Career
Aiello broke into films in the early 1970s. One of his earliest roles came as a ballplayer in the 1973 baseball drama, Bang the Drum Slowly, with Robert De Niro. Aiello had a walk-on role as small-time hood Tony Rosato in The Godfather Part II (1974), ad-libbing the famous line "Michael Corleone says hello!" during a hit on a rival gangster Frank Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo).
In 1980, Aiello had a co-lead role with Jan Michael Vincent in Defiance, about some Manhattan residents who fight back against the thugs terrorizing the neighborhood. He received considerable acclaim for playing a racist New York City cop in Fort Apache: The Bronx (1981) with Paul Newman.
He was paired with DeNiro again for the 1984 Sergio Leone gangster epic, Once Upon a Time in America, as a police chief whose name was also "Aiello." His many film appearances included three for director Woody Allen, who cast him in The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway Danny Rose and Radio Days.
Although his characters have often been vulgar and violent, Aiello has also portrayed sensitive, kindly men with an earthy sense of humor. He gained recognition as the befuddled fiance of Cher opposite her Oscar-winning performance in the romantic comedy Moonstruck (1987), and the actor made a comic appearance in drag for the Robert Altman fashion-industry film Prêt-à-Porter. He also had sympathetic roles in the 1990 horror thriller Jacob's Ladder and the 1991 comedy-drama 29th Street. In the early 1990s film The Professional, Aiello had a small cameo role as a nefarious cafe owner who assigns jobs to a hitman, played by Jean Reno.
He played nightclub owner and Lee Harvey Oswald assassin Jack Ruby in the 1992 biopic Ruby and a political bigshot with mob ties in City Hall, starring Al Pacino.
Aiello's singing has been on display in films such as Hudson Hawk, Once Around; and Remedy that starred his son Ricky Aiello and Jonathan Doscher. He has released several albums featuring a big-band sound including "I Just Wanted To Hear The Words" from 2004 and "Live From Atlantic City" from 2008. Aiello and EMI songwriter Hasan Johnson are releasing an album in 2009 of standards fused with rap entitled "Bridges."
In 1981 Danny Aiello won a Daytime Emmy award for his appearance in an ABC Afterschool Special called A Family of Strangers.
He played the title character for the video of Madonna's song, "Papa Don't Preach."
Aiello's Broadway theatre credits include Gemini, The Floating Light Bulb, Hurlyburly, and The House of Blue Leaves. He also was in the 1976 Broadway play Wheelbarrow Closers, which was directed by Paul Sorvino.
In July, 2011, opened Off Broadway in the two-act drama "The Shoemaker," written by Susan Charlotte and directed by Antony Marsellis. The play is a stage version of his 2006 movie A Broken Sole, which began life in 2001 as a one-act play.
In the fall of 2012, Aiello will star in the independent feature film "Dolly Baby" written and directed by Kevin Jordan. This will be the second feature film Aiello starred in directed by Jordan. Aiello starred in Jordan's 'Brooklyn Lobster" which premiered at The Toronto Film Festival in 2005.
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