Ray Romano

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Ray Romano

Born Raymond Romano
December 21, 1957 (1957-12-21) (age 50)
Queens, New York, USA
Years active 1995-present

Ray Romano (born December 21, 1957) is an Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his starring role on the long-running CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond. His other notable acting credits include Ice Age and Ice Age: The Meltdown, as well as Welcome to Mooseport.

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[edit] Early life

Romano, an Italian-American (originally from the commune-town of Scigliano, in the Province of Cosenza, in the Calabria region of Italy), was born in Queens, New York. His mother, Lucie, was a piano teacher, and his father, Albert Romano, was a realtor and an engineer.[1] He grew up in the Queens neighborhood of Forest Hills.[2] Romano attended elementary and middle school at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Forest Hills. After transferring from Archbishop Molloy High School, Romano graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1975.[3] He was in the same high school class as Fran Drescher and later appeared on Drescher's sitcom The Nanny as an old classmate. Before breaking into show business, Romano briefly attended Queens College in Flushing, New York where he had majored in accounting. Romano quit going to Queens College after gaining only fifteen credits in three years. However, he would later return, making it to the Dean's List for three years while studying accounting.

[edit] Career

His early comedy career included many outlets such Comedy Central, where he had been a recurring guest voice on the show Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. He also was a contestant on Star Search in the stand-up comedy category. He was originally cast to play "Joe" on the American television sitcom NewsRadio, but was fired, to be replaced by Joe Rogan. Shortly thereafter, he became the star of his own show, Everybody Loves Raymond, that featured a cast and format more suitable to Romano's brand of humor.

Romano and his comedian friend Kevin James starred in the salesman comedy Grilled, as two guys of the same profession who are both very desperate to land a big sale. Romano was featured on a 2000 episode of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, on which he won US$125,000 for the NYPD's D.A.R.E. Unit. His older brother, Richard Romano (born in 1956) is a sergeant with the NYPD. He also has a younger brother, Robert Romano (born 1965).

In 2001, Romano was named one of E!'s top twenty entertainers of the year. In the same year, he was featured with his brother (a teacher at a school in Long Island) on a New York Police Department recruiting poster. In 2004, he became the highest paid television actor in history for his role of Raymond on CBS's Everybody Loves Raymond. It was later revealed on E! that he had broken another record by his show having the highest revenue, at US$3.9 billion.

On December 13, 2003, Romano was featured as a special guest star, sending a birthday card to Bob Barker in his eightieth-birthday bash on the seventh "Million Dollar Spectacular" special of the long-running daytime CBS series The Price Is Right.

Romano was the subject of the documentary film 95 MILES TO GO. The film documents Romano's road-trip for a series of gigs across the South. The film was released in theaters on April 7, 2006 by ThinkFILM.[4] In August of 2006, Romano was interviewed in front of a live audience at UCLA by fellow stand-up veteran, David Steinberg, for an episode of Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg. The program first aired on the TV Land network in March 2007.

[edit] Personal life

Romano married his wife Anna Scarpulla (born 1963), in 1987. They met while working at a bank. Ironically, he had asked out two other co-workers before Anna agreed to go on a date with him. Together, they have four children: one daughter Alexandra (born 1990), and three sons: twins Matthew & Gregory (born 1993) and Joseph Raymond (born February 16, 1998).

Romano's on-screen daughter for Everybody Loves Raymond was named after his real-life daughter. Also, in the series pilot, Ray and Debra's twin boys were named Gregory and Matthew, just like Romano's real twin sons, but Romano felt it was too weird to have all his TV kids have the same names as his real kids, so they changed the twins' names. Romano's real-life daughter Alexandra "Ally" Romano made several appearances on Everybody Loves Raymond as Molly, the best friend of his on-screen daughter Ally, and the daughter of Ray Barone's arch-nemesis, Peggy the Cookie Lady.

Romano is an avid New York Mets Fan. He once admitted to being jealous of fellow comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Acting

[edit] Writing

[edit] Bibliography

Everything and a Kite, 1999, Bantam Books. "Raymie, Dickie and the Bean," 2005, Simon & Schuster "Everybody Loves Raymond: Our Family Album," 2004, Pocket Books "Live At Carnegie Hall," (CD), 2001, Sony

[edit] References

  1. ^ Ray Romano Biography (1957-)
  2. ^ Strickland, Carol. "Can Sitcom Make It With L.I. Setting?", The New York Times, December 1, 1996. Accessed November 12, 2007. "For Everybody Loves Raymond, the route to Hollywood Hills began in Forest Hills, where Ray Romano, a standup comedian and the star of the show, grew up."
  3. ^ Yahoo Movies - Ray Romano. Retrieved on 2006-08-23.
  4. ^ 95 Miles to Go (2004)
  5. ^ "Hannah Montana Image". As seen in image.

[edit] External links

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Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor - Comedy Series

Eric McCormack (2001) · Ray Romano (2002) · Tony Shalhoub (2003) · Kelsey Grammer (2004) · Tony Shalhoub (2005) · Tony Shalhoub (2006) · Ricky Gervais (2007)