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Anthony LaPaglia

Anthony LaPaglia

Tony Award and Emmy Award winner Anthony LaPaglia is one of the most sought-after and versatile talents in the entertainment industry.

He currently stars on the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced CBS drama series Without a Trace, as Jack Malone, head of the FBI's NYC missing-persons division.

LaPaglia has starred in many feature films. He first captivated filmgoers and attracted critical notice with his performance as the irrepressible Stevie Dee in Alan Alda's

Betsy's Wedding. His subsequent films include Terence Davies' The House of Mirth (opposite Gillian Anderson); Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown; Spike Lee's Summer of Sam; Joel Schumacher's The Client (with Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones); Ben Lewin's Paperback Romance and Richard Franklin's Brilliant Lies (both with his wife, Gia Carides); Kate Woods' Looking for Alibrandi (with Greta Scacchi); Robert Connolly's The Bank; Jon Sherman's I'm With Lucy; Thomas Schlamme's So I Married An Axe Murderer (alongside Mike Myers); George Gallo's 29th Street; Heywood Gould's One Good Cop (with Michael Keaton); John Landis' Innocent Blood; Mark Malone's Bulletproof Heart (opposite Mimi Rogers) and Dead Heat (with Kiefer Sutherland); D.J. Caruso's The Salton Sea (with Val Kilmer and Doug Hutchison); Joan Chen's Autumn in New York; Peter Askin and Douglas McGrath's Company Man (in which Sigourney Weaver also starred); and, most recently, Harold Ramis' Analyze That (with Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal).

His performance as detective Leon Zat in Ray Lawrence's Lantana, the psychological mystery, earned him the Best Actor award from the Australian Film Institute (one of seven AFI awards the film received) and nomination from the Film Critics Circle in Australia. A boxoffice hit in Australia, the film was selected to close the 26th Annual Toronto International Film Festival and went on to a successful specialized release in the U.S.

In addition to his starring role on CBS' Without a Trace, LaPaglia's television work includes the recurring role of Simon Moon on NBC's Frasier. He received an Emmy Award nomination in 2000, and then in 2002 won an Emmy Award, for his portrayal. He has completed filming The Yeltsin Project for Showtime. The telefim, directed by Roger Spottiswoode and also starring Jeff Goldblum and Liev Schreiber, centers on three American men who secretly orchestrate the 1996 political comeback of Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Also for television, he starred on Steven Bochco's critically acclaimed television series, Murder One; in Andy Wolk's HBO telefilm Criminal Justice, for which he received a CableACE Award nomination; Showtime's The Garden of Redemption, directed by Thomas Michael Donnelly and also starring Embeth Davidtz; John McNaughton's Lansky (for HBO, with Richard Dreyfuss); and CBS's fact-based Never Give Up: The Jimmy V Story in which he starred as Jim Valvano for director Marcus Cole.

LaPaglia's breakthrough stage role came in the off-Broadway comedy Bouncers, in which he performed as eight characters. His other NYC stage credits include Northeast Local and a revival of Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo, which earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination. He also captured attention in the Public Theatre production of On the Open Road.

In the winter of 2002, he starred at the Flea Theater in Anne Nelson's play The Guys. Under the direction of Jim Simpson, LaPaglia starred opposite Susan Sarandon and then Sigourney Weaver during his stint in the show.

In addition to his acting career, LaPaglia is teaming with Richard Gladstein to produce a new feature adaptation of Arthur Miller's classic play A View from the Bridge. LaPaglia's performance as Eddie Carbone in the 1998 Broadway revival earned him the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play, as well as the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards. He will again play the role in the new film version.

He is married to actress Gia Carides (seen recently with Nia Vardalos in Joel Zwick's My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the highest-grossing independent film of all time).


Note: This profile was written in or before 2003.

Anthony LaPaglia Facts

OccupationActor
BirthdayJanuary 31, 1959 (65)
SignAquarius
BirthplaceAdelaide, Australia
Height5' 11" (1m80)  How tall is Anthony LaPaglia compared to you?
Awards2004 Golden Globe Awards: Best Actor in a Television Series - Drama (for Without a Trace)
2002 Emmy Awards: Outstanding Guest Actor In A Comedy Series (for Frasier)

Selected Filmography

Dangerous Obsession
Happy Feet Two
Empire Records
Goodnight Seattle
So I Married An Axe Murderer
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
The Client
Empire Records Blu-ray
Played
Stephen King's A Good Marriage
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