Michael Rapaport
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Rapaport | |
---|---|
Born | Michael David Rapaport March 20, 1970 New York City, New York, United States |
Michael David Rapaport (born March 20, 1970) is an American actor and a comedian. He has acted in more than twenty films since the early 1990s.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Rapaport was born in New York City, New York, the son of June Brodie, a New York radio personality, and David Rapaport, a radio program manager.[1] As a teenager he idolized the actors, and fellow New Yorkers, Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken. He was expelled from high school and moved to Los Angeles to try stand-up comedy.
[edit] Career
Rapaport has appeared, in both dramatic and comedic roles, in film and television. His movie roles include starring alongside Eddie Murphy in Metro, as a wisecracking marine biologist in Deep Blue Sea, and as a naive college student whose loneliness drives him to become a racist skinhead in Higher Learning. Many credit his breakout role with the independent film Zebrahead. His other best known film role was in True Romance as Dick Ritchie. Rapaport costarred in the Fox sitcom The War at Home, in which he played an "average Joe" type dealing with the everyday challenges of family life. The sitcom debuted in September 2005, and was cancelled in May 2007.
Rapaport previously starred in the TV drama Boston Public. He voiced Troy from August 2006's Saints Row on Xbox360 and Joey Leone in the popular video game Grand Theft Auto III. Rapaport had a recurring guest-starring role on several episodes of Friends in 1999 as Phoebe's (Lisa Kudrow) police officer boyfriend, Gary. Coincidentally, Anita Barone, who plays Michael's on-screen wife, Vicky Gold in The War At Home, also appeared in Friends. She played Ross' ex-wife Carol for one episode, before Jane Sibbett was re-cast in the role.
Most recently, he had a recurring role in My Name is Earl as Frank, a convict Earl reunites with in prison. His character was the reason for many of the things in Earl's life, such as indirectly giving Earl his trailer and El Camino after a botched robbery with his partner, Paco. Incidentally, Paco was Catalina's boyfriend who was trying to get money to bring her to America.
[edit] Personal life
Rapaport was married to Nichole Beattie and they have two children.
He was in the New York tabloids in mid-2005 as the landlord who evicted actress Natasha Lyonne from her apartment (in one of the residential buildings he owns), which he described as, among other things, "filthy".[citation needed] Rapaport wrote an account of the matter in May 2005's issue of Jane Magazine. He was recently interviewed, during half time at the New York Knicks game, on November 20th 2007.
Rapaport made an appearance on the June 7, 2008 edition of "The Dirt Sheet" on WWE.com, giving his support to the hosts, John Morrison and The Miz.
[edit] Filmography
- Zebrahead (1992)
- Point of No Return (1993)
- Poetic Justice (1993)
- True Romance (1993)
- Money for Nothing (1993)
- The Scout (1994)
- Hand Gun (1994)
- The Foot Shooting Party (1994)
- Higher Learning (1995)
- Kiss of Death (1995)
- The Basketball Diaries (1995)
- Mighty Aphrodite (1995)
- Don't Quit Your Day Job (1996)
- Beautiful Girls (1996)
- The Pallbearer (1996)
- Illtown (1996)
- Metro (1997)
- A Brother's Kiss (1997)
- Kicked in the Head (1997)
- Cop Land (1997)
- Subway Stories: Tales from the Underground (1997)
- Palmetto (1998)
- Some Girl (1998)
- The Naked Man (1998)
- Rescuers: Stories of Courage (1998)
- Deep Blue Sea (1999)
- Kiss Toledo Goodbye (1999)
- Small Time Crooks (2000)
- Next Friday (2000)
- The 6th Day (2000)
- Bamboozled (2000)
- Men of Honor (2000)
- Chain of Fools (2000)
- King of the Jungle (2000)
- Lucky Numbers (2000)
- Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001)
- Boston Public (2000–2004)
- Comic Book Villains (2002)
- Paper Soldiers (2002)
- Triggermen (2002)
- 29 Palms (2002)
- A Good Night To Die (2003)
- Death of a Dynasty (2003)
- This Girl's Life (2003)
- American Brown (2004)
- Scrambled Eggs (2004)
- Tom 51 (2005)
- Hitch (2005)
- The War at Home (2005–2007)
- Live Free or Die (2006)
- Special (2006)
- Push (2006)
- Grilled (2006)
- A Day in the Life (2007)
- My Name is Earl (2007–)
- Only in New York (2008)
- Prison Break (2008-)
[edit] Musical appearances
- Frank Zappa: Civilization, Phaze III (1994) - Act Two, playing Moon Zappa's black-acting "boyfriend" in skits.
- Talib Kweli: Cameo in "Waiting for the DJ" (2002)
- High & Mighty: The Highlite Zone - "How to Rob an Actor" (2003)
- Ludacris' music video for the song "Runaway Love"; he portrayed the victimizer of "Lisa"--the first child depicted in the song. (2006)
- Jay Z "The City is Mine"
- H2O's "What Happened?"