Tony Danza Biography

Tony Danza (born Antonio Salvatore Iadanza; April 21, 1951) is an American actor known for starring on the TV series Taxi and Who's the Boss?, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards. In 1998, Danza won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Series for his work on the 1997 sitcom The Tony Danza Show.

Personal life

Danza was born in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Anne Cammisa Iadanza (1925"1993) and Matty Iadanza (1920"1983), both of whom died from cancer. His mother was a bookkeeper and his father worked as a garbage man in Brooklyn. Danza's father was of Italian ancestry and Danza's mother was an immigrant from Sicily in Italy. He has a younger brother, Matty Jr. (born 1954), a Los Angeles restaurant owner. When Danza was 14, he and his family relocated to Malverne, New York on Long Island. Danza attended Malverne High School, graduating in 1968. In the first episode of his show Teach: Tony Danza, Danza describes himself as a "bad student" in high school. Danza earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1972 from the University of Dubuque, which he attended on a wrestling scholarship.

In 1975, as a joke, Danza's friends entered him in the New York City Golden Gloves. After knocking out his first six opponents, Danza was knocked out in the finals.

During his first year of college, he got the Robert Crumb "Keep on Truckin' tattoo on his upper right arm. In a 1985 interview in Us Weekly magazine, Danza remarked, "I was playing pool with a guy who had all these tattoos, and I wanted to be friends." Danza sports a "Keep Punching" boxing gloves tattoo on his right shoulder. In college, Danza met and married his first wife.

Danza was a professional boxer with a 9"3 record, with all but one of his fights, wins and losses, ending by knockout.

Tony Danza was also ordained by the Universal Life Church, and has been an ordained minister for many years.

Shortly after his college graduation, Danza was discovered by a producer at a boxing gymnasium in New York. He then earned a spot on the television show Taxi. In 1986, Danza married for the second time, to Tracy Robinson. The couple separated in 2006 and filed for divorce on March 10, 2011. The divorce was finalized on February 6, 2013. They have two daughters, Katherine (born 1987) and Emily (born 1993). In 2005, Tony Danza became a grandfather when his son Marc and his son's wife, Julie, had a son, Nicholas. In 2008, Danza and his son Marc published a cookbook, Don't Fill Up on the Antipasto: Tony Danza's Father-Son Cookbook.

Source:

|-align=center |Win || 9"3 || align=left| Johnny Heard}} || KO || 3 || || || Phoenix, Arizona, USA || |-align=center |Win || 8"3 || align=left| Max Hord}} || KO || 1 || || || Felt Forum, New York City, New York, USA || |-align=center |Win || 7"3 || align=left| Billy Perez}} || KO || 1 || || || Brooklyn, New York, USA || |-align=center |Win || 6"3 || align=left| Tony Rodriguez}}   || KO || 1 || || || Brooklyn, New York, USA || |-align=center |Win || 5"3 || align=left| Ray Bryant}} || KO || 1 || ||      || Roll-a-Rama, Brooklyn, New York, USA || |-align=center |Loss || 4"3 || align=left| Morris Watkins}} || TKO || 1 || || ||   Westchester County Center, White Plains, New York, USA   || |-align=center |Win || 4"2 || align=left| Ralph Garcia}} || TKO || 1 || || || Nanuet, New York, USA || |-align=center |Win || 3"2 || align=left| Joey Mascetti}} || TKO || 1 || || ||   Westchester County Center, White Plains, New York, USA   || |-align=center |Win || 2"2 || align=left| Tom Molloy}} || KO || 3 || || || Long Island Arena, Commack, New York, USA || |-align=center |Loss || 1"2 || align=left| Barry Hill}} || Points || 4 || || || Dover, New Jersey, USA || |-align=center |Loss || 1"1 || align=left| John LoCicero}} || KO || 1 || || || Sunnyside Gardens, Queens, New York, USA || |-align=center |Win || 1"0 || align=left| Earl Harris}} || KO || 1 || || || New York City, New York, USA || |}

Acting, show business, and teaching

Danza is better known for his roles on Taxi, in which he played cab driver and part-time boxer Tony Banta, and Who's the Boss?, in which he portrayed retired baseball player, housekeeper and single father Tony Micelli.

Danza also starred in the short-lived sitcoms Hudson Street (1995) and The Tony Danza Show (1997), not to be confused with his talk show of the same name. He had a role in the TV drama Family Law from 2000 until 2002. He took his first role, a nonspeaking part as a poker player in National Lampoon's Animal House.

