TONY SHALHOUB
Name: Anthony Marcus Shalhoub
Born: 9 October 1953
Anthony Marcus Shalhoub (born October 9, 1953), known as Tony Shalhoub, is a
three-time Emmy Award- and Golden Globe-winning American television and film
actor. He is currently the star and executive producer of the USA Network
television show Monk, in which he plays an obsessive-compulsive detective who is
often called on by the San Francisco Police Department to solve crimes no one
else can. Before he played Adrian Monk, he was also well known for his role as
the Sicilian cabdriver Antonio Scarpacci on the NBC television series Wings, on
which he played the role from 1991 to 1997.
Shalhoub was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he was raised. His father, Joe
Shalhoub, emigrated from Lebanon to the United States as an orphan at the age of
ten. He later married Shalhoub's mother, Helen, a second-generation Lebanese-American,
and founded a family company from the humble start of one grocery store in the
center of Green Bay. His family were Maronite Christians, some of whom left
Lebanon.
Tony Shalhoub's brothers and sisters introduced him to the theater. When Tony
was just six years old, one of his elder sisters volunteered her little brother
to play an extra in a high school production of The King and I. Even though the
young Tony was left standing on the wrong side of the curtain during the final
dress rehearsal, he became addicted to the theater. Tony graduated from Green
Bay East High School, with his senior peers finding him the best dressed and
most likely to succeed. He then graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from
the University of Southern Maine in Portland, and earned a master's degree from
the Yale School of Drama in 1980.
Shortly thereafter, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he spent four
seasons with the American Repertory Theatre before heading to New York City,
where he found work waiting tables while honing his craft and auditioning. He
made his Broadway debut in the 1985 Rita Moreno/Sally Struthers production of
The Odd Couple and was nominated for a 1992 Tony Award for his featured role in
Conversations with My Father. Shalhoub met his wife, actress Brooke Adams, when
they co-starred on Broadway in The Heidi Chronicles. His Off-Broadway credits
include Waiting for Godot, For Dear Life, Rameau's Nephew, Zero Positive, and
two productions of Shakespeare in Central Park, Henry IV, part I and Richard II.
Shalhoub was to return in December 2006 to Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre
with (Everybody Loves Raymond star) Patricia Heaton for a run of The Scene by
Theresa Rebeck. Rebeck's black comedy takes a look at the NYC entertainment
scene with Shalhoub starring as Charlie, a has-been actor who is married to
Heaton's character Stella, a very successful producer of a morning television
show.
By 1991, one of his first television roles was as the Italian cabdriver Antonio
Scarpacci in the long-running sitcom Wings, which also starred Tim Daly, Steven
Weber, Crystal Bernard, Thomas Haden Church, and Rebecca Schull. Shalhoub was
pleasantly surprised to land the role after having a recurring role in the
second season. Shalhoub affected an Italian accent for the role. In the same
time period, Shalhoub played the lead victim in the X-Files second-season
episode "Soft Light." In 1997, Shalhoub's days of driving in a taxicab came to
an end when Wings was cancelled by NBC, and he found himself looking for other
roles that would match that character's popularity.
Among his film roles after Wings include a fast-talking lawyer in The Man Who
Wasn't There, a Cuban-American businessman in Primary Colors, a sleazy alien
pawn shop owner in the Men in Black films, a sympathetic attorney in A Civil
Action, a widowed father in Thir13en Ghosts, and a has-been television star in
Galaxy Quest. One of his more unusual roles was in Big Night, where he plays an
Italian-speaking chef complete with accent.
Shalhoub demonstrated his dramatic range in the 1998 big-budget thriller The
Siege starring Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, and Bruce Willis. His
character, FBI Special Agent Frank Haddad, was of Middle Eastern descent and
suffered discrimination after Arab terrorists attack sites in New York City.
He most recently appeared with Alec Baldwin in the Hollywood satire The Last
Shot as a gruff small-time mobster with a love for movies and as the voice of
Luigi in the Pixar film Cars.
He later returned to series television in 1999, this time in a lead role on
Stark Raving Mad opposite Neil Patrick Harris (who would later star in How I Met
Your Mother). Unlike Wings, the show didn't attract much of an audience during
the first season, and NBC pulled the plug on the series in July of 2000.
Shalhoub did voice acting for the cult classic computer game Fallout. He was one
of the celebrity judges for the "Bush In 30 Seconds" advertisement competition.
