Who would have thought that an error made during a dress rehearsal would start an impressive acting career for one of television’s celebrated actors? Tony Shalhoub was only six years old when his older sister brought him to her high school to join their theater’s adaptation of the King and I. At the final dress rehearsal, Tony stood on the wrong side of the curtain. Nevertheless, Tony still felt an attachment to the theater. He pursued his desire through and through, earning a bachelor’s degree in drama from the University of Southern Maine and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama. After spending four seasons in the American Repertory Theater, he moved to New York, the center of thespian activity. It wasn’t long before he started starring in major productions such as The Odd Couple, Conversations with My Father, and Waiting For Godot.
In 1991, Tony Shalhoub made a breakthrough in the entertainment industry by appearing as Italian cabdriver Antonio Scarpacci in the long-running sitcom Wings. His earlier career, however, was marked with appearances in The Equalizer and Spenser: For Hire, as well as three made-for-TV productions. He later landed a role in the dramedy Barton Fink, starring John Turturro and John Goodman. Later, Shalhoub played the lead victim in an episode of The X Files, and was cast in the 1993 film Addams Family Values. When Wings was canceled by NBC in 1997, he moved on to appear on the big screen. He was a sleazy alien pawn shop owner in the Men in Black films, a lawyer in The Man Who Wasn’t There, an attorney in A Civil Action, a businessman in Primary Colors and a widowed father in Thir13en Ghosts. He has also been seen in Big Night and Galaxy Quest. He returned to television in 1999, taking on a lead role opposite Neil Patrick Harris in Stark Raving Mad. It ended in July 2000, and Shalhoub was left to look for other projects to contain his acting talents. He was cast in three Spy Kids films, Life or Something Like It, and the sci-fi thriller Impostor. He soon landed the title role in the popular series Monk, playing the obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk. For his performance, he won the Golden Globe Award in 2003, as well as the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2004 and 2005. He was also in the horror 1408 alongside John Cusack, and voiced the character Luigi in the Disney-Pixar film Cars.