He was nominated for an Emmy Award for a guest-starring 1998 role in the TV series The Practice. His movie debut was in the comedy The Hollywood Knights (1980), which was followed by Going Ape! (1981). He received critical acclaim for his performance in the 1999 Broadway revival of the Eugene O'Neill play The Iceman Cometh. In 2002, Danza released his debut album The House I Live In as a 1950s-style crooner.

Danza hosted his own TV talk show, The Tony Danza Show, that was produced each weekday morning in his hometown of New York and was syndicated across the US. On May 9, 2005, during a go-kart race with NASCAR star Rusty Wallace, who was a guest on the show, Danza's kart flipped after Wallace accidentally bumped him. Neither he nor Wallace was wearing a helmet at the time, but both were uninjured. Danza returned to go-kart racing on October 20, 2005, to challenge IndyCar driver Danica Patrick, but his brakes malfunctioned and he skidded into a wall, unharmed. His daytime talk show ended in May 2006; the last live episode aired on May 26, 2006.

He starred on Broadway as "Max Bialystock" in The Producers, from December 19, 2006, to March 11, 2007 and reprised his role at the Paris Las Vegas from August 13, 2007, to February 9, 2008.

In September 2008, it was reported that Danza would host the 4th season of The Contender, which was filmed in Singapore and began airing in December 2008 on the Versus TV sports channel.

In August 2009, it was reported that Danza would appear in a new A&E reality show Teach: Tony Danza, in which he would co-instruct a 10th Grade English class at Northeast High School in Philadelphia. The series was filmed during the 2009-2010 school year and premiered on October 1, 2011. The book I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High, which was released in 2012, was based on his year of teaching.

A Broadway adaptation of 1992 film Honeymoon in Vegas is scheduled to open on a pre-Broadway run at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse starting September 26, 2013, co-starring Danza and Tony nominee Rob McClure with Gary Griffin directing.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1980	The Hollywood Knights	Duke
1980	Murder Can Hurt You	Pony Lambretta	Television movie
1981	Going Ape!	Foster
1984	Cannonball Run II	Terry
1984	Single Bars, Single Woman	Dennis	Television movie
1986	Doing Life	Jerry Rosenberg	Television movie
1988	Mr. Thompson and His Bananas	Geraldo Thompson
1988	Freedom Fighter	Vic Ross	Television movie
1989	She's Out of Control	Doug Simpson	Nominated-Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actor
1991	The Whereabouts of Jenny	Rowdy Patron	Television movie
1991	Dead and Alive: The Race for Gus Farace	Constiible Farace	Television movie
1992	I'm From Hollywood	Himself
1994	Angels in the Outfield	Mel Clark
1994	The Mighty Jungle	Vinnie, the Alligator	Television movie
1995	Deadly Whispers	Tom Acton	Television movie
1996	Illtown	D'Avalon
1996	Dear God	Himself	Uncredited
1996	North Shore Fish	Sal	Television movie
1997	Glam	Sid
1997	The Girl Gets Moe	Moe
1997	A Brooklyn State of Mind	Louie Crisci
1997	Meet Wally Sparks	New York Cab Driver
1997	12 Angry Men	Juror #7	Television movie
1998	The Garbage Picking Field Goal Kicking Philadelphia Phenomenon	Barney Gorman
1998	Noah	Norman Waters	Television movie
2003	Stealing Christmas	Jack Clayton	Television movie
2004	The Whisper	Simon
2004	Crash	Fred
2006	Cloud 9	Himself	Uncredited
2009	The Nail: The Story of Joey Nardone	Chickie
2010	Firedog	Rocky
2013	Don Jon	Jon, Sr.
2013	Aftermath	King

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978"1983	Taxi	Tony Banta	114 episodes Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film
1983	The Love Boat	Bud O'Hara	2 episodes
1984"1992	Who's the Boss?	Tony Micelli	196 episodes Nominated"?Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy (1986"1987, 1989) Nominated"?TV Land Award for Single Dad of the Year
1991"1992	Baby Talk	Baby Mickey Campbell	35 episodes
1995"1996	Hudson Street	Tony Canetti	22 episodes
1997"1998	The Tony Danza Show	Tony DiMeo	14 episodes People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a Television Series
1998	The Practice	Tommy Silva	4 episodes Nominated"?Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series
2000"2002	Family Law	Joe Celano	25 episodes
2000	King of the Hill	Himself	Episode: "Peggy's Fan Fair"
2001	Family Guy	Himself	Episode: "Ready, Willing and Disabled"
2005	All My Children	Hotel Manager	Episode: "May 18, 2005"
2008	Rita Rocks	Matt Morelli	Episode: "The Crying Game"
2010	Teach: Tony Danza	Himself	7 episodes