List of Sicilian Americans

Henry Armetta, (Palermo, Sicily, July 4, 1888 - San Diego, California, October 21, 1945) was a movie character actor who appeared in at least 150 films, starting in silents as early as 1915 to a movie released in 1946, after his death. In 1938 he played in "Everybody Sing" with Judy Garland, Allan Jones, and Fanny Brice. In 1941, he was hilarious as the father of an Italian family shopping for beds in "The Big Store" with the Marx Brothers and Tony Martin. He appeared in at least 24 films in 1934 alone, sometimes uncredited.

Armand Assante was born on October 4, 1949 in New York City, New York to an Sicilian father and an Irish mother. Assante is an accomplished character actor, with his big break coming in 1974 in "The Lords of Flatbush". His sometimes sinister look has made him a popular choice for movies and TV.

Charles Atlas, (1892–1972), born Angelo Siciliano in Italy, he moved to Brooklyn, New York at a young age. Initially a small, weak child, Siciliano worked hard to tone his muscles, using a variety of weights. Contemplating the strength of a tiger in a zoo, he conceived the idea of working muscle against muscle, rather than working out with weights. Using this system, later dubbed Dynamic tension, he acquired a physique that earned him the nickname "Charles Atlas", after the mythical Atlas, the Titan who held up the heavens. He later filed for and received trademark status for the name. He soon took the role of strongman in the Coney Island Circus Side. His company, Charles Atlas, Ltd. (1929-and continuing today) markets a fitness program for the "97-pound weakling", a registered trademark.

Joseph Barbera, born Joseph Roland Barbera (March 24, 1911 – December 18, 2006), is an animator, cartoon artist, storyboard artist, director, producer and co-founder, together with William Hanna of Hanna-Barbera (now known as Cartoon Network Studios). The studio produced well-known cartoons such as The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Scooby-Doo.

Sonny Bono, born Salvatore Phillip Bono (February 16, 1935 – January 5, 1998) was an American record producer, singer, actor and politician whose career spanned over three decades.

Argentina Brunetti, (August 31, 1907 — December 20, 2005) was an actress and writer. She followed Mimi Aguglia, her famous mother's footsteps in the theater. She began her movie debut in the Frank Capra classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946), as Mrs. Martini. Throughout her varied career she has also written and performed in daily radio shows, became a member of the 'Hollywood Foreign Press Association', writing numerous articles on Hollywood personalities, authored books, written music and acted in over 57 television programs and 68 movies in which she mainly played multi-ethnic roles. She hosted a weekly weblog on the Internet, called Argentina Brunetti's Hollywood Stories, which her son plans to continue running, and has written a biographical novel called In Sicilian Company.

Frank Capra, (May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an American film director and a major creative force behind a number of highly popular films.Born Francesco Rosario Capra in Bisacquino, Sicily, Capra moved with his family to America in 1903, settling in Los Angeles, California.

Richard S. Castellano, (September 4, 1933 – December 10, 1988). The actor became famous as Pete Clemenza in The Godfather.

Joe Causi is a famous disc jokey from New York. Coined the terms "Forget About it!" and "How you doing?" Host of Mix 102.7. Released a hit CD and a CD of classic dance songs.

Iron Eyes Cody, (April 3, 1904 – January 4, 1999) was an actor born in Kaplan, Louisiana. He was born Espera DeCorti, the son of Sicilian immigrants Francesca Salpietra and Antonio DeCorti. He was not born a Native American, but he claimed to be part Cherokee and part Cree. Cody and his wife Bertha Parker adopted children that were Native American. Cody began his acting career at the age of 12 and continued to work until the time of his death. In 1996, the New Orleans Times-Picayune exposed his true heritage, but Cody denied it.

Dan Cortese, (born September 14, 1967 near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an actor. Born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, Cortese first came to prominence as host of MTV Sports from 1992 to 1993. He has had starring roles in the 1993 remake of Route 66, Traps, Melrose Place, The Single Guy, Veronica's Closet, and Ball & Chain.

