With a haunting portrayal of an unstable Vietnam War recruit in Stanley Kubrick’s gritty Full Metal Jacket in 1987, Emmy-nominated and acclaimed feature-film actor Vincent D’Onofrio gained attention for his intense and compelling talent on the screen. Born on June 30, 1959 in Brooklyn, New York, the actor and producer graduated from Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School in Florida. His family moved around often and he grew up in Hawaii, Florida and Colorado. He soon dropped out of Colorado University after 18 months, and pursued acting when he got accepted to the American Stanislavsky Theatre in New York. He appeared on its productions of Of Mice and Men and Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He soon made his Broadway debut acting as Nick Rizzoli in Open Admissions.
Vincent D’Onofrio obtained mainstream fame with Full Metal Jacket and with the Chris Columbus-directed Adventures in Babysitting. Since then, he appeared on a number of films like Mystic Pizza, Tim Burton’s Ed Wood starring Johnny Depp, and Men in Black. He was also seen in Nancy Savoca’s Household Saints, as a Yippie founder in Steal This Movie, and the serial killer Carl in The Cell. D’Onofrio has also been involved in film production and direction. He is credited for his work in The Whole Wide World, Guy, The Velocity of Gary and 2000’s Steal This Movie. His television credits include an appearance in Homicide: Life on the Street, which earned him an Emmy nomination. In 2001, he appeared on TV again, as Robert Goren in the drama series Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He portrayed the quirky and extraordinarily intelligent investigator and profiler, opposite co-stars Kathryn Erbe, Jamey Sheridan, Courtney Vance and Leslie Hendrix. D’Onofrio was also given roles in 2005’s drama comedy Thumbsucker starring Keanu Reeves and Tilda Swinton, and the romantic comedy The Break-Up in 2006.