Who

The character actor of choice for directors like Spike Lee and the Coen Brothers, Turturro has appeared in nearly five dozen films over the past 25 years.

Backstory

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Rosedale, Queens, a young Turturro figured he'd end up following in his construction worker dad's footsteps, and worked on building sites all through his teens. He changed his mind after high school, when he majored in acting at SUNY New Paltz and won a scholarship to the Yale School of Drama. Turturro had an uncredited role in Raging Bull (a moving performance as "Guy at Table") and began his acting career in regional and off-Broadway theater, winning a 1984 Obie for his performance in John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. He paid the bills as a bartender and high school history teacher before earning a string of small roles in the mid-1980s in films like Desperately Seeking Susan and The Color of Money.

In 1989, Turturro finally won his first meaty screen role: Pino in Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. Two years later, critics raved about his performance in the Coen brothers' Barton Fink, which earned him the award for Best Actor at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival. Since then, Turturro's played a range of characters of nearly every ethnicity, including child molester Jesus Quintana in the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski and a mentally disturbed patient named Chuck in Anger Management. The actor's probably best known, though, for his close association with Lee: Since Do the Right Thing, he's had roles in Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Clockers (1995), Girl 6 (1996), He Got Game (1998), Summer of Sam (1999) and She Hate Me (2004).

Recently

In recent years, Turturro has also turned to directing, with films like Illuminata and Romance and Cigarettes, starring James Gandolfini and Kate Winslet. He still finds time for the stage, too: He appeared in Life (x) 3 with Helen Hunt in 2003 and directed the American premiere of A Spanish Play by Yasmin Reza off-Broadway in 2007. More recently, he appeared on the big screen in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd and Michael Bay's Transformers.

Family ties

Most of the Turturro clan is in the biz: His brother Nicholas Turturro has appeared in NYPD Blue, Third Watch, and King of Queens. His cousin is Aida Turturro, who played Tony Soprano's (James Gandolfini) sister on The Sopranos.

Personal

He's married to actress Katherine Borowitz, who has had roles in Law & Order and also appeared in Turturro's directorial debut, Illuminata. They have two sons, Amedeo and Diego, and live on President Street in Park Slope.