Joe Pesci: Oh motherfucking shit! It's the wrong fucking bag! The motherfucking boss is going to have my fat fucking tub of fucking lard ass for this. Fuck!
David Spade: Is all the swearing necessary?
Joe Pesci: I'm fucking Joe Pesci, you fucking idiot.
Joseph Pesci was born
Febrary 9, 1943 in
Newark,
New Jersey. He started working on a
radio show at age four. In
1953,
Pesci was a
regular on the show
Star Time Kids, a
TV variety show.
During the fifties, Pesci's career seemed to stagnate, and in the mid-1960ies, after dropping out of high school, he recorded the LP "Little Joe Sure can Sing" under the name of Joe Ritchie. After a short job as a guitar player in Joey Dee and the Starliters Band, Pesci formed a comedy group with his friend Frank Vincent and together they performed in night clubs.
Pesci returned to New York to run an italian restaurant after he tried acting in the largely unsuccessful movie The Death Collector with Frank Vincent in 1975.
"I couldn't get any jobs, and when that happens, you get so humble it's disgusting. I didn't feel like a man anymore -- I felt really creepy. I was bumping into walls and saying, excuse me".
However, Robert De Niro had seen The Death Collector, and De Niro told Martin Scorsese that Pesci should play the role as De Niro's brother in Raging Bull (1980). The role earned him an academy award nomination.
After cementing his career in 1989 with Lethal Weapon 2, Joe Pesci went on to play parts in two more Scorsese films, Goodfellas in 1990 (which earned him an Oscar for best supporting actor) and Casino in 1995.
Pesci has specialized in two kinds of roles, the psychopathic wiseguy (Goodfellas, Casino, etc) and the hilarious funny guy (Home Alone, My Cousin Vinny, etc).