The actor has been very active in all fields, theater, TV series and cinema, up to the present day and has received numerous awards.
In 2017, the city of Chicago decided to pay homage to Joe Mantegna with a street in his name.
His name is Joe Mantegna and we are going to be talking about his net worth, career path and personal life, so stick with us to find out more.
Early Life
Joseph Anthony Mantegna was born in Chicago (Illinois) on November 13, 1947. He is a well-known actor, voice actor, director and TV producer.
One of his best known roles is David Rossi, the protagonist of the TV series “Criminal Minds”, of which he also directed several episodes.
The actor has Italian origins: his father, Joseph Henry, an insurance professional, is from Calascibetta (Enna); the mother, Mary Ann Novelli, employed, is from Acquaviva delle sources (Bari).
Joe attended Morton East High School and later the Goodman School of Drama. He played bass as a boy and has been a member of various emerging music bands, such as The Apocryphals, The Missing Link and others. Baseball is his favorite sport.
The actor has been very active in all fields, theater, TV series and cinema, up to the present day and has received numerous awards.
In 2017, the city of Chicago decided to pay homage to Joe Mantegna with a street in his name. His name will be Honorary Joe Mantegna Way.
Joe Mantegna has been married since 1975 to Arlene Vrhel, restaurateur, and they have two daughters, Gia and Mia. The former has also embarked on a film career, while the latter has autism and works as a make-up artist.
In the 70s he made his debut on Broadway, in “Working”, and in the cinema, in the film “Medusa Challenger”. Joe Mantegna has appeared in over 100 films.
He starred in several films by director David Mamet, including: “The House of Games” (1987), “Things Change” (1988), “Homicide” (1991) and “Redbelt” (2008); and Woody Allen: “Alice” (1990) and “Celebrity” (1998).
In 2004 he starred in the film “Pontormo”, by the Italian director Giovanni Fago. In addition, in 1990 he played Joey Zasa in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather – Part III.
The first TV series in which he collaborated is “The Twilight Zone” or “On the edge of reality” in 1987 and since 2007 he is part of the cast of “Criminal minds”.
Career Path
Joe Mantegna may not be an A-list actor in Hollywood, but that doesn’t mean that his career endeavors aren’t worth mentioning: In the series “Criminal Minds” he flickers regularly over the focusing screens and in America he regularly has that Mafia boss Fat Tony borrowed his voice from “The Simpsons”.
The best-known roles that actor Joe Mantegna could tick off in his profile were probably in the gangster epic “The Godfather – Part III” and the romantic drama “Up close” alongside Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Of course, that’s not all in his long list of films and series: As an executive producer, he also has a number of films and television films.
Joe Mantegna grew up in Chicago, where his origin determined some of his later roles: As an Italo-American, he actually grew up in the cultural environment that Hollywood later stylized as the stereotype of mafia life.
The actor eventually studied drama at university, which earned young Joe his first roles on New York’s Broadway. In the 1970s he was so successful on stage that he won a “Tony Award” – the Broadway equivalent to the “Oscar” – for his roles.
Joe Mantegna made his film debut in 1977 in the short film “Medusa Challenger”: With excellent reviews in his pocket, the actor was then able to immediately start working on other projects.
With David Mamet, with whom he had already worked on Broadway, he often collaborated, for example in 1991 in “Homicide – Murder Commission”.
Joe Mantegna, however, had to put a lot of effort into his career in order not to play the same Italian-American mafia character again and again – in 1990 he even made fun of himself in the comedy show “Saturday Night Live”, the cliché only with difficulty escape.
The actor has appeared regularly in the crime series “Criminal Minds” since 2011, after his predecessor Mandy Patinkin left the series.
This American actor with an all-Italian surname is very nice. Unforgettable roles in the cinema, a happy marriage that has lasted for more than thirty years, no gossip about it and a particular passion for made in Italy cuisine.
Far from the spotlight, he is a talented theater actor, a permanent member of the company directed by the playwright David Mamet, but he also loves to juggle dubbing. The dim voice of the mobster Tony Ciccione from The Simpsons is his.
Born into an Italian-American family from Illinois, he attended Morton East High School in Cicero and then enrolled in the Goodman School of Drama dramatic art school.
His debut is at the theater in the musical “Hair” (1969), followed by his Broadway debut in “Working” and by numerous lucky participations that gave him fame and the prestigious Tony Award in 1984.
In the meantime, private life is enriched of the marriage with Arlene Vrehl and two daughters, Mia and Gina who started their film career following in the footsteps of their father.