Alan Dale, (July 9, 1926-April 20, 2002) was a singer of traditional popular and rock'n'roll music. He was born Aldo Sigismondi in the Brooklyn borough of New York, New York. His father, Aristide Sigismondi, immigrated to the United States from Abruzzi, Italy in 1904 at the age of 21, and became a comedian in Italian language theater, with a radio program of his own. His mother, Agata "Kate" Sigismondi, was born in Messina, Sicily, and was 15 years younger than Aristide.

Dom DiMaggio, born Dominic Paul DiMaggio (born February 12, 1917 in San Francisco, California) is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career for the Boston Red Sox (1940-42, 1946-53). His small stature (standing five feet nine inches) and eyeglasses earned him the nickname "The Little Professor". He is the brother of outfielders Joe DiMaggio and Vince DiMaggio. DiMaggio was a teammate and close friend of Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, and Johnny Pesky. Their friendship was chronicled in David Halberstam's book The Teammates. Dom DiMaggio was inducted to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1995.

Joe DiMaggio, born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio, Jr. (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper," was an Italian American center fielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career (1936-1951) for the New York Yankees. The eighth of nine children, DiMaggio was born in a two-room house in Martinez, California to Sicilian immigrants; delivered by a midwife. His mother, Rosalia, named him "Giuseppe" for his father; "Paolo" was in honor of Saint Paul, Giuseppe's favorite saint. The family moved to San Francisco when Joe was one year old.

Vince DiMaggio, Vincent Paul DiMaggio (September 6, 1912 - October 3, 1986) was a Major League Baseball center fielder and right-handed batter who played in the National League for the Boston Bees (1937-38), Cincinnati Reds (1939-40), Pittsburgh Pirates (1940-46) and New York Giants (1946). The older brother of Joe and Dom, DiMaggio was born in Martinez, California.

Arturo Di Modica is a New York City artist, born in Sicily, best known for his sculpture Charging Bull (also known as the "Wall Street Bull"), which he installed without permission in front of the New York Stock Exchange in December 1989. The piece is now on loan to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation who have placed it in nearby Bowling Green park. Di Modica now lives in New York City.

Johnny Dundee, (b. November 22, 1893, d. April 22, 1965) was a featherweight and junior lightweight boxer who fought from 1910 until 1932. Dundee was born Giuseppe Carrora in Sciacca, Sicily, but was raised in the United States. Although today he is almost completely forgotten, Dundee was highly regarded by many old time boxing experts. Ring Magazine founder and editor, Nat Fleischer, rated Dundee in the top five of his list of greatest featherweights of all time.

Ben Gazzara, (born Biagio Anthony Gazzara on August 28, 1930, in New York City), is an actor in television and motion pictures. Born to Sicilian immigrants, Antonio Gazzara and Angela Consumano, Gazzara grew up on New York's tough Lower East Side. He found relief from his bleak surroundings in joining a theater company at a very young age. Years later, he said that the discovery of his love for acting saved him from the crime that was all around him during his teenage years.

Lino Graglia is the Dalton Cross Professor of Law at the University of Texas specializing in antitrust litigation. He obtained a BA from the City College of New York in 1952, and an LLB from Columbia University in 1954. He worked in the United States Department of Justice during the Eisenhower administration. Graglia is an outspoken Catholic conservative of Sicilian background. He is a well known critic of affirmative action and racial quotas.

Frankie Laine, born Frank Paul LoVecchio on March 30, 1913, is an influential American singer. Frankie's parents emigrated from Monreale, Sicily to Chicago's "Little Italy". At 17 he sang before a crowd of 5,000 at The Merry Garden Ballroom to such enthusiastic applause that he ended up performing five encores on his first night. But success as a singer was another 17 years away. Frankie Laine's 70-plus year career spanned most of the 20th century and has continued into the 21st. Laine was a key figure in the golden age of popular music, and remains, quite possibly the greatest singer of all time. On June 12, 1996, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 27th Annual Songwriters’ Hall of Fame awards ceremony at the New York Sheraton.

Cyndi Lauper, (born June 22, 1953), Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper, better known as Cyndi Lauper, is a singer whose melodic voice and wild costumes have come to epitomize the 1980s, the decade in which she first came to fame. She was born in Queens, New York to Swiss German-American Fred Lauper and Sicilian Italian-American Catrine Dominique.

Frank Lentini, born Francesco A. Lentini (1889 - 1966) was born in Siracusa, Sicily into a large family. He was born with three longer legs, two sets of genitals and one rudimentary foot on his third leg. His primary legs also grew into different lengths. At the age of nine, Lentini moved to the United States and entered the sideshow business.

Patti LuPone, (born April 21, 1949 in Northport, New York) is an American singer and actress of Sicilian descent.^[1] She is a graduate of Northport High School. An important player in contemporary American musical theater, she has performed on Broadway in works by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Sondheim and others. She won a Tony Award for Evita in 1980.

Leo Martello, (1931-2000) was an author, lecturer, gay civil rights activist, and an early voice in the American Neopagan movement. He drew heavily on his Sicilian heritage, teaching the Strega Tradition which was named after the Italian word for Witch. As a founder of the Witches Anti-Defamation League (later the Alternative Religions Education Network) he was known for his lively and sometimes confrontational style. For example, in his books he tried to popularize the "Witches' Curse" which was "I wish you on yourself". He was profiled in Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon.

Natalie Merchant, (born October 26, 1963 in Jamestown, New York, USA) is a versatile musician. Merchant co-founded and fronted the successful band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981, but left the band in 1993 for a solo career. Her father's original Italian name was Mercante but was americanized into Merchant. Her mother's side is Irish.

Sal Mineo, born Salvatore Mineo, Jr. (January 10, 1939 - February 12, 1976) was an American actor and theater director, famous for his Academy Award-nominated performance opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause.Mineo, born in The Bronx, New York City as the son of a Sicilian coffin maker, was enrolled by his mother in dancing and acting school at an early age.

Al Pacino, born Alfredo James Pacino (born April 25, 1940 in The Bronx, New York, USA) is an American film actor.Pacino is the son of Salvatore Pacino (who was born in Italy) and Rose Gerard (the daughter of an Italian-born father and a New York-born mother of Italian descent). His parents divorced while Pacino was still a child. His grandparents originate from Corleone, Sicily.

Ferdinand Pecora, (January 6, 1882 – December 7, 1971). Ferdinand Pecora was born in Nicosia, Sicily, the son of Louis Pecora and Rosa Messina who emigrated to the United States and New York City with his parents. He earned a law degree from the New York Law School and eventually worked as an assistant district attorney. He led Senate hearings into the causes of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that launched a major reform of the American financial system. Pecora personally undertook many of the interrogations during the hearings, including high profile Wall Street personalities such as Richard Whitney, president of the New York Stock Exchange and investment bankers Thomas W. Lamont, Otto H. Kahn, Albert H. Wiggin, and Charles E. Mitchell. Pecora's high-profile work led to the hearings being called the Pecora Commission and it put him on the June 12, 1933 cover of Time magazine.

Mike Piazza, born Michael Joseph Piazza (September 4, 1968 in Norristown, Pennsylvania, USA) is a U.S. Major League Baseball player. He is generally recognized as the top-hitting catcher of all time. He is a ten time All-Star. On May 5, 2004, Piazza surpassed Carlton Fisk for most home runs by a catcher with the 352nd of his career. Mike grew up for the first few years of his life in a small house in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. The house was barely big enough to have Mike's entire family inside. His family consisted of his two parents, Vince and Veronica Piazza, and his brothers Vince Jr., Danny, Tony and Tommy.

