Lillo Brancato | |
|---|---|
 Brancato in 2023 | |
| Born | Saúl Rodríguez August 30, 1976 |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1993–2007, 2014–present |
Lillo Brancato Jr. (born August 30, 1976) is an American actor. He is best known for his portrayal of Calogero in Robert De Niro's 1993 directorial debut, A Bronx Tale. He also portrayed Matthew Bevilaqua, a young aspiring mobster, on The Sopranos .
Brancato was born Saúl Rodríguez in Bogotá, Colombia, [1] on August 30, 1976. [2] Adopted when he was four months old, he was raised by Italian-American parents, Lillo Brancato Sr., a construction worker, and Domenica, an electrolysist, [3] in Yonkers, New York. Brancato studied at Mount Saint Michael Academy. His adoptive brother, Vinny, briefly worked as a fashion model and now works as a Yonkers civil servant. [4]
Although he was born in Colombia, Brancato has said, "I consider myself Italian. I was raised to eat pasta." [5] Brancato was discovered in 1992, while swimming at New York's Jones Beach, by a talent scout who noticed Brancato's resemblance to Robert De Niro. [6] Brancato was a fan of De Niro and impressed the scout with an impression of Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver . This won him the role of De Niro's son in A Bronx Tale (1993). [4]
Brancato acted in three films in the mid-1990s, before joining the cast of The Sopranos . In A Bronx Tale (1993), he played the main character named Calogero, a teenager torn between his father and a mob boss who befriended him as a child (according to New York Magazine , Brancato earned $25,000 ($52,700 today) for the role). [4] He further appeared in Renaissance Man (1994), followed by a minor but climactic role as a radio operator in Crimson Tide (1995).
In the second season of The Sopranos, which HBO broadcast in 2000, Brancato starred as Matthew Bevilaqua, a young mobster associated with Tony Soprano's crime syndicate. Bevilaqua first appeared in the second-season premiere, "Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist's Office...", and appeared in five more episodes. The character was murdered in "From Where to Eternity", before appearing in a flashback during "Bust Out". Brancato also played a mobster in the TV series Falcone , which debuted in 2000. Brancato went on to star in 'R Xmas (2001), appearing with fellow Sopranos cast member Drea de Matteo, and appeared opposite Eddie Murphy as Larry in The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002).
Brancato's last film before being charged in 2005 for first-degree burglary was Saturday Morning , released in 2007. The director, whose brother-in-law is a police officer, edited down all of Brancato's scenes during post-production. [7] Following his release from prison in 2013, Brancato made his return to acting with Back in The Day (2016). [8] [9] He has since had supporting roles in films including Dead on Arrival (2017), a remake of D.O.A. (1950), Vamp Bikers Dos and Vamp Bikers Tres by Eric Spade Rivas 2015-2017 and the 5th Borough (2020). Brancato can be heard narrating the music video for the Chris Brown and Young Thug song "City Girls", released on December 4, 2020. [10]
Brancato started using drugs and alcohol shortly after beginning his acting career in 1992. He was addicted to cocaine and heroin by his mid-20s. [6]
On June 10, 2005, Brancato was arrested in Yonkers, New York by the Yonkers Police Department. Officers originally pulled Brancato over for having a rear brake light out and found he had an expired registration and no other papers for the vehicle. He gave police permission to look in a cigarette box, where they found four bags of heroin. He was charged with a Class A misdemeanor for criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree. [11]
Six months later, on December 10, 2005, Brancato was arrested by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) in the Bronx for the murder of 28-year-old police officer Daniel Enchautegui, who was at home and off-duty at the time of his death. Enchautegui had served with the NYPD for three years and was assigned to the 40th Precinct in the Bronx. [12] Enchautegui confronted Brancato (then 29) and his accomplice, Steven Armento (48), outside a vacant house located at 3119 Arnow Place, next to his own, after hearing glass break. While Enchautegui waited for backup, a gunfight erupted and Enchautegui was shot. He was later taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where he died. [12]
