Calogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri (born May 15, 1952) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor and writer, best known for his performances in The Usual Suspects, A Bronx Tale and Mulholland Falls.

Early life and film career

Palminteri, a Sicilian/Italian American,members.aol.com/morgands2/text/palminteri.htm was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Rose, a homemaker, and Lorenzo Palminteri, a bus driver.www.filmreference.com/film/2/Chazz-Palminteri.html The Bronx has had considerable influence on his work, particularly in A Bronx Tale, a play which he wrote and adapted into a 1993 film which starred him and Robert De Niro. The film was acclaimed and opened doors to Palminteri as an actor, and supporting roles in Hollywood films such as The Usual Suspects and Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway followed, the latter earning Palminteri an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination.