonasera
'	2006	Ray Brocco
A Few Days in September	2006	William Pound
Romance and Cigarettes	2006	Male dancer and singer
'	2006	Billy Martin	Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Transformers	2007	Agent Seymour Simmons
Margot at the Wedding	2006	Jim	Nominated"?Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast
Slipstream	2007	Harvey Brickman
What Just Happened	2008	Dick Bell
You Don't Mess With The Zohan	2008	Fatoush 'The Phantom' Hakbarah
Miracle at St. Anna	2008	Detective Antonio 'Tony' Ricci	Nominated"?Black Reel Award for Best Ensemble
'	2009	Camonetti
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen	2009	Seymour Simmons
Rehearsal for a Sicilian Tragedy	2009	Himself	Producer, screenwriter
Passione	2010	Himself/Narrator	Director, co-screenwriter
'	2010	The Rat King
Cars 2	2011	Francesco Bernoulli	Voice role
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon	2011	Seymour Simmons
Somewhere Tonight	2011	Leroy
Fading Gigolo	2013	Fioravante	Director, screenwriter
Gods Behaving Badly	2013	Hades
God's Pocket	2014	Arthur 'Bird' Capezio
Exodus: Gods and Kings	2014	Seti I
Rio, I Love You	2014	Homem	Director, screenwriter (segment "Quando no h Mais Amor")
Mia Madre	2015	Barry Huggins	Cannes 2015 Palme d'Or Nominee
Partly Cloudy with Sunny Spells	2015	Lombelli
The Ridiculous 6	2015	Abner Doubleday
Hands of Stone	2016	Frankie Carbo
Landline	2017		Filming
Going Places	TBA	Jesus Quintana	Filming

Television credits

Title	Year	Role	Notes
Miami Vice	1985	David Traynor	Episode: "Rites of Passage"
The Fortunate Pilgrim	1988	Larry	Miniseries
Saturday Night Live	1994	Himself (host)	Episode: "John Turturro/Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers"
Sugartime	1995	Sam Giancana	TV film
Monday Night Mayhem	2002	Howard Cosell	TV film Nominated"?Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
Frasier	2002	Grant	Voice role; Episode: "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"
Monk	2004-2008	Ambrose Monk	3 episodes Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series
The Bronx Is Burning	2007	Billy Martin	8 episodes
Flight of the Conchords	2007	Credits Cop	Episode: "The Actor"
The Night Of	2016	John Stone	Miniseries

Audiobook

• World War Z, 2007, as Serosha Garcia Alvarez

Commercials

• NBA on TNT, as Claude X