An Emmy-winning veteran of almost 100 movies and TV shows, Hoboken-born-and-raised Joe “Joey Pants” Pantoliano has been able to carve a successful niche as an actor.
While his name isn’t always over the marquee, it’s his strong, crowd-pleasing supporting performances that audiences remember.
Many of his roles sway towards the creepy with a twisted sense of humor, such as his memorable turn as “Guido the Killer Pimp” in Risky Business, the traitorous Cypher in The Matrix, or more recently as the whacked, hairpiece-wearing mobster Ralphie Cifaretto on the HBO series The Sopranos.
But just as effortlessly, he can shift to the right side of the road, as he did in the buddy role as a U.S. Marshal in The Fugitive.
One of our own
While most would recognize Pantoliano’s face, many might not know about his difficult childhood in Hoboken. Pantoliano was born here in 1954 and has often been quoted as saying his motivation for becoming an actor was to escape the poverty of his upbringing.
Many of his childhood experiences are chronicled in great detail in his autobiography, Who’s Sorry Now, which is billed as the “story of one street-smart kid’s convoluted journey from Hoboken to Hollywood.”
Much of the book deals with Pantoliano’s strained relationship with his mother and father. The book tells how, to pay the bills, Pantoliano would run numbers with his chain-smoking and domineering mother, Mary.
Pantoliano had two father figures in his life. There was Pantoliano’s father, Dominic “Monk” Pantoliano, a factory worker with a fondness for gambling at the track. According to Pantoliano’s autobiography, his father would later become a hearse chauffeur for the local funeral parlor.
Then there was his stepfather, Florio Isabella, a wise guy with connections to the Genovese family. In total, Isabella, who was also Pantoliano’s distant cousin, spent 21 years in prison for drug trafficking.
According to Pantoliano, his stepfather began his criminal career delivering heroin in lower Manhattan at the age of 10.
Pantoliano was 14 when Isabella got out of prison, and the teen’s mother kicked Monk out of the house.
Pantoliano recalls in great detail the fistfights between his father and stepfather, many of which caught him in the middle. But the relationship between Monk and Isabella was much more complicated than just street fights. While the two battled for the affection of Mary, the pair were also close friends. According to Pantoliano, his stepfather died in his father’s arms.
While there there were many dark paths where Pantoliano could have gone astray, he came out of it to be one of the most successful character actors working today.
The Sinatras
One of the more interesting passages from his autobiography deals with the Pantoliano family’s relationship with the Sinatra family. According to the book, Pantoliano was certainly influenced by the legacy of Hoboken’s “favorite son,” Frank Sinatra, but his family harbors some resentment against Sinatra, mostly because Sinatra allegedly swindled Monk out of some money many years ago.
But even with some diffculties, Pantoliano has never turned his back on the mile-square city. He is often sighted eating at local restaurnats, and according to his publicist, he still has an apartment in Hoboken, though she declined to say exactly where.
Pantoliano also has homes in Connecticut and Los Angeles, but lives primarily in New York City.