Chazz Palminteri

Palminteri first gained recognition after writing and performing in a thirty-five-character one-man play, A Bronx Tale (1988–89). He later took the lead role in the film version, in Robert De Niro's directorial debut (1993). Palminteri's performance and the film's favorable reviews helped him secure other parts, like in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994), as well as in The Usual Suspects (1995) and The Perez Family (1995).