Louis Prima was born into a musical family of Sicilian descent in New Orleans. He studied violin for several years as a child. His older brother Leon Prima was a well regarded local bandleader. Prima was proud of his heritage, and made a point of letting the audience know at every performance that he was Italian-American and from New Orleans. His singing and playing showed that he absorbed many of the same influences as his fellow Crescent City musician, Louis Armstrong, particularly in his hoarse voice and scat singing.

Mario Puzo, (October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author known for his fictional books about the Mafia. Puzo was born into a family of Sicilian immigrants living in the "Hell's Kitchen" neighborhood of New York City. Many of his books draw heavily on this Sicilian heritage.

Leah Remini, (born June 15, 1970 in Brooklyn, New York) is an actress. She is best known for her role as Carrie Heffernan on the sitcom The King of Queens. Her father George Remini, owner of an asbestos company, originates from Sicily. Her mother Vicki Marshall, a high school principal, is Jewish.

Mark Ronchetti is a newscaster on Portland, Oregon's KOIN TV station, which is an affiliate of CBS. Ronchetti is Italian American of Sicilian descent.

Anthony T. Rossi, (1900-1993, was born as Antonio Talamo Rossi in Messina, Sicily. He had the equivalent of a high school education. He emigrated to the United States when he was 21 years old and educated himself to the point that he became an expert mathematician and mechanical engineer. He founded Tropicana Products, a producer of orange juice founded in 1947 in Bradenton, Florida in the United States which grew from 50 employees to over 8,000 in 2004, expanding into multiple product lines and became one of the world's largest producers and marketers of citrus juice.

Pete Rugolo, (born December 25, 1915) is a Sicilian-born composer and arranger. He was born in Patti, Sicily, but his parents emigrated to the United States in 1920 and settled in Santa Rosa, California. He started his musical career playing the baritone, like his father, but he quickly branched out into other instruments, notably the French horn and the piano. He is most famous for his writing for the Stan Kenton Orchestra, although he led a long and successful career as a composer and arranger based in Los Angeles for many years. He has written for the Four Freshmen (for whom he was musical director) and many others.

Gene Sarazen, (also known as Gene Saraceni) (February 27, 1902 – May 13, 1999) is one of the few golfers to win all the Major Championships in his career, including
- 1922 U.S. Open
- 1922 PGA Championship
- 1923 PGA Championship
- 1932 U.S. Open
- 1932 British Open
- 1933 PGA Championship
- 1935 The Masters

Winner of 39 PGA Tournaments, Gene Sarazen was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. Sarazen invented the modern sand wedge in 1930. Sarazen hit "The shot heard 'round the world" in the 1935 Masters. It was a final round 225-yard 4-wood on the par-5 15th hole that went in, giving him a very rare double eagle 2 on the hole. It led to him later winning the tournament in a playoff. For many years after his retirement, Sarazen was a familiar figure as an honorary starter at the Masters.

Martin Scorsese, (pronounced as Scor-SEH-see) (born November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York, USA) is a multi-Oscar nominated film director. Martin Scorsese came from a working class Italian-American family, hailing from the Sicilian town of Polizzi Generosa; his father Luciano Charles Scorsese (1912-1993) was a pants presser in New York's garment district. He struggled to earn enough money to attend university, but has shown enormous gratitude to his parents for helping him realize his dreams. His parents were the subject of Scorsese's documentary Italianamerican and made numerous cameo appearances in his films before their deaths. For years, his mother worked as the official caterer for all of Scorsese's films and his father helped in the wardrobe department.

