It would be something to fall back on, but something I still enjoyed.. The primary antagonist in The Mandalorian, Gideon is a powerful and formidable. There is no such information about him either, but they do seem to be in touch. They . Photographs by Victor Llorente for The New Yorker. These days, its not enough for an actor to simply make good films. Highlights from the week in culture, every Saturday. A true NYC moment: Giancarlo and brother Vincent take a sidewalk hotdog break during the musical The Me Nobody Knows, 1971. Esposito and Favreau had previously worked together on the TV show Revolution and the movie The Jungle Book. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing more the $966 million worldwide to become the 42nd highest-grossing film of all time. Esposito was raised in Copenhagen (along with his older brother, Vincent) until the age of six. More recently, hes achieved a new level of success with his role as drug kingpin Gus Fring in the hugely popular AMC shows, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Ad Choices. Vincent Esposito was a reputed American lawyer and a businessman. . Then, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, Esposito went bankrupt. He is an American Actor, Producer, and film director. In both of his guises, hes the perfect American: a scrappy entrepreneur who loves the free market and embodies corporate sociopathy. The pair met while working in Italy. I first felt successful when I was 13 and in a show called [16] His role was later revealed as the main antagonist of Ubisoft's Far Cry 6, in which he would portray and voice Antn Castillo, the dictatorial ruler of Yara. . At the museum caf, I made the mistake of offering Esposito a comfortable seat with a view of the city, while I sat in a hard chair facing the entrance. Family time: He turned the star-studded event into a . Giancarlo Esposito (or to give him his full name, Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito) was born April 26th, 1958 in Copenhagen, Denmark to father Giovanni Esposito, an Italian. (Even on Sesame Street, where, in his early twenties, he guest-starred as a camp counsellor, Esposito laid down the law for a homesick Big Bird.) film school grad named Spike Lee. Then they werent bad decisions, Gus replies. His other film credits include Trading Places (1983) and Maximum Overdrive (1986). The Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT), the Broadway and Off-Broadway archive of live theater on video situated in the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, has the original stage productions of Balm in Gilead (1984) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2008), starring Giancarlo Esposito. To this day, he continues to be an active member of the Atlantic Theater Company, an off-Broadway, non-profit theater whose mission is to empower simple and honest storytelling that fosters greater understanding of our shared world. The company was founded in 1985 by playwright, David Mamet, fellow actor and Shameless star, William H Macy, and 30 students from New York University. He dbuted with Gospel Hill (2008), starring Angela Bassett and Danny Glover, but its earnest narrative about a neighborhoods struggle against developers failed to find a wide audience. According to CNW, Esposito was taking home an estimated $65 thousand per episode when he filmed Better Call Saul. In 1970, he was hired as a voice actor in the short film Et Salammbo? This was his first job in the industry. Born on April 26, 1958, in Copenhagen, Denmark, Giancarlo Esposito is the son of Giovanni Esposito and Elizabeth Foster. He is an American Film Actor, Television Actor & Video Game Artist. One canvas reminded him of the Hindu goddess Kali: Shes gonna destroy me as I knew me, and therell be a new me thatll emerge, he exulted. 1997), Kale Lyn . For that recurring role, he won the 2012 Best Supporting Actor in Drama award at the Critics Choice Television Awards and was nominated for an Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series award at the 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards.. [17], In 2022, Esposito played Taxi Driver in Euphoria, a film installation by Julian Rosefeldt. Sometimes we fucking lose., The show that freed Esposito from purgatory was Breaking Bad (2008-13). He won the Drama Desk Award for the play Balm in Gilead (1985). Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to an Italian carpenter/stagehand father from Naples, Italy, and an African-American opera singer mother from Alabama. From the balcony, we gazed at the shape-shifting forms of Refik Anadols Unsupervised, an A.I.-generated video installation that looked like an unruly galaxy in need of a firm hand. Plus: each Wednesday, exclusively for subscribers, the best books of the week. Espositos seething side-stage monologues, which rage against his circumstances in an attempt to excuse the murder, earned him an Obie Award, along with the admiration of an N.Y.U. In recent years, the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental organization that aims to protect water resources, Kids for Peace, a non-profit youth organization that supports and empowers the next generation, and World Merit USA, an organization that improves the prospects of the young by enhancing social mobility, have all benefited from the actors benevolence. [14] Esposito and Favreau would work together once again in the Disney+ series The Mandalorian in which Esposito appears in a starring role, while Favreau acts as an executive producer for the series and as its writer. A sequel is currently underway, although its as yet unconfirmed whether Esposito will reprise his role. He continued to audition for good roles in theater, rather than specifically black roles. Casting directors were taken aback when he showed up at a casting call given his Italian name. While Esposito may not be a physical presence in the DC series of superhero films, he is at least a vocal one. He performed again in the fourth season, in the episode titled "Paranormal Parentage". On Broadway, his biggest role came in 2008 when he appeared as Gooper in Tennessee Williams Pulitzer prize-winning drama, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which was directed by Debbie Allen and starred James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Anika Noni Rose, and Terrence Howard. Giancarlo Esposito is known and loved by millions thanks to the extensive and varied work of his 6-decade career. Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, to an Italian carpenter/stagehand father from Naples, Italy, and an African-American opera singer mother from Alabama. Tell us what's wrong with this post? The Esposito sisters and brother Vincent were the children of Gigante's long-running relationship with his Upper East Side mistress Olympia Esposito. 108-Year-Old American Woman And Her 101-Year-Old Brother To Naturalise And Become Ghanaian Citizens. . His Neapolitan father worked as a stagehand and carpenter while his African American mother sang in operas and nightclubs. What are we all looking for but that energy? Esposito said. Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito became a popular face thanks to his portrayal of Gustavo Gus Fring on the AMC TV series Breaking Bad. Fans who cant get enough of the actors famously dulcet tones will be pleased to know Esposito has been known to put in the occasional appearance as a guest speaker. Although the series only lasted one season, and did not garner generally positive reviews, it represented a personal turning point for Esposito, who relayed to The Washington Post: "I started to play bosses. The experience was also cathartic for Esposito as a Black Italian American, forcing him to confront the tensions between his communities. Other notable actors whove lent their voices to the series include Rosario Dawson, Rainn Wilson, Christian Slater, and Jennifer Hale. See also:Breaking Bad: If Only They Had a New York Public Library Card, The New York Public Library is a 501(c)(3) | EIN 13-1887440, When They Trod the Boards: Giancarlo Esposito, Breaking Bad-Ass on Broadway, Click to learn about accessibility at the Library, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Breaking Bad: If Only They Had a New York Public Library Card. A friend pulled him out of depression with Who Moved My Cheese?, a best-selling self-help book that features two entrepreneurial mice learning to embrace change. And I said, I just need to be touched. Esposito channelled that feeling in the last season of Better Call Saul, for which he won a Critics Choice Award. Throughout the 1970s he starred mostly in musicals, including The Me Nobody Knows, Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along, and Michael Bennett's Seesaw. All rights reserved. His stage career began when he was a child when he appeared opposite Shirley Jones as an orphan in the 1968 Broadway production of Maggie Flynn. Parents: There is no information about the parents of Joy. During the 1980s, Esposito appeared in films such as Maximum Overdrive, King of New York, and Trading Places. His Neapolitan father worked as a stagehand and carpenter while his African American mother sang in operas and nightclubs. According to him, Esposito was the natural choice for the role. It seemed appropriate that wed spent most of the afternoon in an exhibition devoted to the German-Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim, whose own varied career is often reduced to a single fur-covered teacup. How long before I drown? he asked his accountant, who told him that he had about a year. Esposito would periodically reprise the role in later seasons as a guest star. . [1][2][3][4], When Esposito was six, his family moved to Manhattan. His decision to pursue a career in acting has clearly paid off, but as a teenager, Esposito had some doubts. He got to know his eccentric neighbor, a heavy drinker who sleeps in a tent, and deepened his interest in the Greco-Armenian spiritualist G. I. Gurdjieff. Photo: Bert Andrews. In Feel the Noise (2007), he played ex-musician Roberto, the Puerto Rican father of Omarion Grandberry's character, aspiring rap star "Rob". If it's anything Shawshank Redemption, Seinfeld, or Kevin Bacon game related he's way more interested. Also Known As: Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito, Spouse/Ex-: Joy McManigal (m. 19952015), Joy McManigal (m. 19952015), children: Kale Lyn Esposito, Ruby Esposito, Shayne Lyra Esposito, Syrlucia Esposito, See the events in life of Giancarlo Esposito in Chronological Order, (Actor and Director Best Known for His TV Series: Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Giancarlo_Esposito#/media/File:Giancarlo_Esposito_2012_cropped.jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Giancarlo_Esposito#/media/File:Giancarlo_Esposito_(43555569182).jpg, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Giancarlo_Esposito#/media/File:Giancarlo_Esposito_-_Monte-Carlo_Television_Festival.jpg. How an unemployed blogger confirmed that Syria had used chemical weapons. Some of his other TV roles are of Sidney Glass / Magic Mirror in ABCs fantasy drama series Once Upon a Time (2011-17), Tom Neville in NBCs post-apocalyptic series Revolution (2012-14), and the narrator on Netflixs comedy-drama series Dear White People (2017-present). During the 1980s, Giancarlo spent less time singing and dancing and doing more dramatic roles. In 2016, he also lent his voice to Akela in Jon Favreaus Jungle Book. The crowd-pleaser routinely attracts large crowds to his performances, in which he relays his take on the state of race relations, art, entertainment and culture in America. The director and actor clearly enjoyed a mutual admiration, and over the next four years, they collaborated on 3 further projects: 1989s Do the Right Thing, an account of racial tensions in Brooklyn, Mo Better Blues, Lees 1990s musical drama, and Malcolm X, the epic biographical drama about black activist Malcolm X. He spent most of the last two seasons scheming to abduct the fan favorite Baby Yodapresumably, to throw him in a blender and pulp him for midi-chloriansonly to land, relieved of his Darksaber, in the custody of the New Republic. [5][6] He attended Elizabeth Seton College in New York and earned a two-year degree in radio and television communications.[6]. Esposito, a graceful sixty-four-year-old with sharp dimples and slicked back salt-and-pepper curls, seems to be everywhere these days. Watching him grandstand, sermonize, womanize, and blackmail Dixiecrats in Congress, I found myself wishing that more directors would let him flex his talents as a showman. Giancarlo and his older brother Vincent debuted on Broadway in 1968 in the musical Maggie Flynn with Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy. Are the Jedi Doomed to Repeat Their Mistakes? In the weeks before John Wayne Gacys scheduled execution, he was far from reconciled to his fate. 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