Cinema arrives late in Mantegna’s life. The first steps in front of the camera are in the short film with Steven Elkins’ Medusa Challenger (1977) and Marc Leif’s A Steady Rain (1978).
In the feature film, he made his debut with the comedy Towing (1978), followed by numerous minor films, mostly passed on TV channels, among which Xanadu (1980) stands out, a disgraceful attempt to remake the old Giù sulla terra with Rita Hayworth.
We also see it in some episodes of different TV series, from Soap to Archie Bunker’s Place, from Simon & Simon to the hugely popular sci-fi show On the edge of reality.
At the cinema he is engaged in the yellow Compromising positions (1985) alongside a splendid Susan Sarandon, followed by the romantic comedy Casa, dolce casa (1986), Un policeman out of his mind (1986), the hilarious Three amigos (1986) and the insane Reserved Prognosis (1987) by Michael Apted.
In the same year the artistic partnership began with the playwright / director David Mamet, already known in the theater and now a great friend of film companies: he is an irreducible gambler in the house of games, a mafia in crisis in Things change and a homicide detective on Homicide.
Author cinema wants him to be the protagonist, so we also see him in Alice (1990) by Woody Allen, in The Godfather – Part III (1990) by Francis Ford Coppola and in Bugsy (1991) by Barry Levinson.
A not too glorious period followed, in which he dedicated himself to TV (also a guest on Saturday Night Live) and to minor films that do not honor his talent. This stalemate sees him involved in the yellow Body of Evidence (1992), in the comedy Baby Birba (1994) and in Airheads – A band to be launched (1994).
They are films that allow him to confront the comic genre but Mantegna, while demonstrating a certain versatility, manages to express himself best in dramatic and intense roles.
In the mid-nineties he was directed by his colleague Kevin Spacey in the detective Unusual criminals and shortly thereafter he was recalled by Woody Allen to participate in the choral Celebrity, a film that marks his return to more rewarding engagements, not only cinematographic.
In 2002 he was one of the protagonists of the TV series Corte suprema which had an incredible success with the public (as well as a permanent character in Joan of Arcadia, the least known show in Italy), after which he played the role of the Italian painter Pontormo in the eponymous film directed by Giovanni Fago and takes part in Rodrigo Garcia’s 9 Lives for Women Episode Film.
In the meantime, he continues his collaboration with I Simpson (he is the voice of Tony Ciccione) and continues his journey in quality cinema: he is in the thriller Edmond (2005), in the dramatic Elvis and Anabelle (2007), in the comedy Witless Protection (2008) and in the horror The House That Jack Built (2008).
But the best works of the moment are undoubtedly the return of the collaboration with his friend David Mamet in the action movie Redbelt (2008) and the role of David Rossi, who brilliantly replaced the actor Mandy Patinkin, in the TV series Criminal Minds ( broadcast since 2005).
Personal life
Joe Mantegna, Joseph Anthony Mantegna, was born in Chicago on November 13, 1947, known today as a very successful American actor, above all for his role in the Criminal Minds television series.
Mantegna grew up within an Italian-American family in Illinois, making her debut in the musical comedy Hair in 1969.
Joe Mantegna attended Morton East High School in Cicero, subsequently entering the Goodman School of Drama dramatic art school.
In 1975 he married the restaurateur Arlene Vrhel, with whom he had two daughters.
Joe Mantegna made his Broadway debut in 1978 in Working, winning the Tony Award for Richard Roma’s performance in David Mamet’s musical Glengarry Glen Ross in 1984.
In 1977 the actor made his feature film debut with the film Medusa Challenger, winning in 1988 the Volpi Cup for the best male performance at the Venice Film Festival for the film Things change.
Joe Mantegna also starred in the films Airheads, Baby Birba – A Day in Freedom, The Godfather – Part III by Francis Ford Coppola. For Italian cinema Joe Mantegna worked in Pontormo in the homonymous film directed by Giovanni Fago, receiving the “Lifetime Achievement Award” at the Los Angeles Italian Film Festival in 2004.
As a voice actor Mantegna lends his voice to Tony Ciccione, in the cartoon The Simpsons, replacing the actor Mandy Patinkin in Criminal Minds, playing the special supervisor supervisor David Rossi in 2007, receiving the star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011 Los Angeles.
Quick summary
Full name: Joe Mantegna
Date of birth: November 13, 1947
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Age: 72
Profession: Actor
Height: 1.85 m
Weight: 82 kg
Net Worth: 18$ million