Celebrity Nooz: Tony Lo Bianco

Tony Lo Bianco (Actor) - The French Connection

Updated: 8/25/22

Name: Tony Lo Bianco

Birth Name: Anthony LoBianco

Born: October 19, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Claim To Fame: Tony Lo Bianco is an Italian-American film, stage, and television actor, best known for The Honeymoon Killers (1970), William Friedkin's Oscar-winning thriller The French Connection (1971), and the crime drama The Seven-Ups (1973).

Family Life: Lo Bianco was married from 1964 until 1984 to Dora Landey. They had three daughters. He was married to Elizabeth Fitzpatrick from 2002 until 2008. He married his current wife, Alyse Best Muldoon, in June 2015.

Info: Lo Bianco's mother was a housewife and his father was a taxi driver; Both were first-generation Italian Americans of Sicilian descent.

He attended the William E. Grady CTE High School, a vocational school in Brooklyn.

Had a teacher encourage him to try out for plays, which began his interest in acting.

After graduating high school, he attended the Dramatic Workshop, studying acting and theater production.

Alumnus of Stella Adler Studio of Acting.

Was a Golden Gloves boxer.

Co-founded the Triangle Theatre in 1963, serving as its artistic director for six years and collaborating with lighting designer Jules Fisher, playwright Jason Miller and actor Roy Scheider; directing 8 productions and producing 25 others.

His humanitarian efforts have earned multiple awards, including Man of the Year for Outstanding Contributions to the Italian-American Community from the Police Society of New Jersey; a Man of the Year Award from the State of New Jersey Senate; a Lifetime Entertainment Award from the Columbus Day Parade Committee; the 1997 Golden Lion Award; Humanitarian Award of the Boys' Town of Italy.

Was honored by the Sons of Italy Foundation (SIF) for his dedication and service as spokesman since 1996. He is also involved with the Lupus Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the Cooley's Anemia Foundation, NYPD Columbia Foundation and many many other charities.

In 1997, he was named as "King of Brooklyn" at the Welcome Back to Brooklyn Festival.

Trivia: He performed as an understudy in a 1964 Broadway production of Incident at Vichy, and the following year had a supporting role in a Broadway production of Tartuffe.

From late 1965 through the spring of 1966, he starred on Broadway as Fray Marcos de Nizza in The Royal Hunt of the Sun.

He made his film debut in The Sex Perils of Paulette (1965).

He appeared as Salvatore Boca in William Friedkin's critically acclaimed film The French Connection (1971).

In 1975, Lo Bianco won an Obie award for his off-Broadway performance as Duke Bronkowski in the baseball-themed play Yanks-3, Detroit-0, Top of the Seventh.

In 1983, Lo Bianco was nominated for a Tony for his portrayal of Eddie Carbone in Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge. He also won the 1983 Outer Critics Circle Award for this performance.

In 1984, he portrayed the larger-than-life mayor of New York City Fiorello H. La Guardia in the one-man show Hizzoner!, written by Paul Shyre. He won a local Daytime Emmy Award for the WNET Public Television version of the play. The one-man play was subsequently staged on Broadway in 1989, and Lo Bianco has gone on to perform several other Off-Broadway iterations of it, including LaGuardia (2008) and The Little Flower (2012-2015).

In addition to film and theater, Lo Bianco appeared as a guest-star on numerous television series throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including appearances on Police Story (1974-1976), Franco Zeffirelli's miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977), and Marco Polo (1982).

Where Are They Now: At age 85, Lo Bianco is still going strong. Currently, he's working on the comedy-drama Somewhere in Queens; co-written and directed by Ray Romano.

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