Michael Rapaport

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Michael Rapaport
Born Michael David Rapaport
March 20, 1970 (1970-03-20) (age 38)
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

[edit] Musical appearances

[edit] References

[edit] External links