John Ventimiglia

John Ventimiglia
Ventimiglia in 2019
Born	1963 or 1964 (age 60–61) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1985–present
Spouse	Belinda Cape (m. 1991)
Children	2

John Ventimiglia (/vɛntɪˈmiːljə/, Italian: [ventiˈmiʎʎa]; born 1963 or 1964)^[1] is an American actor. He portrayed Artie Bucco in the HBO television series The Sopranos and had a recurring role as Dino Arbogast, an Organized Crime Control Bureau Chief for the NYPD, on the American police procedural/drama series Blue Bloods on CBS.

Early life

Ventimiglia was born in Ridgewood, Queens to Sicilian immigrants from Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey.^[2][3] Ventimiglia grew up speaking Sicilian at home with his parents and still speaks fluent Sicilian to this day.^[2][4] He graduated from Teaneck High School in 1981 where he played on the football team.^[5] In the 1980s he lived in the East Village with Michael Imperioli, who would later play Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos.^[6]

Career

Ventimiglia has had parts in feature films such as Cop Land, Jesus' Son, The Iceman, The Funeral, The Wannabe, and Mickey Blue Eyes and has appeared in numerous television shows including Law & Order and NYPD Blue. He also made a brief cameo in the made-for-television movie Gotti.

In August 2007, Ventimiglia and the David Amram quartet presented a musical and oral homage to sociologist C. Wright Mills and beat author Jack Kerouac. They continued with a Kerouac show in Denmark in autumn of 2007. Ventimiglia starred in the comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead (2008), playing the role of Theo Horace. In 2008, he played a small role as a police officer in Notorious. In 2011, he appeared as "Weinstein" in the film Flypaper.

In 2011, he starred in a small indie film, PONIES.^[7] In 2012, he guest starred in the short lived CBS series Made in Jersey. In 2012, he starred as General Humberto Delgado in the Portuguese film Operation Autumn,^[8] a film about Delgado's brutal assassination in Spain by the Portuguese fascists.

In 2016, he played Harry Magarac on the episode of Elementary, entitled "Murder Ex Machina", first aired on January 21, 2016. He also did narration for the Nat Geo television documentary series Inside the American Mob.

Legal issues

On May 24, 2001, actor Vincent Gallo successfully sued Ventimiglia for assault and battery. The New York Supreme Court decided the case in Gallo's favor in Gallo v. Ventimiglia (2001).^[9]

In May 2006, Ventimiglia was arraigned on drunken driving, drug possession, and other charges. Police officers allegedly spotted Ventimiglia weaving in and out of traffic, and tested his blood-alcohol content at 0.12 (above the legal limit of .08); while also finding a zip-lock bag with cocaine residue in his possession. He was released on bail.^[10] In June, Ventimiglia pleaded guilty to drunk driving; he was fined $500 and had his license suspended for 90 days. His drug possession charges were dropped by prosecutors, as part of a plea deal.^[11]

Personal life

Ventimiglia is married to his wife Belinda, with whom he has a daughter, Lucinda and granddaughter, Shiloh. His youngest daughter, Odele Cape, died in 2023 two months after giving birth to her daughter and Ventimiglia's first grandchild.^[12]

He is a lifelong New York Mets fan.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Swoon	Prison Guard
1994	Hand Gun	Angel
1994	The Cowboy Way	Uniformed Cop
1994	Bullets over Broadway	Waterfront Hood
1994	Post Cards from America	Driver
1995	Party Girl	Tough Guy
1995	Angela	Andrew
1995	Low	Terry 'Lullaby' Fairlane
1995	Stonewall	Tea Dance Bouncer
1996	I Shot Andy Warhol	John Who Likes Lesbians
1996	Girls Town	Eddie
1996	Trees Lounge	Johnny
1996	Under the Bridge	Unknown
1996	The Funeral	Sali
1996	Extreme Measures	Detective Manning
1997	Arresting Gena	Joey / Cop
1997	Kicked in the Head	Man At Party
1997	Cop Land	Officer V
1997	Niagara, Niagara	Doug
1997	Sue Lost in Manhattan	Larry
1998	No Looking Back	Tony, Pizza Guy
1998	Claire Dolan	Newark Cab Driver
1998	Louis & Frank	Alvin
1999	On the Run	Louie Salazar
1999	Row Your Boat	Anton
1999	Mickey Blue Eyes	Johnny Graziosi
1999	Jesus' Son	McInnes
2001	Series 7: The Contenders	Dispatch Operator
2001	The Boys of Sunset Ridge	Hank Bartlowski at 33
2001	Plan B	Raymond Pelagi
2002	Personal Velocity: Three Portraits	Narrator	Voice
2005	The War Within	Gabe
2005	The Notorious Bettie Page	Photographer	Uncredited
2005	The Collection	Various
2007	The Lovebirds	John Constantin
2009	The Missing Person	Hero
2009	Notorious	Detective Farelli
2009	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead	Theo Horace / Horatio
2009	The Hungry Ghosts	James
2011	Flypaper	Weinstein
2011	Violet & Daisy	Man #1
2011	Ponies	Drazen
2012	Alter Egos	Shrink
2012	The Iceman	Mickey Scicoli
2012	BMW: Bombay's Most Wanted	Unknown
2012	Operation Autumn	Humberto Delgado
2013	The Cold Lands	Jackson
2013	Blood Ties	Detective Valenti
2014	Glass Chin	Jack Marchiano
2014	Tim Maia	Unknown
2015	Houses	Unknown
2015	The Wannabe	Arthur
2015	Ava's Possessions	Father Merrino
2016	The Phenom	'Red' Briles
2016	Money Monster	A Team Leader
2018	Cabaret Maxime	Veebie
2019	Human Capital	David
2020	Haymaker	Javier
2023	Ex-Husbands	Sipple

