James Ciccone

James Ciccone is an American character actor who has appeared in well over a dozen network television shows. He is known for his recent role as mob boss Carmine Patriccia in the HBO television drama The Deuce. James Ciccone was born on June 14, 1963 in Park Slope, Brooklyn as the tenth child to Anthony Ciccone and Theresa (Merrit) Ciccone; he is of Italian and Irish descent. The family owned a local luncheonette until 1965 when Ciccone's father died. Ciccone's mother sold the luncheonette and moved the family to the Bensonhurst/Gravesend section of Brooklyn where she worked full-time as a waitress. As a result, Ciccone was raised largely by his nine older siblings, two of which had artistic influence on him (his brother Anthony an artist and sister Patricia a flautist). Early on Ciccone had a desire to perform. In grade school he participated in several school plays and by age 11 began playing trumpet in the music program at Public School 153, Brooklyn. For the next five years he continued studying music with Academy Award-winning composer Elliot Goldenthal, who, through marriage, happened to be the brother of Ciccone's uncle. In 1977 Ciccone was accepted into the High School of Performing Arts on 46th Street, New York City. Widely known as the "FAME" school, the tiny HS with just a few hundred in population gained world recognition with the release of the 1980 multiple Academy Award-winning film, FAME. Ciccone studied music at Performing Arts while studying acting with Uta Hagen at HB Studio. He later earned a bachelor of fine arts degree at Marist College, Poughkeepsie, NY and graduated magna cum laude. He disconnected from the performing arts community for several years and began working in the human services profession. In 1996 he enrolled in Seminary. In 2000 and 2003 respectively he earned master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from New York Theological Seminary. Although never ordained Ciccone taught briefly for St. John's University and in the graduate program at Metropolitan College of New York before beginning a professional acting career In 2006 Ciccone became a member of the small Primary Talent community theatre group housed at the 200-seat Players Theatre in Manhattan. During this time he appeared in several productions including the lead role in Paddy Chayefsky's Marty. Over the next few years he was cast in a variety of unknown low-budget independent films and several student films at NYU Tish before writing and appearing in his own three short films: Nothing for Nothing, Plenty of It, and Neighborhood Nonsense, the latter of which appeared in the 2010 New Filmmakers Film Festival and was featured on Funny or Die. While studying with renown acting coach Harold Guskin he secured his television debut in an under 5 role as Price, a card-player in the final season of the 54 year running soap, As The World Turns. The following year in 2011 Ciccone landed a multiple day guest star role in an episode of White Collar playing the referee in an underground after-hours boxing club. In 2012 he appeared opposite Donnie Wahlberg and Jennifer Esposito in Blue Bloods and landed a recurring role as Joe Masseria's thug on HBO's Boardwalk Empire. In 2013 he worked opposite Jake McLaughlin and Erik LaRay Harvey in NBC's Believe, directed by Academy Award-winning director Alfonso Cuaron. Ciccone also appeared on network television opposite Debra Messing in The Mysteries of Laura and made guest star appearances as Peter O'Neil on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In 2015 Ciccone was cast in the guest star role of Ronald (the masturbator on the train) in Master of None where he worked opposite comedian Aziz Ansari (playing Dev) who employs a citizen's arrest only to "weirdly kind of sympathize with [him]". Other 2015 Netflix roles include Cabbie opposite Charlie Cox on Daredevil and Vito in Italian Pinata on Difficult People. Also in 2016 Ciccone appeared in the guest star role of truck-rental mobster Frank Capello on Person of Interest. In late 2016 Ciccone was cast as a guest star in the new CBS episodic Bull starring Michael Weatherly. In the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Ciccone appeared in the World Premiere of the racially charged bio-pic Crown Heights, which took home the Festival Audience Award for the US Dramatic competition. Later in 2017 Ciccone appeared in multiple episodes on NBC's Shades of Blue starring Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta. In addition to a recent performance on Fox's prime time network hit, Gotham, Ciccone recently worked opposite Joe Pesci in the new Marty Scorsese film, The Irishman (2019 release) and will return in season 2 on multiple episodes of HBO's The Deuce starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhall. Ciccone has one child through a long-term relationship with Ana Belkis Munoz. Their daughter, Isabella Star was born in 2013. Ciccone owns homes on Staten Island, NY and in Warwick, NY on Greenwood Lake, which serves as his primary residence. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Wiki