Tony Danza

Tony Danza (born Anthony Salvatore Iadanza; April 21, 1951) is an American actor.

Danza was born on April 21, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Anna Mary (née Camisa; 1925–1993) and Matthew Anthony "Matty" Iadanza (1920–1983).

His mother was a bookkeeper and his father worked as a waste collector in Brooklyn.

Danza's paternal grandparents were from Pietrelcina, Benevento, Campania, Italy, and his mother was an immigrant from the town of Campobello di Mazara in the Sicilian province of Trapani.

He has a younger brother, Matty Jr. (born 1954), a Los Angeles restaurant owner.

He lived in East New York, Brooklyn until he was 14, and his family relocated to Malverne, New York, on Long Island.

Danza attended Malverne Senior High School, graduating in 1968.

In the first episode of his show Teach: Tony Danza, Danza describes himself as a "bad student" in high school.

He earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1972 from the University of Dubuque, which he attended on a wrestling scholarship.

In 1975, as a joke, Danza's friends entered him in the New York City Golden Gloves Tournament.

After knocking out his first six opponents all in the first round, Danza was knocked out in the finals.

During his first year of college, he had the Robert Crumb "Keep on Truckin'" character tattooed on his upper right arm.

He is known for co-starring in the television series Taxi (1978–1983) and Who's the Boss? (1984–1992), for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards.

He then earned a spot on the television show Taxi (1978-1983), playing a cab driver and part-time boxer Tony Banta, and later starred on Who's the Boss? (1984–1992), in which he portrayed Tony Micelli, a former baseball player, housekeeper, and single father.

He has also appeared in films such as The Hollywood Knights (1980), Going Ape! (1981), She's Out of Control (1989), Angels in the Outfield (1994), Crash (2004), and Don Jon (2013).

Danza's movie debut was in the comedy The Hollywood Knights (1980), which was followed by Going Ape! (1981), Cannonball Run II (1984), and She's Out of Control (1989).

In a 1985 interview in Us Weekly magazine, Danza remarked, "I was playing pool with a guy who had all these tattoos, and I wanted to be friends."

Danza also sports a "Keep Punching" boxing gloves tattoo on his right shoulder as well as "Tracy", his (former) wife's name, on his chest.

In college, Danza met and married his first wife.

Danza was a professional boxer with a record of 9 wins and 3 losses (9 knockouts, 7 in the first round), with all but one of his fights ending in a knockout, including three technical knockouts.

Shortly after his college graduation from the University of Dubuque, Danza was discovered by a producer at a boxing gymnasium in New York.

For his contribution to the television industry, in 1988, Danza was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000 Hollywood Boulevard.

Later films included the role of Mel Clark, a baseball player, in Angels in the Outfield (1994), Juror No. 7 in the TV-movie 12 Angry Men (1997), and Fred in Crash (2004).

Danza also starred in the short-lived sitcoms Hudson Street (1995) and The Tony Danza Show (1997), not to be confused with his 2004–2006 talk show, The Tony Danza Show.

In 1998, Danza won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Performer in a New Television Series for his work on the 1997 sitcom The Tony Danza Show (not to be confused with his 2004–2006 daytime variety talk show of the same name).

He was nominated for an Emmy Award for a guest-starring 1998 role in the TV series The Practice.

He received critical acclaim for his performance in the 1999 Broadway revival of the Eugene O'Neill play The Iceman Cometh.

He had a role in the TV drama Family Law from 2000 until 2002.

In 2002, Danza released his debut album The House I Live In as a 1950s-style crooner.

Danza hosted his own TV talk show, The Tony Danza Show (2004-2006), that was produced each weekday morning in his hometown of New York and was syndicated across the US.

On May 9, 2005, during a go-kart race with NASCAR star Rusty Wallace, who was a guest on the show, Danza's kart flipped after Wallace accidentally bumped him.

Neither he nor Wallace was wearing a helmet at the time, and both were uninjured.

Danza returned to go-kart racing on October 20, 2005, to challenge IndyCar driver Danica Patrick, but his brakes malfunctioned and he skidded into a wall, unharmed.

His daytime talk show ended in May 2006; the last live episode aired on May 26, 2006.

He starred on Broadway as Max Bialystock in The Producers, from December 19, 2006, to March 11, 2007, and reprised his role at the Paris Las Vegas from August 13, 2007, to February 9, 2008.

Danza hosted the 4th season of The Contender in 2008.

A Broadway adaptation of the 1992 film Honeymoon in Vegas opened on a pre-Broadway run at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse on September 26, 2013, co-starring Danza and Tony nominee Rob McClure, with Gary Griffin directing.

Danza portrayed Jon Martello Sr. in Don Jon (2013).

Danza was inducted into the Ride of Fame in December 2014, and the double-decker sightseeing bus commemorated his role in the Broadway musical.

He also starred as Tony Caruso Sr. in the 2018 Netflix series, The Good Cop as "a disgraced, former NYPD officer who never followed the rules."