Armento (who was the father of Brancato's girlfriend Stefanie) was found to have fired the fatal shot that killed Enchautegui and subsequently convicted of first-degree murder on October 30, 2008, receiving a sentence of life in prison without parole (Armento died on January 2, 2024, at the Mohawk Correctional Facility in upstate New York). [13]
Brancato was charged with second-degree murder, [14] and his trial began on November 17, 2008. [13] On December 22, 2008, a jury found him not guilty of murder but found him guilty of first-degree attempted burglary. [15] On January 9, 2009, a judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison. [16]
Brancato was incarcerated on Rikers Island and as state inmate #09A0227 in the Oneida Correctional Facility in Rome, New York, and was subsequently transferred to the Hudson Correctional Facility. [2] While in prison, Brancato continued his drug use, suffering a heroin overdose on at least one occasion. [6] On December 31, 2013, he was released on parole. [17] In 2018, Brancato said he was 11 years sober and had returned to acting. [18]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | A Bronx Tale | Calogero (age 17) | |
| 1994 | Renaissance Man | Pvt. Donnie Benitez | |
| 1995 | Crimson Tide | Petty Officer Third Class Russell Vossler | |
| 1997 | Firehouse | Gaetano Luvullo | TV movie |
| 1998 | Provocateur | Chris Finn | |
| Enemy of the State | Young Worker | ||
| 1999 | The Florentine | Pretty | |
| 2000 | Blue Moon | Pete | |
| Mambo Café | Weasel | ||
| Table One | Johnnie | ||
| 2001 | Sticks | Lenny Prince | |
| 'R Xmas | The Husband | ||
| In the Shadows | Jimmy Pierazzi | ||
| The Adventures of Pluto Nash | Larry | ||
| 2002 | The Real Deal | Samy Saxo | |
| 2004 | Downtown: A Street Tale | Lenny | |
| 2005 | Slingshot | DJ | |
| Searching for Bobby D | Bobby | ||
| 2007 | Saturday Morning | Alan Delucci | |
| 2015 | The Bronx Dahmer | Joey | Short |
| 2016 | Back in the Day | Nicky | |
| Vamp Bikers Tres | Tony | ||
| 2017 | Man of the House | Desk Clerk | Short |
| Dead on Arrival | Zanca | ||
| 2018 | King of Newark 2 | Bruno | |
| 2019 | The Fearless Two | Tiger | |
| 2020 | 5th Borough | Sonny Finici | |
| 2021 | The Phone Call | Johnny | Short |
| The War of the Worlds 2021 | Stranger | Short | |
| Monsters of Mulberry Street | Father Palladino | ||
| Made in Mexico | Ochoa | ||
| 2022 | I'm on Fire | Sal | Short |
| Sleepyhead | Lillo Fante |
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Dead Man's Gun | Gulseppe Guissipini | Episode: "The Vine" |
| 2000 | The Sopranos | Matthew Bevilaqua | Recurring Cast: Season 2 |
| Falcone | Lucky | Episode: "Windows" | |
| 2002 | NYPD Blue | Gary Montaneri | Episode: "Dead Meat in New Deli" |
| Year | Artist | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Chris Brown and Young Thug | "City Girls" | Narrator (voice) |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Wasted Talent |
A Bronx Tale is a 1993 American coming-of-age crime drama film directed by and starring Robert De Niro in his directorial debut and produced by Jane Rosenthal, adapted from Chazz Palminteri's 1989 one-man show play of the same name. It tells the coming-of-age story of an Italian-American boy, Calogero, who, after encountering a local Mafia boss, is torn between the temptations of organized crime and the values of his honest, hardworking father, as well as racial tensions in his community. The Broadway production was converted to film with limited changes, and starred Palminteri and De Niro.
Calogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri is an American actor. He is best known for his film roles in A Bronx Tale (1993), based on his play of the same name, Bullets Over Broadway (1994) for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and The Usual Suspects (1995), as well as his recurring role as Shorty in Modern Family (2010–2019).
J. J. Jameson was a self-proclaimed poet and activist, who was active in Chicago, Illinois, from the mid-1980s until March 2005. His work was marked by an ironic and humorous style.
Joel Barnet Steinberg is a disbarred New York City criminal defense attorney who attracted international media attention when he was accused of rape and murder, and was convicted of manslaughter, in the November 1, 1987, beating and subsequent death of a six-year-old girl, Elizabeth ("Lisa") Launders, whom he and his live-in partner, Hedda Nussbaum, had illegally adopted.
