Actor was an Oscar nominee for role in ‘Do the Right Thing’
Danny Aiello, the burly New York-born film and stage actor who was 40 when he made his movie debut and who earned an Academy Award nomination 16 years later for his role as a pizzeria owner in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” died Thursday. He was 86.
His death was confirmed by Jennifer De Chiara, his literary agent, in an email. No other details were provided.
In “Do the Right Thing,” Lee’s 1989 film about a white business in the predominantly black BedfordStuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, Aiello was a morally complicated racist villain, willing to wield a baseball bat but sentimental about the young people in the neighborhood having grown up on his food.
He won the role after having established himself as a memorable character actor in films including “Moonstruck” (1987), in which he played Cher’s kind but clueless fiancé;
“Fort Apache: The Bronx” (1981), in which he was a ruthless police officer who throws a young man off a rooftop; Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984), where he also was a police officer; and three films involving Woody Allen.
He was cast as a bookie in the 1950s blacklist drama “The Front” (1976), in which Allen starred; as Mia Farrow’s short-tempered husband in “The Purple Rose of Cairo” (1985); and a Mafia hit man in “Radio Days” (1987), both of which Allen directed. He also played a frustrated 1940s waiter and family man, opposite Bea Arthur, in Allen’s 1981 play “The Floating Light Bulb.”
He began his acting career on the New York stage, appearing in seven Broadway productions in 11 years. His roles included the macho South Philadelphia father in the hit comedy “Gemini” (1977), for which he had already won an Obie Award for the play’s off-Broadway run; a violent tough guy in “Hurlyburly”; and a Hollywood director clinging to his past in “The House of Blue Leaves” (1986). He also appeared as himself in “Home for the Holidays,” a songs-and-stories revue that had a limited run during the 2017 Christmas season.
Daniel Louis Aiello Jr. was born June 20, 1933, in Manhattan, the sixth of seven children of Daniel and Frances (Pietrocova) Aiello.
His first film role was in the baseball drama “Bang the Drum Slowly” (1973), with the young Robert De Niro. His last was in “Making a Deal With the Devil,” a 2019 FBI drama.
Aiello married Sandy Cohen, a girl from his Bronx neighborhood, in the mid-1950s. She survives him. His other survivors include two sons, Rick and Jaime; a daughter, Stacey; and 10 grandchildren. Another son, Daniel III, a stunt coordinator, died in 2010.