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Tony Amendola
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Tony Amendola wears a necklace called the Crossing Key or the Key of Creativity through Challenge. He got the necklace in 2000 at the BOBW convention in Sydney, Australia.
Acting is very schizophrenic because you'll have one director who'll say "no, smaller, smaller, you're doing far too much, you're doing far too much, smaller," and then you'll have a director saying "what are you doing? You know, give me something" and Mario's larger than life, and I have to make that adjustment. I'm watching him and he's a bear of a man, much bigger than I am, so I said "this take I'm going for it. I'm going for it. I don't care, what are they gonna do? If they don't like it, they'll cut it."
Tony Amendola
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Tony Amendola
New Haven, Connecticut
Born in New Haven Connecticut into a blue-collar family, Tony was the first member of his family to attend college. He grew up on the East Coast before his work took him throughout the world.
He spent the first 12 years almost exclusively 9in the theatre appearing Off-Broadway in an acclaimed production of “Filumena” and in leading roles on the stages of America’s top regional theatres, including the Mark Taper Forum, American Conservatory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe. (Theatrical credits include Cyrano, Iago, Uncle Vanya, Cassius, Malvolio, Petruchio, Antony, Shely, Levine, Teach, and Jack Henry Abbot in “In the Belly of the Beast”.)
Hoping to expand his craft and career, Tony moved to Los Angeles to seek work in film and television.
His film work as been varied and rewarding, including appearances opposite Johnny Depp in Ted Demme’s Blow, Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas in Martin Campbell’s The Mask of Zorro, Chris Cooper in John Sayles’s Lone Star. His TV guest star roles include “West Wing”, multiple episodes on “the Practice”, “Judging Amy”, “Robbery Homicide Division”, “X-Files”, and a long running role on “Stargate SG-1” as Master Bra-Tac (a Jaffa Obi-Wan).
The past 18 months have been productive and Tony has four films awaiting release, including Dragon Slayer opposite John Rhys Davis, Club Dread with Bill Paxton, Shade, with Gabriel Byrne and Sylvester Stallone, and a wonderful part as a blind sorcerer in Forbidden Warrior directed by Jimmy Nickerson.
Tony has a passion for studying languages, currently struggling to attain fluency in Italian and Spanish. He avidly practices yoga, loves to cook and lives in Silver Lake with his wife Judith.
And, oh yes-he was thrilled to appear at the new Disney Hall in their premiere First Night series for Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.
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Tony was born and raised in New Haven, Conneticut.
He attended Southern Connecticut State University and graduated in 1974. After that, he went on to attend Temple University in Philadelphia, graduating in 1977 with a Master of Fine Arts Degree.
In 1978, he decided to make the move to Los Angeles to find work in film and television. Though this move was originally meant to be temporary, he lives there with his wife to this day.
Tony is a theater-trained actor, and he has a long history of stage performances. Some of these include: "American Buffalo" as "Teach"; "Othello" as "Iago"; "Filumena" as "Domenico"; and "Taming of the Shrew" as "Petruchio".
He speaks Spanish and Italian.
Some of his interests include: Italian cooking, museums, art galleries and yoga.
His favorite play is "Taming of the Shrew" and his favorite "Stargate SG-1" (1997) episode is "Threshold".
Tony's favorite charities are: Doctor's Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity, and the American Red Cross.
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