Cannavale was born on May 3, 1970, in Union City, New Jersey,[4] where he grew up, the son of Isabel and Salvatore "Sal" Cannavale. His father is of Italian descent, while his mother is Cuban and moved to the U.S. in 1960.[5][6] He was raised Catholic and attended St. Michael's Catholic School, where he participated in a number of extracurricular activities, including being an altar boy and member of the chorus.[7]
When he was eight, Cannavale secured the plum role of the lisping boy, Winthrop, in his school's production of The Music Man and later played a gangster in Guys and Dolls, which cemented his love for performing. Cannavale's parents divorced when he was 13 and his mother moved the family to Puerto Rico. After two years in the American territory, they settled in Margate, Florida. From 1983 to 1986, Cannavale attended Coconut Creek High School,[8][9] but during his senior year, he was expelled “for being a cutup.”[5] He then returned to New Jersey to live with his grandmother, in order to be closer to New York to launch his acting career and went to summer school to earn a diploma from Union Hill High School.[10][11][12]
Cannavale serves as the voice of Corado R. Ciarlo, known as "Babe", in the Ken BurnsPBS film series The War (the story of World War II) from the perspective of the men who fought in combat and their loved ones at home. He also read the audiobook versions of Richard Price's 2008 novel Lush Life and Ed Falco's 2012 novel The Family Corleone. On August 25, 2008, ABC ordered his pilot Cupid, a remake of the 1998 program which had starred Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall, to series. In the new version of the series, Cannavale starred opposite Sarah Paulson with script development overseen by original series creator Rob Thomas. ABC debuted Cupid on March 31, 2009, but cancelled the series after less than two months, on May 19, 2009.[13][14]
In 2008, he received a Tony Award nomination for his role as Dennis in the Broadway play, Mauritius.[15][16] In 2009, CBS announced Cannavale would reprise his role of Det. Eddie Saccardo on the television show, Cold Case, for three episodes, starting with the third episode of Season 7.[17] Cannavale was in the film The Other Guys (2010), and played the role of Terry Delfino in the film Win Win (2011). He later starred in the Broadway play The Motherfucker with the Hat alongside Chris Rock and Annabella Sciorra. On May 3, 2011 (his 41st birthday), he was nominated for a Tony Award for his leading role in that production.[18]
In 2012 and 2013, he guest-starred in the fourth and fifth season of Showtime's Nurse Jackie, for which he was nominated twice again for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2012 and 2013,[19] as well as joining the cast of HBO's Boardwalk Empire, portraying the psychopathic Sicilian gangster Gyp Rosetti in the third season. His performance on Boardwalk Empire won critical acclaim, earning him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2013. That same year he also played Lewis, a vengeful clown on Modern Family during the third season, for which he was nominated for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series at the 2nd Critics' Choice Television Awards in 2012.[20]TV Guide, in its "Cheers & Jeers 2012" issue, praised Cannavale for this "trifecta of great performances", commenting, "This guy is so good at playing bad, it's scary."[21] He played what Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com called a "heroically moving" lead role in Danny Collins in 2015.
Since 2015, Cannavale has been involved with voice-over work for Playing On Air, a non-profit organization that "records short plays [for public radio and podcast] written by top playwrights and performed by outstanding actors."[22] He has starred in three short plays, including Crazy Eights by David Lindsay-Abaire, co-starring Rosie Perez and John Leguizamo; Mere Mortals by David Ives; and 2 Dads by David Auburn.[23][24][25]
In January 2020, Cannavale appeared with his real-life partner Rose Byrne in the play Medea, written and directed by Simon Stone.[26][27]
In 2022, Cannavale was seen portraying Dean Braddock in the 2022 Netflix series, The Watcher.
Personal life
From 1994 to 2003,[30] Cannavale was married to actress/screenwriter Jenny Lumet – director Sidney Lumet's daughter and performer Lena Horne's granddaughter – with whom he has a son,[31] actor Jake Cannavale.[30] Cannavale and Jake were cast as father and son in season four of Nurse Jackie.
Cannavale has been in a relationship with Australian actress Rose Byrne since 2012.[32] Their first son was born in 2016, and a second son in 2017.[33]
^Beale, Lewis (October 24, 2004). "All the Right Moves". The Statesman Journal. p. USA Weekend 16. ...Cannivale, 33, is a New York-area native (born across the Hudson River from Manhattan in Union City, N.J.)...
^Rappaport, Melissa. "A look inside", The Hudson Reporter, October 4, 2009. Accessed November 26, 2019. "School Business Administrator Anthony Dragona said the event brought in nearly 450 guests that included celebrities such as NFL Hall of Famer and NY Giant Harry Carson, who shared a few words about the importance of an education in his life; Union Hill graduate Bobby Cannavale, an actor; and Tito Puente Jr."
^"ABC Medianet". ABC Medianet. September 30, 2012. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
^In Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Van Pelt has a different first name depending on the region in which the film is watched. In the UK version of the film, the character's first name is given as "John Hardin", while in the US version of the film, the character is provided the first name "Russell".
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