Joe Pesci trivia: 42 facts about the legendary actor

Joe Pesci is a legendary actor who got out of retirement for taking part in “The Irishman”. The new Martin Scorsese film.

So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about his life and career.

1. His full name is Joseph Frank Pesci
2. He was born on February 9, 1943
3. He is an American actor
4. He is known for portraying tough, volatile characters in a variety of genres
5. And for his collaborations with Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese
6. They collaborated inn the films Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995) and The Irishman (2019)
7. He also appeared in Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Moonwalker (1988), JFK (1991), A Bronx Tale (1993), and The Good Shepherd (2006)
8. His comedy roles include such films as Home Alone (1990), My Cousin Vinny (1992), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), and the Lethal Weapon franchise (1989–1998)
9. Pesci won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the psychopathic gangster Tommy DeVito (based on Thomas DeSimone) in Goodfellas
10. He had been previously nominated for the same award for his role as Joey LaMotta in Raging Bull
11. He announced his retirement from acting in 1999
12. Since then he has appeared only occasionally in films
13. He is also a musician who recorded three studio albums
14. Their titles are Little Joe Sure Can Sing! (1968), Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just for You (1998) and Still Singing (2019)
15. In 2019, Pesci returned from his retirement to star alongside Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (2019)
16. Pesci was born on February 9, 1943 in Newark, New Jersey
17. His mother, Maria Mesce, worked part-time as a barber
18. His father, Angelo Pesci, was a forklift driver for General Motors and a bartender with Torinese origins
19. Pesci is of Italian descent
20. He was raised in Belleville, New Jersey
21. He graduated from Belleville High School
22. By the time Pesci was five years old, he was appearing in plays in New York
23. At age 10, he was a regular on a television variety show called Startime Kids
24. The show also featured Connie Francis
25. As a teenager, Pesci was friends with singers Frankie Valli (who is nine years his senior) and Tommy DeVito (who is 15 years his senior)
26. In 1959, at age 16, he helped introduce them to singer and songwriter Bob Gaudio
27. Which led to the formation of the band the Four Seasons
28. Pesci is a character in the 2005 musical Jersey Boys, which tells the story of The Four Seasons, due to his involvement in the band’s formation
29. He is similarly a character in the musical’s 2014 film adaptation
30. In the film, the Joe Pesci character asks “Funny how?”, a quote from Goodfellas
31. Pesci has been married and divorced three times
32. His first marriage was in 1964
33. His third was from 1988 to 1992, to Claudia Haro, a model and actress
34. Haro was later convicted of attempted murder-for-hire against her ex-husband and Hollywood stunt-man, Garrett Warren
35. He has a daughter named Tiffany
36. In 2007, Pesci was engaged to Angie Everhart
37. But the couple broke up in 2008
38. While filming scenes in two of Martin Scorsese’s films (Raging Bull and Casino), Pesci broke the same rib, 15 years apart
39. Pesci was briefly a recurring character on Saturday Night Live, played by Jim Breuer
40. Breuer’s characterization was based on Pesci’s GoodFellas character
41. Re-imagined as a talk show host, but maintaining Tommy DeVito’s violent temper, often beating his guests with a baseball bat
42. This recurring gag eventually culminated in the real Pesci appearing in a cameo and beating Breuer with a bat