Gia Scala, born Giovanna Scoglio in Liverpool, England, to an aristocratic Sicilian father, Pietro Scoglio, and an Irish mother, Eileen Sullivan. Raised from infancy in Sicily, she moved to the United States at age fourteen where she studied and worked in New York City. She studied acting and in 1954 was signed to a contract by Universal Studios in Hollywood. She received wide recognition for her performance of "Anna" in the 1961 film, The Guns of Navarone. She ended her life with a drug overdose in 1972.Gia Scala is interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Antonin Scalia, (born March 11, 1936) (Sometimes known by the nickname "Nino") has been a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice since 1986. He is widely considered the leading originalist voice on the Court and one of the most outspoken defenders of textualism.Antonin Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey to his mother, Catherine, and his father, S. Eugene. His mother was born in the United States; his father, a professor of romance languages, emigrated from Sicily at age 15. When Scalia was five years old, his family moved to Queens, New York City, New York, during which time his father worked at Brooklyn College.

Vincent Schiavelli, (November 10, 1948 - December 26, 2005) is a noted character actor known for his work in film and on television. He was born into a Sicilian-American family in Brooklyn, New York. He studied acting through the Theater Program at New York University and began working on the stage in the 1960s. Having a respected Sicilian chef for a grandfather rubbed off on Vincent Schiavelli, as he is also the author of a number of cookbooks and food articles for magazines and newspapers. He received a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award in 2001 and has been nominated on a number of other occasions. He succumbed to lung cancer at age 57, passing away at his home in Polizzi Generosa, Italy, the town in Sicily where his grandfather emigrated from and which he wrote about in his 2002 book, Many Beautiful Things: Stories and Recipes from Polizzi Generosa (ISBN 0-7432-1528-1).

Frank Sinatra, born Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer who is considered one of the finest vocalists of all time, renowned for his impeccable phrasing and timing. Many critics place him alongside Bing Crosby, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles as the most important popular music figures of the 20th century. [1] Sinatra launched a second career as a dramatic film actor, and became admired for a screen persona distinctly tougher than his smooth singing style. Sinatra also had a larger-than-life presence in the public eye, and as "The Chairman of the Board" became an American icon, known for his brash, sometimes swaggering attitude, as embodied by his signature song "My Way". He was born in Hoboken, New Jersey as the only child of a quiet Sicilian fireman father, Anthony Martin Sinatra (1894-1969). Anthony had emigrated to the United States in 1895. His mother, Natalie Della Gavarante (1896-1977), was a talented, tempestuous Ligurian, who worked as a part-time abortionist. She was known was "Dolly", and emigrated in 1897.

Tony Sirico, (born July 29, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York) is an actor who is most famous for his role as Paulie Walnuts on the HBO TV series, The Sopranos. Prior to becoming an actor, Sirico spent some time in jail for holding up a number of night clubs in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While in prison, he became interested in acting from watching a theater group that came to perform. When he got out of jail, Sirico played gangsters in a number of films.

Sylvester Stallone, born Sylvester Enzio Stallone (July 6, 1946 in New York City) is an American film actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. He is often referred to by his nickname, "Sly". He achieved his greatest successes in a number of action films, notably the Rocky and Rambo series. He was born to Frank Stallone Sr. (a beautician who was an immigrant from Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily) and Jacqueline "Jackie" Labofish, an American astrologer of 1/4 Russian Jewish descent.

Tommy Tallarico, born Thomas V. Tallarico (born February 18, 1968) is an accomplished American video game music composer.

Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr. (July 15, 1952 - April 23, 1991), was a rock and roll guitarist and singer, first with the New York Dolls, the proto-punk glam rockers of the early '70s. During the late '70s, he was a familiar figure on the New York punk scene, both with The Heartbreakers and as a solo artist. His guitar work was highly influential in punk rock music.

Aida Turturro, (born September 25, 1962) is an actress who is most well-known for playing Janice Soprano, sister of New Jersey mob boss, Tony Soprano, on the HBO, TV series, The Sopranos, a role which netted her an Emmy Award nomination.