Five Points Correctional Facility (FPCF) is a maximum security state prison for men located in Romulus, New York, and operated by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Five Points is known as a supermax prison.
David Richard Berkowitz, also known as the Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer who pled guilty to perpetrating eight shootings in New York City between July 1976 and July 1977, which resulted in six fatalities. Berkowitz grew up in New York City and served in the United States Army. Using a .44 Special caliber Bulldog revolver, he killed six people and wounded seven others by July 1977, terrorizing New Yorkers. Berkowitz eluded the biggest police manhunt in the city's history while leaving letters mocking the police and promising further crimes, which were highly publicized by the press.
Arnold Ezekiel "Squiggy" Squitieri was an American former acting boss and underboss of the Gambino crime family. He is also known as "Zeke", "Bozey", and "Squitty".
"Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist's Office..." is the 14th episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the first of the show's second season. Written by Jason Cahill and directed by Allen Coulter, it originally aired on January 16, 2000.
Anthony Brancato was an American criminal who served as a freelance gunman to various Mafia and syndicate organizations.
Larry Davis, later known as Adam Abdul-Hakeem, was a man from New York City who gained notoriety in November 1986 for his shootout in the South Bronx with officers of the New York City Police Department, in which six officers were shot. Davis, asserting self-defense, was acquitted of all charges aside from illegal gun possession. Davis was later convicted in April 1991 of a Bronx drug dealer's 1986 murder. In 2008, Davis died via stabbing by a fellow inmate.
Gerald "Gary" McGivern was an American felon found guilty in 1967 of the armed robbery of a gas station in Pelham Manor, New York, United States, during which two police officers were wounded. McGivern was tried with his partner in the robbery, Charles Culhane, and was sentenced to ten to twenty years in state prison. On September 13, 1968, McGivern, Culhane and a third convict, Robert Bowerman, were being transported by two deputies, from Auburn State Prison to a court hearing in White Plains. During a rest stop along the New York State Thruway, a deputy's gun was seized in an attempted escape. During the struggle inside the police car, a deputy and Bowerman were shot to death.
Vittorio "Little Vic" Amuso is an American mobster and the boss of the Lucchese crime family. He was described as "The Deadly Don" by Assistant United States Attorney Charles Rose. Amuso's reign is considered one of the bloodiest periods in American Mafia history during the late 1980s and early 1990s, alongside his former underboss and close protégé Anthony Casso, who turned informer against him in 1994. Since the death of Colombo crime family boss Carmine Persico in March 2019, Amuso is currently the longest-serving crime family boss of the Five Families and American Mafia, dating back to 1987. Amuso has been serving a life sentence since 1992 and is currently located at the Federal Correctional Complex, Butner, in North Carolina, on murder and racketeering charges.
The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from a Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".
Angelo Prisco also known as "The Horn", was an American mobster in New Jersey who became a caporegime in the Genovese crime family. Relatives include Michael Prisco and Angelique Prisco
Rosario "Sal" Gambino is an Italian mobster in the Gambino crime family. He became nationally known when he and his brothers set up a multimillion dollar heroin cartel during the 1970s and 1980s. At the turn of the century he made headline news again when members of his family were suspected of trying to get him a presidential pardon through bribery.
Frank John Cullotta was an American mobster in the Chicago Outfit and a member of the Hole in the Wall Gang burglary ring in Las Vegas with friend and mobster Tony Spilotro. After his arrest in 1982, he became a government witness and entered the witness protection program. Cullotta later became an author and a tour guide.
Robert Ronald "Mudman" Simon, also known as Bobby Simon, was an American outlaw biker, convicted murderer and member of the Pennsylvania-based Warlocks Motorcycle Club. He had formerly been sentenced to death by the state of New Jersey on May 6, 1995, for his part in the fatal shooting of Franklin Township police sergeant Ippolito Gonzalez. However, he was ultimately beaten to death at New Jersey State Prison by a fellow death row inmate before he could be executed.
This is a list of organized crime in the 1950s, arranged chronologically.
Brancato was born Saul Rodriguez in Bogotá, Colombia, to parents he never met.
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