Director Spike Lee (right) and actor Danny Aiello attend a special 20th anniversary screening of “Do the Right Thing,” in New York, in 2009. Aiello, the blue-collar character actor whose long career playing tough guys, has died. He was 86. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)

Director Spike Lee (right) and actor Danny Aiello attend a special 20th anniversary screening of “Do the Right Thing,” in New York, in 2009. Aiello, the blue-collar character actor whose long career playing tough guys, has died. He was 86. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer, File)

Danny Aiello was blue-collar character actor

After playing the hapless lover dumped by Cher in “Moonstruck” he was inundated with movie offers.

  • By MARK KENNEDY AP Entertainment Writer
  • Friday, December 13, 2019 11:36am
  • Life

By Mark Kennedy / Associated Press

NEW YORK — Danny Aiello, the blue-collar character actor whose long career playing tough guys included roles in “Fort Apache, the Bronx,” “Moonstruck” and “Once Upon a Time in America” and his Oscar-nominated performance as a pizza man in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” has died. He was 86.

Aiello died Thursday night after a brief illness, said his publicist, Tracey Miller, who runs Tracey Miller & Associates. “The family asks for privacy at this time,” she said in a statement.

In a tweet, Cher mourned the man she called “a genius comedic actor.” The two had starred in “Moonstruck” and she called it “one of the happiest times in my life.” Actor Michael Rapaport tweeted that Aiello was a “huge inspiration” and actor Kirk Acevedo mourned: “We lost a great actor today.”

Recognizable, if not famous, for his burly build and husky voice, he was an ex-union president who broke into acting in his 30s and remained a dependable player for decades, whether vicious or cuddly or some of each.

His breakthrough, ironically, was as the hapless lover dumped by Cher in Norman Jewison’s hit comedy “Moonstruck.” His disillusion contributed to the laughter, and although he wasn’t nominated for a supporting-role Oscar (Cher and Olympia Dukakis won in their categories), Aiello was inundated with movie offers.

“Living in New York City gave me training for any role,” he said in a 1997 interview. “I’ve seen people killed, knifed. I’ve got scars on my face. I have emotional recall when I work; the idea is simply to recreate it. I’ve seen it and experienced it. I’ve played gangsters, teachers but most of my work has been in the police area. And for that I’m adored by the police in New York City.”

The ebullient Aiello became a favorite of several directors, among them Woody Allen, who used him in the Broadway play “The Floating Light Globe” and the movies “Broadway Danny Rose,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo” and “Radio Days.”

Lee was another admirer and for “Do the Right Thing” cast Aiello as a pizzeria operator in a black neighborhood of Brooklyn, the movie climaxing with a riot that destroys his eatery. “This is my pizzeria!” he cried. Lee had first offered the role to Robert De Niro, but Aiello’s performance brought him an Oscar nomination for supporting actor.

Among his other movies: “Fort Apache, the Bronx” (as a cop who threw a boy from a building), “Once Upon a Time in America,” “Harlem Nights,” “Jack Ruby” (as Ruby) and”City Hall.” He also appeared in TV miniseries, including “The Last Don,” “A Woman Named Jackie” and in the 1985-86 police series “Lady Blue.” It was Aiello who played Madonna’s father in the pop icon’s “Papa Don’t Preach” video.

A child of New York’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, Aiello retained the pugnacity he learned on city streets.

“During the early times in my acting career, I would fight at the drop of a hat,” he said in 1985. “I was very hungry. If there were obstacles, I tried to remove them.” He added that sometimes he engaged in fistfights with actors after work because of incidents during filming or rehearsals.

Daniel Louis Aiello Jr. was born June 20, 1933, to Italian parents. His father, a laborer, left the family of seven children, and Daniel started working at age 9 selling newspapers, working in a grocery store and bowling alley, shining shoes and loading trucks. In his teenage years, he joined a street gang and, he claimed, engaged in burglary and safe-cracking. He dropped out of high school before graduating, got married in 1955 and joined the Army.

After three years in the service, he worked at several factory jobs, landing as a baggage man at Greyhound. The ambitious Aiello rose to become president of the transit union.

“I wanted to become a politician,” he told a reporter in 1995. “I always thought that I could talk, that people liked me, that I can represent them.” But when Greyhound accused him of starting a wildcat strike and the union leaders agreed, Aiello quit his job.

He worked at one job after another, and in 1970 was hired as a bouncer at the New York comedy club, Improvisation. One night, he was asked to act as an assistant emcee. “It was no big deal; it was just ‘Danny, go up and announce the acts,’” he recalled in 1997. “There was a little bantering between acts, and I kept that short. I was terrified.”

Yet Aiello soon branched out, playing small roles in the movies “Bang the Drum Slowly” and “The Godfather, Part II,” and as the bartender lead in a musical play “Lamppost Reunion.” Starting in 1980 he averaged three films a year, plus appearances in theater and television. Off-Broadway, he appeared in “The Shoemaker” in 2011.

Aiello and his wife of more than 60 years, Sandy, lived in Ramsey, New Jersey. He also is survived by three children and 10 grandchildren: Rick, Jamie and Stacy. A fourth son, stuntman and stunt coordinator Danny Aiello III, died in May 2010 of pancreatic cancer.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

Sarah Jean Muncey-Gordon puts on some BITCHSTIX lip oil at Bandbox Beauty Supply on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, in Langley, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Bandbox Beauty was made for Whidbey Island locals, by an island local

Founder Sarah Muncey-Gordon said Langley is in a renaissance, and she’s proud to be a part of it.

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

Byrds co-founder Roger McGuinn, seen here in 2013, will perform April 20 in Edmonds. (Associated Press)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

R0ck ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Roger McGuinn, frontman of The Byrds, plans a gig in Edmonds in April.

Mother giving in to the manipulation her daughter fake crying for candy
Can children be bribed into good behavior?

Only in the short term. What we want to do is promote good habits over the course of the child’s life.

Speech Bubble Puzzle and Discussion
When conflict flares, keep calm and stand your ground

Most adults don’t like dissension. They avoid it, try to get around it, under it, or over it.

The colorful Nyhavn neighborhood is the place to moor on a sunny day in Copenhagen. (Cameron Hewitt)
Rick Steves: Embrace hygge and save cash in Copenhagen

Where else would Hans Christian Andersen, a mermaid statue and lovingly decorated open-face sandwiches be the icons of a major capital?

Last Call is a festured artist at the 2024 DeMiero Jazz Festival: in Edmonds. (Photo provided by DeMiero Jazz Festival)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Jazz ensemble Last Call is one of the featured artists at the DeMiero Jazz Festival on March 7-9 in Edmonds.

Kim Helleren
Local children’s author to read at Edmonds Bookshop

Kim Helleren will read from one of her books for kids at the next monthly Story Time at Edmonds Bookshop on March 29.

Chris Elliott
Lyft surprises traveler with a $150 cleaning charge

Jared Hakimi finds a $150 charge on his credit card after a Lyft ride. Is that allowed? And will the charge stick?

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.