Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio (born June 30, 1959) is an American actor, director, film producer, writer, and singer. Often referred to as an actor's actor, his work as a character actor has earned him the nickname of "Human Chameleon".[citation needed] He first gained attention for his role as Private Leonard 'Gomer Pyle' Lawrence in the war film Full Metal Jacket and more recently for his role as Detective Robert Goren in the crime TV series Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Vincent D'Onofrio was born in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York to Gennaro (Gene) D'Onofrio, an interior designer and theater production assistant, and Phyllis, a waitress and restaurant manager. The couple met while Gene was stationed in Hawaii with the U. S. Air Force and later relocated to the mainland.[citation needed] In 1956 they had their first child, Antoinette, who now owns the Rib City restaurant in American Fork, Utah. She was followed in 1957 by Elizabeth, an actress and drama coach now residing in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, and then by Vincent, the couple's only son.[citation needed]
D'Onofrio's parents divorced when he was young and his mother later married George Meyer who had a son, Guy, and daughter, Connie, from a previous marriage. The family relocated to the Hialeah area of Florida and in 1977, Vincent graduated from Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School. He went on to attended Colorado University, but left after 18 months to pursue acting. He began his acting career by performing in many New York University student productions while working as a bouncer at the Hard Rock Cafe and other various clubs around the city. In 1984 D'Onofrio joined the American Stanislavsky Theatre in New York and studying under coaches Sonya Moore and Sharon Chatten of the Actors Studio, went on to appear in a number of their productions, including Of Mice and Men and Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He also made his Broadway debut as Nick Rizzoli in Open Admissions.
In 1987, D'Onofrio entered mainstream consciousness with two film roles that demonstrated his range as an actor: In the first, he played the overweight Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence in Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, for which he gained 70 lb (32 kg), bringing his weight to 280 lb (130 kg). In the second, he played Dawson, the owner of Dawson's Garage in Adventures in Babysitting, directed by Chris Columbus. D'Onofrio appears in only one scene near the end of the film, but his role attracted attention because of his muscular physique and long blond hair; that caused Sara, the film's youngest character, to mistakenly believe he is Thor, the comic-book superhero she idolizes. In 1988, D'Onofrio was in the film Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts.
D'Onofrio continued to play a wide variety of roles, including iconic director Orson Welles in Tim Burton's Ed Wood, farmer Edgar and the evil "Bug" that possesses him from Men in Black, the father of a saint in Nancy Savoca's Household Saints, Yippie founder Abbie Hoffman in Steal This Movie, a time traveler from the distant future in Happy Accidents, and opposite Jennifer Lopez as serial killer Carl Stargher in The Cell.
In 1997, D'Onofrio made a move in to television, and received an Emmy nomination for his appearance as John Lange, the doomed victim in the Homicide: Life on the Street episode "Subway". In 2001 he took on what became his longest and best known role as Det. Robert Goren on the NBC / USA Network television show Law & Order: Criminal Intent. D'Onofrio also turned down a role in The Sopranos.
In 1998, D'Onofrio, his father, Gene, and his sister Elizabeth founded the River Run International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 2003, former film producer and Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Dale Pollock took over the festival and moved it from RiverRun to Winston-Salem. Annually, the festival showcases the best films offered from the independent and international industry as well as those from student filmmakers.
D'Onofrio has also had success behind the camera, producing The Whole Wide World (1996), Guy (1997); executive producing The Velocity of Gary (1998) and Steal This Movie (2000) and directing the short Five Minutes, Mr. Welles (2005). This last represents a culmination of D'Onofrio's desire to improve on his performance as Welles in Ed Wood, which, in spite of D'Onofrio's striking physical resemblance to the actor/director, reportedly left director Tim Burton underwhelmed. Burton decided to procure the services of voice-over artist Maurice LaMarche (who is known for his peerless imitation of Welles' voice) to produce a more dramatically effective rendering of the character's dialogue. Disappointed with his performance, having been given only two weeks notice to prepare for the role, D'Onofrio wrote, produced, directed and starred in his own short, Five Minutes, Mr. Welles in answer to the critics, and himself. The film depicts D'Onofrio as Welles preparing for his role in The Third Man.
In 2003, it was reported that D'Onofrio and Joe Pantoliano had begun work on a small film entitled Little Victories, about a 12-year-old boy whose perceptions of the world are forever changed when his gangster uncle comes to live with him. According to a television interview with Pantoliano, Little Victories was not completed and went into turnaround because of a failure to raise the funds necessary for production.[citation needed]
In November 2005, D'Onofrio won Best Actor at the Stockholm International Film Festival for his role as Mike Cobb in the independent film Thumbsucker.