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994–2010	Law & Order	Various	5 episodes
1995	Homicide: Life on the Street	Manuel	1 episode
1995	As the World Turns	Chuck	1 episode
1996–1999	New York Undercover	Peter Vitti / Lenny	2 episodes
1997	NYPD Blue	Michael Zorzi	1 episode
1997	Feds	Alfonse Bucco	1 episode
1997	C-16: FBI	Nick Tulli	6 episodes
1999–2007	The Sopranos	Artie Bucco	37 episodes
2000	King of the World	Angelo Dundee	TV movie
2000	Prince Street	Unknown	2 episodes
2000–2001	Level 9	Justin Malik	3 episodes
2007	Six Degrees	Jimmy McLean	3 episodes
2007	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Stanley Vespucci	1 episode
2007	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Ronald Hawk	1 episode
2008	Backdrop NYC	Justin	Documentary series
2009	White Collar	Burrelli	1 episode
2010	Mercy	Damiano	3 episodes
2011–2014	Blue Bloods	Dino Arbogast	16 episodes
2012	NYC 22	Inspector Carl Woods	1 episode
2012	Person of Interest	Christopher Zambrano	1 episode
2012	Made in Jersey	Ed Koeneke	1 episode
2013	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Bobby Navarro	1 episode
2014	Believe	Steve	1 episode
2014–2015	The Good Wife	Detective Gary Prima	5 episodes
2015	The Blacklist	Warden Ramsey Mills	1 episode
2016	Elementary	Harry Magarac	1 episode
2016	Vinyl	Lou Meshejian	1 episode
2016	Bull	Dormit	1 episode
2017	The Breaks	Orson Bainbridge	2 episodes
2018	Crashing	Raymond	1 episode
2018–2019	Jessica Jones	Detective Eddy Costa	14 episodes
2019	At Home with Amy Sedaris	Sugar Man	1 episode
2019	Reprisal	Tolly	1 episode
2020	Joe Pera Talks with You	Himself	1 episode
2022	Gaslit	John Sirica	3 episodes

References

1. Alund, Natalie Neysa (January 28, 2023). "'Sopranos' star John Ventimiglia's daughter Odele dies at 25: 'Heartbroken'". USA Today. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
2. Kushner, Seth; LaSala, Anthony (2007). The Brooklynites. PowerHouse Books. p. 129. ISBN 978-1-57687-398-4. I grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. My parents came here from Sicily and they moved to what was actually Queens, but they called Brookalino. It was Ridgewood, which is on the Brooklyn / Queens border.
3. Seitz, Matt Zoller. "Actor behind Artie Bucco shows another side", Archived April 18, 2001, at the Wayback Machine, The Star-Ledger, September 18, 2000. Accessed February 6, 2024. "The multi-talented Ventimiglia is also a painter and a singer-songwriter (formerly with the defunct '80s guitar rock band Zuzu's Petals). He was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Teaneck."
4. Ordoña, Michael. "The performance: John Ventimiglia; 'The Sopranos' Artie Bucco sheds the Mafia-type roles for that of a vampire in 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead.'", Los Angeles Times, July 15, 2010. Accessed August 18, 2015.
5. Hi-Way 1981 Yearbook, p. 69.
6. "Inside the Zen Mind of Michael Imperioli". GQ. September 3, 2020. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
7. Rosen, Christopher (July 12, 2012). "John Ventimiglia, 'Ponies' & 'Sopranos' Star, On Leaving Artie Bucco Behind". Huffington Post. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
8. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1884380 Operation Autumn ^{[user-generated source]}
9. "Gallo v. Ventimiglia". 2001. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
10. Associated Press (May 2, 2006). "Two more of 'Sopranos' cast in real-life trouble". Today.
11. "'Sopranos' actor pleads guilty to drunk driving". Today. June 26, 2006.
12. Garner, Glenn. "'Sopranos' Alum John Ventimiglia's Daughter Odele Cape Dead at 25: 'Leaves a Huge Hole in Our Lives'", People, January 26, 2023. Accessed February 18, 2024. "Odele is survived by her father John, mother Belinda, sister Lucinda and daughter Shiloh."

External links

• John Ventimiglia at IMDb
• John Ventimiglia on HBO.com