John Turturro

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, United States, in 1957. John Turturro is an Italian-American actor, screenwriter and producer of Sicilian and Apulian origin, who comes from a family of artists; his mother was a jazz singer and his brother Nicholas and his cousin Aida are also actors; the latter is known for playing Janice, the capo’s sister in the award-winning production ofla HBO, The Sopranos .

He has appeared in more than sixty films, in which he often plays unbalanced character roles. He has several memorable performances, such as his bowling dance to the sound of the Gipsy Kings in The Big Lebowski or his role as Barton Fink in the film of the same name, where he played a Hollywood-signed playwright, who eagerly awaits the arrival of inspiration, work for which he was awarded as best actor at Cannes.

Kirk Douglas , Burt Lancaster or Edward G. Robinson were among his role models. A popular entertainer and born show man, Turturro enjoyed imitating his favorite stars and devising skits to entertain his neighbors. After graduation he enrolled inla Yale Schoolof Drama, and at the age of 23 he appeared for the first time in a film, when Martin Scorsese chose him as an extra for Raging Bull .

In 1985 William Friedkin gave him a supporting role in To Live and Die in Los Angeles and a year later Scorsese hired him again for The Color of Money , this time as a supporting actor, surrounded by other stars such as Paul Newman , Tom Cruise and Forest Whitaker .

In 1987 he appeared in Five Corners , a very weak film in which he worked alongside Jodie Foster and Tim Robbins , but it was just after this role that Spike Lee would sign him for the choral comedy Do what you must , in what would be the start of an extensive collaboration between the director and Turturro. Then came Clockers , Girl Six and SOS Summer of Sam , to name a few.

The Coen brothers have also called on him frequently; first in the marvelous Death Among the Flowers and later in Barton Fink , The Big Lebowski and O Brother , films in which he would share the stage with other regulars from this pair of filmmakers, such as John Goodman or Steve Buscemi .

Among his other works, John Turturro has stood out especially in Quiz Show (The dilemma) , where he played the inexhaustible contestant on the television program “Twenty One”, a role for which he won the Golden Globe.

Turturro transitions from dramatic to comedy with great ease, plus he also directs, writes and produces (he has his own production company, Humperdink Productions). To date he has released three feature films: Romance & Cigarettes , produced by the Coens; Illuminata , who competed forthe PalmGold at Cannes in 1998, and Mac , with which he won, at the same festival,the cameraGold for Best First Feature.

He is a peculiar actor, often playing nervous, irascible or disturbed people;

Some of us like it and others don’t, which does not allow us to detract from his talent, on the contrary, we must recognize him precisely for this, for being capable of arousing rejection in the viewer.

In real life, John is a simple family man, married with two children, who continues to live in Brooklyn. His last works were in the drama Margot and the Wedding , in the film adaptation of the Transformers toys , and in the comedy Zohan: License to Comb , alongside Adam Sandler .