Actor lived his tough-guy roles
LILLO BRANCATO looked destined for great things.
Picked out of a crowded Jones Beach as a 15-year- old with natural gangster looks, the Yonkers schoolboy was suddenly acting alongside his idol Robert De Niro.
His “A Bronx Tale” role launched a portfolio of toughguy performances for the actor.
But it seems his on-screen persona leached into his real life.
Yesterday’s burglary-gonewrong was the latest, and most serious, brush with the law for Brancato, now 29.
He was arrested twice in Yonkers, including once in June when he was allegedly found with four glassine bags of heroin after cops pulled him over for traffic violations.
While rubbing shoulders with gangster actors in HBO’s “The Sopranos” and CBS’ “Falcone,” it seems Brancato was also forming close associations with real-life criminals.
Neighbors say Brancato met Steven Armento, his alleged partner in yesterday’s burglary and the gunman who allegedly killed Police Officer Daniel Enchautegui, while dating his daughter, Stefanie.
Armento, 48, a father of twin girls from Yonkers, is a criminal with a career spanning nearly 30 years, including four spells in prison.
His convictions crimes involving drugs and burglary.
Neighbor Paula Izurieta said she had to get an order of protection against him after his dog attacked hers last year. She said he also attacked her fiance, and she accused him of firing a gun at her.
Police sources say Armento’s most recent arrest was for third-degree assault in 2004.
“I’ve been feeling like I have this monster living across the street from me,” Izurieta said yesterday.
include firearms,
Another neighbor, Bill Riley, described Armento as “peculiar.”
“I used to see him sometimes sneaking around at night,” he added.
Several neighbors said cops visited both Brancato and Armento’s homes Thursday night.
Brancato was born in Bogota, Colombia, and was adopted by Italian-American parents in Yonkers when he was 4 months old. He still lives with them.
“I consider myself Italian,” he once said. “I was raised to eat pasta.”
At 16, he landed the part of a kid torn between two role models in “A Bronx Tale” — his hardworking, honest father and the glamorous life of a local gang boss.
Casting director Ellen Chenoweth said at the time he looked like De Niro.
“[And] he did these uncanny, entire scenes from ‘GoodFellas’ and ‘Raging Bull,’ ” she added.
In an interview, Brancato said, “Did I ever want to be an actor? It was more I wanted to be De Niro.”
Since then, his on-screen portfolio has been packed with portrayals of criminals.
He played Mafia wanna-be Matt Bevilacqua in “The Sopranos,” a character whose run on the show was ended by Tony Soprano in a rain of bullets fired in retaliation for an attempted hit.
After that, he took a part as the mobster Lucky, a coldblooded killer in CBS’ series “Falcone” in 2000. Brancato said of that character, “He’ll kill you in a second, not for too much of a reason, and he won’t think about it twice.”
In “R Xmas,” a 2002 flick from edgy director Abel Ferrara, Brancato co-starred as a heroin dealer who is kidnapped by a corrupt cop.
He was most recently working on “Saturday Morning,” a movie directed by “Frasier” writer Rob Greenberg, which is currently in post-production.
anichols@nydailynews.com