Emmy Award-winning actor Joe Pantoliano was born in Hoboken, New Jersey on September 12, 1951. Suffering from dyslexia when he was a kid, he thought that acting was the only way out of a life that seemed to lead to criminal behavior. He moved to New York City, where he trained at the HB Studio and took roles on stage productions to build his acting credits.
He then moved to Los Angeles in 1976, where he finally got stints in television programs. He first appeared in the six-part miniseries From Here to Eternity. He made his film debut in the 1980 musical drama The Idolmaker. He gained prominence, however, upon playing the role of “the Killer Pimp” Guido in the 1983 comedy Risky Business, which also stars Tom Cruise. He then appeared in films such as The Goonies, Running Scared, Empire of the Sun, La Bamba, The In Crowd, Downtown, and Baby’s Day Out. He also starred in the miniseries Robert Kennedy and His Times in 1987, and in the critical and commercial hit film The Fugitive in 1993.
Pantoliano’s biggest box office hit to date, however, is The Matrix, where he played Cypher, one of the rebels inside Morpheus’ (Laurence Fishburne) hovercraft. In 2001, he was included in the cast of the popular HBO drama The Sopranos. His role as Ralph Cifaretto—the intelligent but diabolic and most sociopathic member of the entire Soprano crew—earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2003.
His recent credits include The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Daredevil, Bad Boys II, Wedding Daze and Canvas. He also provided his voice to several animated features, including Cats & Dogs, Racing Stripes and an episode of The Simpsons. He has also recently admitted that he is suffering from clinical depression for the past decade, although he was only lately diagnosed.