Name: Anthony Marcus Shalhoub
Born: 9 October 1953
Anthony Marcus Shalhoub (born October 9, 1953), known as Tony Shalhoub, is a
three-time Emmy Award- and Golden Globe-winning American television and film
actor. He is currently the star and executive producer of the USA Network
television show Monk, in which he plays an obsessive-compulsive detective who is
often called on by the San Francisco Police Department to solve crimes no one
else can. Before he played Adrian Monk, he was also well known for his role as
the Sicilian cabdriver Antonio Scarpacci on the NBC television series Wings, on
which he played the role from 1991 to 1997.
Shalhoub was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he was raised. His father, Joe
Shalhoub, emigrated from Lebanon to the United States as an orphan at the age of
ten. He later married Shalhoub's mother, Helen, a second-generation Lebanese-American,
and founded a family company from the humble start of one grocery store in the
center of Green Bay. His family were Maronite Christians, some of whom left
Lebanon.
Tony Shalhoub's brothers and sisters introduced him to the theater. When Tony
was just six years old, one of his elder sisters volunteered her little brother
to play an extra in a high school production of The King and I. Even though the
young Tony was left standing on the wrong side of the curtain during the final
dress rehearsal, he became addicted to the theater. Tony graduated from Green
Bay East High School, with his senior peers finding him the best dressed and
most likely to succeed. He then graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from
the University of Southern Maine in Portland, and earned a master's degree from
the Yale School of Drama in 1980.
Shortly thereafter, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he spent four
seasons with the American Repertory Theatre before heading to New York City,
where he found work waiting tables while honing his craft and auditioning. He
made his Broadway debut in the 1985 Rita Moreno/Sally Struthers production of
The Odd Couple and was nominated for a 1992 Tony Award for his featured role in
Conversations with My Father. Shalhoub met his wife, actress Brooke Adams, when
they co-starred on Broadway in The Heidi Chronicles. His Off-Broadway credits
include Waiting for Godot, For Dear Life, Rameau's Nephew, Zero Positive, and
two productions of Shakespeare in Central Park, Henry IV, part I and Richard II.
Shalhoub was to return in December 2006 to Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre
with (Everybody Loves Raymond star) Patricia Heaton for a run of The Scene by
Theresa Rebeck. Rebeck's black comedy takes a look at the NYC entertainment
scene with Shalhoub starring as Charlie, a has-been actor who is married to
Heaton's character Stella, a very successful producer of a morning television
show.
By 1991, one of his first television roles was as the Italian cabdriver Antonio
Scarpacci in the long-running sitcom Wings, which also starred Tim Daly, Steven
Weber, Crystal Bernard, Thomas Haden Church, and Rebecca Schull. Shalhoub was
pleasantly surprised to land the role after having a recurring role in the
second season. Shalhoub affected an Italian accent for the role. In the same
time period, Shalhoub played the lead victim in the X-Files second-season
episode "Soft Light." In 1997, Shalhoub's days of driving in a taxicab came to
an end when Wings was cancelled by NBC, and he found himself looking for other
roles that would match that character's popularity.
Among his film roles after Wings include a fast-talking lawyer in The Man Who
Wasn't There, a Cuban-American businessman in Primary Colors, a sleazy alien
pawn shop owner in the Men in Black films, a sympathetic attorney in A Civil
Action, a widowed father in Thir13en Ghosts, and a has-been television star in
Galaxy Quest. One of his more unusual roles was in Big Night, where he plays an
Italian-speaking chef complete with accent.
Shalhoub demonstrated his dramatic range in the 1998 big-budget thriller The
Siege starring Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, and Bruce Willis. His
character, FBI Special Agent Frank Haddad, was of Middle Eastern descent and
suffered discrimination after Arab terrorists attack sites in New York City.
He most recently appeared with Alec Baldwin in the Hollywood satire The Last
Shot as a gruff small-time mobster with a love for movies and as the voice of
Luigi in the Pixar film Cars.
He later returned to series television in 1999, this time in a lead role on
Stark Raving Mad opposite Neil Patrick Harris (who would later star in How I Met
Your Mother). Unlike Wings, the show didn't attract much of an audience during
the first season, and NBC pulled the plug on the series in July of 2000.
Shalhoub did voice acting for the cult classic computer game Fallout. He was one
of the celebrity judges for the "Bush In 30 Seconds" advertisement competition.