John Turturro, (born February 28, 1957) is an American actor.He has appeared in over sixty movies, and is well known for his ability to effortlessly change both his demeanour and physique. Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York to an Sicilian Catholic family. He completed his MFA at the Yale School of Drama. He worked as an extra in Raging Bull (1980).

Steven Tyler, born Steven Victor Tallarico (March 26, 1948), frontman for legendary rock band Aerosmith.

Frank Vincent, (born Frank Vincent Gattuso on 4 August 1939) is an Italian-American actor.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. He was spotted by Martin Scorsese in a low-budget gangster movie called Death Collector. 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.

Jack Valenti, (born September 5, 1921) was "special assistant" to Lyndon Johnson's White House. In 1966, he resigned and became the president of the Motion Picture Association of America. During his tenure there, he was generally regarded as one of the most influential pro-copyright lobbyists in the world. His salary in 2004 was reported to be $1.35 million, which made him the seventh-highest paid Washington trade group chief, according to the National Journal.

Emanuele Viscuso, (born December 24, 1952 in Palermo, is the creator of the Sicilian Film Festival, a showcase of Sicilian directors and movies founded in Miami on 2006. Viscuso lives in Miami, in Milano and in Castelbuono,Sicily. Besides his work as president of this festival, Viscuso is a sculptor. His most famous piece is the 45 feet large sculpture "Wave-bridge on the imaginary" at the Milan Malpensa international airport.

Guy Williams, (14 January 1924 - May 7, 1989), born Armando Joseph Catalano in New York City, the son of Sicilian immigrants. He was an American actor who played swashbuckling action heroes in the 1950s and 1960s. An accomplished fencer, his most famous role was Zorro in two Walt Disney movies and television series of that name (1957-1959). Nearly a half-century later, Zorro is still being aired all over South America, from Argentina to Venezuela, in some places twice daily. Zorro continues to be the most popular U.S. series ever to have appeared on South American television.

Frank Zappa, born Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was a composer, guitarist, singer and satirist. In his 33-year musical career, Zappa proved to be one of the most prolific musicians ever, releasing over 60 albums during his life. His father, Francis Zappa was born in Alcamo, Sicily. His mother Rose Marie Colimore was of half Italian, 1/4 Sicilian and 1/4 French descent.

Philip Zimbardo, (born March 23, 1933) is an American psychologist, best-known for his Stanford prison experiment and bestselling introductions to psychology. Zimbardo was born to Sicilian parents, George Zimbardo and Margaret Bisicchia and grew up in New York City, in the South Bronx.

Gaetano Vaccaro, (born May 25, 1984) is a multi-instrumentalist who is most fluent in and known for his guitar playing, best-known for his involvement in the politically based hip-hop band Broadcast Live. Vaccaro was born to a Sicilian father, and a Russian and German mother with Jewish heritage. He grew up in Albany, NY.

[edit] Politicians

Vincent R. Impellitteri, (February 4, 1900 – January 29, 1987) was appointed Acting Mayor of New York City upon the resignation of then Mayor William O'Dwyer, on September 1, 1950. He served from 1950 to 1953. Impellitteri moved with his family to the United States from Sicily as an infant in 1901. Trivia: Impellitteri believed his name to be too difficult to spell by most people. When running for mayor he tried to persuade a judge to allow voters to simply write "Impy" on their ballots. The judge refused the request.

The families of 6 members of the United States Congress emigrated from Sicily:
- Daniel Frisa was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1997.
- Nick Lampson His family emigrated from the region of Salemi, Trapani.
- Frank LoBiondo His family emigrated from the region of Belmonte Mezzagno, Palermo.
- Donald A. Manzullo City not known.
- Frank Pallone City not known.
- Vito Fossella Representative from New York

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../l/i/s/List_of_Sicilian_Americans_a238.html"

Categories: Italian-Americans | Sicilian-Americans | People of Sicilian descent

List of Sicilian Americans

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

[edit] The list

[edit] Politicians

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Views

Navigation

interaction

Search