New York-born and -raised Chazz Palminteri was a natural choice to continue the Italianate torch in film. In the tradition set forth in the 1970s by such icons as director Martin Scorsese and actors Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel and Joe Pesci, Palminteri brought grit, muscle and an evocative realism to the sidewalks of his New York neighborhood, violent as they were. Born in 1952, Palmintieri grew up in a tough area of the Bronx and it gave young Calogero (Palminteri’s given first name) the life lessons that would later prove very useful. He graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School and started out pursuing his craft in 1973 studying with Lee Strasberg at the Actor’s Studio. He appeared off-Broadway in the early 1980s while paying his dues as a bouncer and doorman in nightclubs, among other jobs. In 1986 he headed west and found that his ethnic qualifications helped tremendously. Slick attorneys, tough hoods and hard-nosed cops were all part of his “tough guy” persona in such TV shows as “Wiseguy” (1987), “Matlock” (1986) and “Hill Street Blues” (1981).