Joe Pantoliano, or as I now call him “Joey Pants”, is simply put, one of the great character actors of the last 30 years, having built an amazingly memorable career playing incredible roles (Over 100 Film, Television, And Theater Credits!) in some of the biggest and most memorable movies/TV Shows of my generation’s lifetime.
A favorite of directors Richard Donner, Steven Spielberg, Andrew Davis, and Andy and Larry Wachowski, he is known as a scene stealer whose characters have become legendary in some of Hollywood’s greatest moments — including killer pimp Guido in Risky Business (1983), bumbling criminal Francis Fratelli in The Goonies (1985), double-crossing bail bondsman Eddie Moscone in Midnight Run (1988), cynical U.S. Marshall Cosmo Renfro in The Fugitive (1993), turncoat Cypher in The Matrix (1999), shady sidekick Teddy in Memento (2000), and sooo much more. But one role that is always talked about, and one of the greatest villains in TV of the last quarter century, was portraying psychopathic mobster Ralphie Cifaretto on one of the most groundbreaking and pioneering shows in history, HBO’s ‘The Sopranos”, which nabbed Joey an Emmy for “Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series”.
