Danny Aiello
American actor
Daniel Louis Aiello Jr. (; June 20, 1933 – December 12, 2019) was an American actor. He appeared in numerous motion pictures, including The Godfather Part II (1974), The Front (1976), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Hide in Plain Sight (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Moonstruck (1987), Harlem Nights (1989), Do the Right Thing (1989), Jacob's Ladder (1990), Hudson Hawk (1991), Ruby (1992), Léon: The Professional (1994), 2 Days in the Valley (1996), Dinner Rush (2000), and Lucky Number Slevin (2006). He played Don Domenico Clericuzio in the miniseries The Last Don (1997).
Aiello was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Salvatore "Sal" Frangione in Do the Right Thing.
Early life
Aiello, the fifth of six children, was born on West 68th Street in Lincoln Square, Manhattan, the son of parents Frances Pietrocova, a seamstress from Naples, Italy, and Daniel Louis Aiello, a laborer who deserted the family after his wife lost her eyesight and became legally blind. For many years, Aiello publicly condemned his father, but the two reconciled in 1993, although Aiello harbored a resentment of his father's conduct. He was of Italian descent. He moved to the South Bronx when he was seven, and later attended James Monroe High School.
At the age of 16, Aiello lied about his age to enlist in the United States Army.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Danny Aiello” is american actor. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Danny, Aiello and American, not as a finished interpretation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q299314. VIAF identifies the subject as 100241812. The Library of Congress control number is no91008680. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1933, 2019, 1974 and 1976.
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This entry incorporates text from “Danny Aiello” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.