Calogero Lorenzo "Chazz" Palminteri (born May 15, 1952) is an American actor, screenwriter, producer and playwright. He is best known for his Academy Award-nominated role for Best Supporting Actor in Bullets over Broadway, the 1993 film A Bronx Tale, based on his play of the same name, Special Agent Dave Kujan in The Usual Suspects, Primo Sidone in Analyze This and his recurring role as Shorty in Modern Family.\n', '

Palminteri was born on May 15, 1952, in the Bronx, the son of Rose, a homemaker, and Lorenzo Palminteri, a bus driver. He was raised in the Belmont neighborhood of the Bronx. Palminteri\'s surname is of Sicilian origin and his family is originally from Menfi in the province of Agrigento, Sicily. His grandparents, Calogero Palminteri and Rosa Bonfante, married in 1908 and moved to the United States in 1910.\n', '

He struggled to become a star, splitting his time between acting in off-Broadway plays and moonlighting as a bouncer, alongside Dolph Lundgren. His big break came in 1988 with the premiere of his autobiographical one-man show, A Bronx Tale, which he wrote after being fired from a club for refusing entry to super agent Swifty Lazar; Robert De Niro later developed and directed a film version (1993).\n', '

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