Joseph Bologna life and biography

Joseph Bologna is an American actor.

Bologna was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Brown University, where he majored in art history. After a hitch with the marines, Bologna was hired to produce and direct Manhattan-based TV commercials.

The actor has a long history in film and television. His breakthrough film, Lovers and Other Strangers, written with his wife Renée Taylor, was based on the true-life circumstances of organizing a wedding on short notice with the involvement of his Italian extended family and Renee's Jewish clan. Several relatives performed as extras in the final cut. A year later, in 1971, the couple again collaborated to write and perform in the movie Made for Each Other.

Bologna stayed close with his old-neighborhood aunts and uncles after becoming successful. Two of them were slightly famous on their own: his Uncle Pat was "Blacky the Bootblack", whom Joseph Kennedy credited as his main influence when he sold all of his stock holdings in the summer of 1929 (the market crashed in October) and his aunt Pauline was one of the best-known chefs to the stars, working for Jackie Gleason, Burt Reynolds and many other luminaries.

A decade later, Bologna's aunt Pauline chastised him for starring in the nudity-filled Blame it on Rio co-starring Michael Caine. Bologna replied, "Blame it on me, it's the last time I invite Aunt Pauline to a film premiere." Bologna's other best-known film roles are that of temperamental 1950s television star Stan "King" Kaiser in the 1982 comedy hit My Favorite Year, starring Peter O'Toole and of Lenny Koufax, the frustrated father of Sonny Koufax, who was played by Adam Sandler in the 1999 comedy Big Daddy.

By 1987, Bologna was starring in the short-lived TV sitcom/musical "Rags to Riches" as the millionaire mogul turned foster father, Nick Foley. The show aired for two seasons.

From 1996 to 1998, he voice-acted the character Inspector Dan Turpin, a hot-headed police officer modeled after Jack Kirby, in several episodes of Superman: The Animated Series.

In 2006, he became the voice of Mr Start in "Ice Age: The Meltdown."

He is married to the actress Renee Taylor, with whom he has a son. Taylor and Bologna have also co-starred on stage and on TV. Bologna played a love interest for his real-life wife in the "Maternal Affairs" episode of the CBS sitcom The Nanny in the sixth and final season in which Taylor plays Sylvia, the already-married mother of Fran Drescher's character. He also appeared in the first season episode "The Gym Teacher" as a famous actor for whom Maxwell Sheffield once interned.

TELEVISION
Rags to Riches Nick Foley (1987-88)
Top of the Heap Charlie Verducci (1991)

FILMOGRAPHY AS DIRECTOR
Love Is All There Is (10-May-1996)

FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Ice Age: The Meltdown (1-Mar-2006)
The Boynton Beach Club (21-Oct-2005)
Fathers and Sons (21-Apr-2005)
Returning Mickey Stern (20-Jan-2002)
Big Daddy (17-Jun-1999)
The Batman/Superman Movie (18-Aug-1998)
The Don's Analyst (6-Sep-1997)
Love Is All There Is (10-May-1996)
Revenge of the Nerds IV: Nerds in Love (9-May-1994)
Deadly Rivals (30-Jun-1993)
The Danger of Love: The Carolyn Warmus Story (4-Oct-1992)
Citizen Cohn (22-Aug-1992)
Jersey Girl (17-Jun-1992)
Alligator II: The Mutation (1991)
Coupe de Ville (9-Mar-1990)
Not Quite Human (19-Jun-1987)
Rags to Riches (1986)
Copacabana (3-Dec-1985)
Transylvania 6-5000 (8-Nov-1985)
The Woman in Red (15-Aug-1984)
Blame It on Rio (17-Feb-1984)
My Favorite Year (1-Oct-1982)
Chapter Two (14-Dec-1979)
Torn Between Two Lovers (2-May-1979)
The Big Bus (22-Oct-1976)
Mixed Company (18-Oct-1974)
Cops and Robbers (17-Aug-1973)
Made for Each Other (12-Dec-1971)

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