Bronx-born and raised Chazz Palminteri wrote A Bronx Tale in 1988. The powerful one-man stage play depicted his bruising childhood which included witnessing a gangland killing when he was nine years old. Palminteri played eighteen characters and brought them all to life in his autobiographical play. His friends, enemies and family came alive on stage. Hollywood Studios went crazy after seeing it and offered him millions of dollars to turn it into a major movie. There was one catch – they wanted to put a star in the role of Sonny and someone else to write the screenplay. With two hundred dollars in the bank, Palminteri said no. He would hold out and wait. He wanted to play Sonny and write the screenplay. Then, one night, Palminteri walked into his dressing room and sitting there was Robert De Niro who just saw the show. Robert DeNiro gave Palminteri the chance he was waiting for, and as they say in Hollywood, the rest is history.
Palminteri wrote the screenplay for the film A Bronx Tale and then most recently wrote the book for the Broadway Musical. It was the first time in history that the same actor wrote the one-man play, the movie script, and the Broadway Musical and starred in each one.
In the past thirty-five years, Chazz has appeared in over sixty films, including, The Usual Suspects, Analyze This, Mulholland Falls, Jade, Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Legend, and Bullets over Broadway, which he was nominated for an Academy Award. He has starred in over twenty television series and has won three Emmy Awards. Chazz is most recently appears in the shows Modern Family, Godfather of Harlem, Law & Order and Gravesend.