Vincent D'Onofrio was born in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York to Gennaro (Gene) D'Onofrio, an interior designer and theater production assistant, and Phyllis, a waitress and restaurant manager. The couple met while Gene was stationed in Hawaii with the U. S. Air Force and later relocated to the mainland.[citation needed] In 1956 they had their first child, Antoinette, who now owns the Rib City restaurant in American Fork, Utah. She was followed in 1957 by Elizabeth, an actress and drama coach now residing in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, and then by Vincent, the couple's only son.[citation needed]
D'Onofrio's parents divorced when he was young and his mother later married George Meyer who had a son, Guy, and daughter, Connie, from a previous marriage. The family relocated to the Hialeah area of Florida and in 1977, Vincent graduated from Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School. He went on to attended Colorado University, but left after 18 months to pursue acting. He began his acting career by performing in many New York University student productions while working as a bouncer at the Hard Rock Cafe and other various clubs around the city. In 1984 D'Onofrio joined the American Stanislavsky Theatre in New York and studying under coaches Sonya Moore and Sharon Chatten of the Actors Studio, went on to appear in a number of their productions, including Of Mice and Men and Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He also made his Broadway debut as Nick Rizzoli in Open Admissions.
In 1987, D'Onofrio entered mainstream consciousness with two film roles that demonstrated his range as an actor: In the first, he played the overweight Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence in Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, for which he gained 70 lb (32 kg), bringing his weight to 280 lb (130 kg). In the second, he played Dawson, the owner of Dawson's Garage in Adventures in Babysitting, directed by Chris Columbus. D'Onofrio appears in only one scene near the end of the film, but his role attracted attention because of his muscular physique and long blond hair; that caused Sara, the film's youngest character, to mistakenly believe he is Thor, the comic-book superhero she idolizes. In 1988, D'Onofrio was in the film Mystic Pizza with Julia Roberts.
D'Onofrio continued to play a wide variety of roles, including iconic director Orson Welles in Tim Burton's Ed Wood, farmer Edgar and the evil "Bug" that possesses him from Men in Black, the father of a saint in Nancy Savoca's Household Saints, Yippie founder Abbie Hoffman in Steal This Movie, a time traveler from the distant future in Happy Accidents, and opposite Jennifer Lopez as serial killer Carl Stargher in The Cell.
In 1997, D'Onofrio made a move in to television, and received an Emmy nomination for his appearance as John Lange, the doomed victim in the Homicide: Life on the Street episode "Subway". In 2001 he took on what became his longest and best known role as Det. Robert Goren on the NBC / USA Network television show Law & Order: Criminal Intent. D'Onofrio also turned down a role in The Sopranos.
In 1998, D'Onofrio, his father, Gene, and his sister Elizabeth founded the River Run International Film Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 2003, former film producer and Dean of the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Dale Pollock took over the festival and moved it from RiverRun to Winston-Salem. Annually, the festival showcases the best films offered from the independent and international industry as well as those from student filmmakers.
D'Onofrio has also had success behind the camera, producing The Whole Wide World (1996), Guy (1997); executive producing The Velocity of Gary (1998) and Steal This Movie (2000) and directing the short Five Minutes, Mr. Welles (2005). This last represents a culmination of D'Onofrio's desire to improve on his performance as Welles in Ed Wood, which, in spite of D'Onofrio's striking physical resemblance to the actor/director, reportedly left director Tim Burton underwhelmed. Burton decided to procure the services of voice-over artist Maurice LaMarche (who is known for his peerless imitation of Welles' voice) to produce a more dramatically effective rendering of the character's dialogue. Disappointed with his performance, having been given only two weeks notice to prepare for the role, D'Onofrio wrote, produced, directed and starred in his own short, Five Minutes, Mr. Welles in answer to the critics, and himself. The film depicts D'Onofrio as Welles preparing for his role in The Third Man.
In 2003, it was reported that D'Onofrio and Joe Pantoliano had begun work on a small film entitled Little Victories, about a 12-year-old boy whose perceptions of the world are forever changed when his gangster uncle comes to live with him. According to a television interview with Pantoliano, Little Victories was not completed and went into turnaround because of a failure to raise the funds necessary for production.[citation needed]
In November 2005, D'Onofrio won Best Actor at the Stockholm International Film Festival for his role as Mike Cobb in the independent film Thumbsucker.
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