Joe Pesci

After The Death Collector bombed in 1976, he quit acting and ran an Italian restaurant in New York. Robert De Niro saw the film anyway, brought it to Martin Scorsese, and Pesci got cast as Joey LaMotta in Raging Bull. That turned into an Oscar nomination. A decade later, Martin Scorsese tried to cut him from Goodfellas for being too old to play Tommy DeVito. Pesci hired a makeup artist, put himself on tape, and won the role anyway. The Oscar win for Best Supporting Actor in 1991 confirmed what the restaurant detour nearly buried.

He retired in 1999 and spent twenty years largely ignoring Hollywood's requests. It reportedly took around fifty attempts before Robert De Niro personally convinced him to return for The Irishman (2019). Playing Russell Bufalino as quiet and controlled, the opposite of every explosive role that made him famous, earned him a third Oscar nomination at 76. He still won't do interviews. When Apple TV+ made a Martin Scorsese documentary in 2025, Pesci was the only person who declined to participate. That refusal is its own kind of statement.

He grew up in Belleville, New Jersey, performing on radio at 4 and television at 10. In 1958, he introduced Bob Gaudio to Tommy DeVito and Frankie Valli, which led directly to the formation of The Four Seasons. He's not credited for it, but without that introduction the Jersey Boys movie doesn't exist. Before Raging Bull, he played guitar for Joey Dee and the Starliters and recorded a 1968 solo album as 'Joe Ritchie.' His nightclub comedy partner in those years was Frank Vincent, who he'd later help cast into immortality as Billy Batts.