It seemed in the early 1990s that every film released in the US had Joe Pesci in it. This diminutive, intense Italian-American character player took a long time to make it to the top: a former child performer and nightclub entertainer, he specialized in impersonations and audience insult. Born in Newark, Pesci spent much of the 1950s and '60s doing stand-up and appearing as one of TV's "Star Time" kids (Dumont, 1950-51). He sang with Frank Vincent and the Aristocrats, and in 1969 the two formed a comedy duo (Vincent later had notable cameo or supporting roles in half a dozen of Pesci films).
When Pesci made his film debut in the low-budget "Death Collector" (1975), he was spotted by Martin Scorsese and cast as Jake La Motta's edgy and long-suffering brother in s "Raging Bull" (1980). His career should have taken off after that triumph, but Pesci disappeared into a series of character turns in uneven "art" films (Nicolas Roeg's "Eureka" 1983), foreign assignments ("Tutti Dentro/Put 'Em All in Jail" 1984), and undistinguished genre pics (the Rodney Dangerfield vehicle, "Easy Money" 1983) with a few bright spots including a starring role in "Dear Mr. Wonderful" (1982), a West German production lensed in New Jersey, and a colorful appearance with Robert De Niro in Sergio Leone's gangster epic, "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984).
Pesci tried his hand at TV, starring as Rocky Nelson, protagonist of the short-lived detective-comedy "Half-Nelson" (NBC, 1985). He achieved far greater small screen success playing the evil drug lord, Mr. Big, in "Moonwalker" (1988), Michael Jackson's lavish and hugely successful music video. The following year, Pesci's feature career got back on track with "Lethal Weapon 2" (1989), in which he provided scene-stealing comic relief as a fast-talking gregarious accountant on the lam after embezzling big bucks from the mob. Pesci enhanced his fame and won a Supporting Actor Oscar with an explosively violent yet often humorous portrayal of a mobster in Scorsese's "GoodFellas" (1990). Later that year, he successfully shifted gears to slapstick comedy to play a bungling burglar victimized by a resourceful Macaulay Culkin in the surprise blockbuster, "Home Alone".
Finally a movie star, Pesci began regularly alternating between leads and showy character parts in high profile comedies, dramas, and action films. His notable credits include a controversial character turn in Oliver Stone's "JFK" (1991); the starring role of an amateurish lawyer who learns on the job in the popular comedy "My Cousin Vinny" (1992); and reprising his characters in two profitable retreads, "Lethal Weapon 3" and "Home Alone 2: Lost in New York" (both 1992). Pesci has had less success as a lead in several recent features: playing a Weegee-like crime photographer in the 40s period pic "The Public Eye" (1992); as an unemployed actor turned crime-fighting activist in failed social satire "Jimmy Hollywood" (1994) ; and as a wily yet good-hearted homeless man who teaches some life lessons to a group of Harvard undergrads in "With Honors" (also 1994). He reteamed with De Niro and Scorsese for "Casino" (1995), a variation on the theme more deeply explored in "GoodFellas". Pesci returned to comedy with "Gone Fishin'" (1996).
After the failure of "Half-Nelson", Pesci did not attempt another series, although he did appear on such specials and series as "Street Scenes: New York on Film" (AMC, 1992), "Tales from the Crypt" (HBO, 1992), and "The John Larroquette Show" (NBC, 1994).