James Russo

James Russo
Born	James Vincent Russo (1953-04-23) April 23, 1953 New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1981–present

James Vincent Russo (born April 23, 1953) is an American film and television actor. He has appeared in over 90 films in three decades.

Early life

Russo was born in New York City, New York. A graduate of New York University (NYU), of Italian descent, he wrote and starred in the prize-winning short film, The Candy Store. Before his first break in acting, he drove for a cab company and was also a gravedigger. He was raised in Flushing, NY and spent his formative years on 156th street.

Career

Russo's first role in his acting career was in the 1981 made-for-television movie Chicago Story. He would then go on to star in many hit films of the 1980s. His big break (but small role) came in the 1982 classic comedy film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, as a convenience store robber. In 1984, his other big role came in the hit film Beverly Hills Cop as Mikey Tandino, the friend of Axel Foley who gets murdered. Also in 1984, he starred in The Cotton Club, and played small-time hood Bugsy in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America. Russo's other big role was as a brutal rapist in the 1986 drama Extremities, opposite Farrah Fawcett. He also starred in the 1988 drama-suspense-thriller film Freeway.

Russo's film roles in the 1990s include State of Grace (1990), A Kiss Before Dying (1991) - in which he played a private investigator who is helping Sean Young's character investigate the murder of her twin sister - and My Own Private Idaho (also 1991). Russo also had roles in the 1994 movie Western Bad Girls, the 1997 hit films The Postman (as Idaho, the brutal sergeant of the Holnist army), and Donnie Brasco. In 2009 he had a small role in Michael Mann's Public Enemies as a member of John Dillinger's gang.

In 2003, Russo was reunited with his co-star from The Postman, Kevin Costner, in the Western film Open Range. He has also made guest appearances in many TV dramas and movies, including The Equalizer, Miami Vice, CSI, CSI: Miami and Las Vegas.

In the summer of 2009, Russo starred in a sort of psychological thriller entitled "7E" along with Brendan Sexton III, John Savage and Natasha Lyonne. The film has yet to be released. In September 2011 it was announced that Russo would have a brief appearance in Quentin Tarantino's 2012 film Django Unchained.

Credits

Stage

Off-Broadway

• Extremities (1982)

Film

• A Stranger Is Watching (1982)
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
• Vortex (1982)
• Exposed (1983)
• Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
• Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
• The Cotton Club (1984)
• Extremities (1986)
• China Girl (1987)
• The Blue Iguana (1988)
• Freeway (1988)
• The Vineyard (1989)
• The Belt (1989)
• We're No Angels (1989)
• State of Grace (1990)
• A Kiss Before Dying (1991)
• Intimate Stranger (1991) (TV film)
• My Own Private Idaho (1991)
• Cold Heaven (1991)
• In the Shadow of a Killer (1992) (TV film)
• Illicit Behavior (1992)
• Da Vinci's War (1993)
• Desperate Rescue: The Cathy Mahone Story (1993) (TV film)
• Trauma (1993)
• Double Deception (1993) (TV film)
• Dangerous Game (1993)
• Bad Girls (1994)
• The Set Up (1995)
• The Secretary (1995) (TV film)
• Panther (1995)
• Condition Red (1995)
• Livers Ain't Cheap (1996) (aka The Real Thing)
• American Strays (1996)
• No Way Home (1996)
• Small Time (1996)
• Laws of Deception (1997)
• Donnie Brasco (1997)
• The Girl Gets Moe (1997) (aka Love to Kill)
• Under Oath (1997)
• The Postman (1997)
• Butter (1998) (aka Never 2 Big)
• Heist (1998)
• My Husband's Secret Life (1998) (TV film)
• Fait Accompli (1998) (aka Voodoo Dawn)
• Charades (1998) (aka Felons)
• Detour (1998)
• Sonic Impact (1999)
• The Unscarred (1999)
• BitterSweet (1999)
• Jimmy Zip (1999)
• The Ninth Gate (1999)
• Diamonds (1999)
• Hidden War (2000)
• Bad Guys (2000)
• Deep Core (2000)
• Paper Bullets (2000)
• Pendulum (2001)
• Double Deception (2001) (aka 24 Hours to Die)
• Shattered Lies (2002)
• The House Next Door (2002)
• Redemption (2002)
• My Daughter's Tears (2002)
• Stealing Sinatra (2003)
• A Good Night to Die (2003)
• Paris (2003)
• The Box (2003)
• Open Range (2003)
• Target (2004)
• Come as You Are (2005)
• Confessions of a Pit Fighter (2005)
• Cut Off (2006)
• All In (2006)
• Satanic (2006)
• One Among Us (2006)
• Broken Trail (2006) (TV film)
• Shut Up and Shoot! (2006)
• Blackwater Valley Exorcism (2006)
• Chill (2007)
• The Pink Conspiracy (2007)
• Blue Lake Massacre (2007)
• Machine (2007)
• The Hit (2007)
• On the Doll (2007)
• Little Red Devil (2008)
• Born of Earth (2008)
• Kings of the Evening (2008)
• Dark World (2008)
• Stiletto (2008)
• Deadwater (2008)
• Shoot First and Pray You Live (Because Luck Has Nothing to Do with It) (2008)
• Break (2009)
• Good God Bad Dog (2009)
• Public Enemies (2009)
• Never Surrender (2009)
• Taken by Force (2009)
• Charlie Valentine (2009)
• Dark Woods (2009)
• Dreams and Shadows (2009)
• Love Sick Diaries (2010)
• One in the Gun (2010)
• Boy Wonder (2010)
• 7E (2010)
• An American Hero (2010)
• Break (2010)
• Django Unchained (2012)

Television

• The Equalizer (1985) (1 episode)
• Miami Vice (1985) (1 episode)
• Crime Story (1987) (1 episode)
• Friday the 13th: The Series (1988) (1 episode)
• Gabriel's Fire (1991) (1 episode)
• C-16: FBI (1997) (1 episode)
• Falcone (2000) (1 episode)
• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2004) (1 episode)
• Without a Trace (2004) (1 episode)
• Joan of Arcadia (2005) (1 episode)
• Las Vegas (2006) (1 episode)
• CSI: Miami (2006–2008) (2 episodes)
• The Capture of the Green River Killer (2008) (2-part miniseries)
• Numb3rs (2009) (1 episode)
• Dark Blue (2009) (1 episode)
• "Hatfields & McCoys (TV Miniseries)" (2012) ( 3 episodes)
• "{Las Vegas New Series with Dennis Quaid (2012-2013)

Awards

• Winner, 1983 Theatre World Award for Extremities

External links

• James Russo at IMDb
• James Russo at the Internet Broadway Database