Vincent D'Onofrio

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Vincent D'Onofrio
Vincent D'Onofrio
Born	June 30, 1959 Brooklyn, New York, USA
Height	6'4"
Notable roles	Detective Robert Goren, Law & Order: Criminal Intent

Vincent Phillip D'Onofrio (born June 30, 1959) is an American actor and producer. He currently plays Detective Robert O. Goren in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Trivia 5 Film and television credits 5.1 Films 5.2 Television (including notable guest appearances) 5.3 Documentaries 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Vincent D'Onofrio was born in Brooklyn, New York. His Italian-American^{[citation needed]} family moved around in his youth, and he grew up in Hawaii, Florida, and Colorado. He graduated from high school in Florida in 1977 and then attended a Colorado university for about 18 months. He then dropped out of college to pursue acting. He was accepted for study with the American Stanislavsky Theatre in New York City.

[edit] Career

In 1984, D'Onofrio became a full member of the American Stanislavsky Theatre and appeared in a number of its productions, including Of Mice and Men and Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He also made his Broadway debut as Nick Rizzoli in Open Admissions. Before this breakthrough, he had been acting in New York University student films and was working as a bouncer.

In 1987 D'Onofrio entered the mainstream consciousness with two film roles that showcased his range as an actor. Most notable was the role of Private Leonard "Gomer Pyle" Lawrence in Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film, Full Metal Jacket. This was D'Onofrio's first major role, and he gained 70 pounds (32 kg) for the part. The other role was that of Dawson, the owner of Dawson's Garage in Adventures in Babysitting, which was directed by Chris Columbus. D'Onofrio only appears in one pivotal scene (near the end of the movie), but his role was memorable in that his muscular physique and long blonde hair cause Sara (the film's youngest character) to mistakenly believe that he is actually Thor, the superhero she idolizes.

In the time since, D'Onofrio has continued to play a wide variety of roles, including iconic director Orson Welles in Tim Burton's Ed Wood, farmer Edgar and the evil "Bug" from Men In Black, Yippie founder Abbie Hoffman in Steal This Movie, time traveler from the distant future in Happy Accidents, and fictional serial killer Carl Stargher in The Cell.

He also has dabbled in film production and direction, having, to date, produced two movies, The Whole Wide World and Guy in 1996 and 1997, respectively, executive produced two others, The Velocity of Gary in 1998 and Steal This Movie in 2000 and directed the short Five Minutes, Mr. Welles in 2005. This last represents a culmination of D'Onofrio's desire to improve on his performance as Welles in Ed Wood, which reputedly left director Tim Burton underwhelmed and in need of a voice-over artist.

D'Onofrio has since moved to the small screen. He received an Emmy nomination in 1998 for his appearance as John Lange, the doomed victim in the acclaimed "Subway" episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. He currently stars as Detective Robert Goren, a principal character, on the NBC television show Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

On 9 February 2005, NBC announced that Chris Noth, who played Detective Mike Logan in Law & Order (the original series) from 1990 to 1995, will join the cast of Law & Order: Criminal Intent as Detective Logan in the 2005–2006 season. D'Onofrio and Noth will share the lead role, alternating being the lead detective from week to week.

According to a 16 June 2005, interview with the Australian newspaper The Age, D'Onofrio will do, in cooperation with Channel Ten, a yet unrevealed show in Australia. The deal however eventually fell through.

In November 2005, he won Best Actor at the Stockholm International Film Festival for his role as Mike Cobb in the independent film Thumbsucker.

In 2005 D'Onofrio and Joe Pantoliano began work on a small film titled "Little Victories" about a 12-year old boy whose perceptions of the world are forever changed when his gangster uncle comes to live with him. The film is still shrouded in mystery and there have been talks of plaguing production problems.

In 2006, D'Onofrio again appeared on the big screen in The Break Up, starring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn. In it, D'Onofrio played Vaughn's somewhat eccentric brother. This fraternal pairing of the two was regarded by many as a clever casting choice, since the two actors have similar physical features and mannerisms that, combined with having the same first name, cause many casual movie fans to confuse the two actors. The two had previously appeared together in The Cell, where Vaughn co-starred as an FBI agent attempting to catch D'Onofrio.

[edit] Personal life

D'Onofrio was linked to actress Greta Scacchi from 1991 to 1993. He married photographer Carin van der Donk in 1997. They divorced in October 2003. D'Onofrio has two children, daughter Leila George, with Scacchi, born 20 March 1992, and his son Elias, with van der Donk, born in [2000].

In late 2004, D'Onofrio experienced a health scare when he collapsed on the set of Law & Order: Criminal Intent on 10 November. He collapsed again at home a few days later and was taken back to the hospital for more thorough testing, where he was diagnosed with exhaustion. Subsequently, the series' producers decided to lessen his workload for the 2005–2006 season by introducing a second team of detectives, Mike Logan (Chris Noth) and Carolyn Barek (Annabella Sciorra).

[edit] Trivia

• His last name is pronounced "Duh-noff-ree-o".

• D'Onofrio portrayed Orson Welles in the Tim Burton movie Ed Wood. Burton disliked D'Onofrio's vocal impression of Welles, so Burton overdubbed a digital combination of D'Onofrio's voice and the voice of Maurice LaMarche, a voice actor particularly noted for his impression of Orson Welles.

• D'Onofrio has played Bill Newman, who was a real-life eyewitness to the JFK assassination twice. He first did so in director Oliver Stone's: JFK (1991). Due to budgetary constraints, director Spike Lee reused some of the same JFK assassination footage shot by Stone in Lee's 1992 film: Malcolm X.

• Renée Zellweger thanked him in her Oscar acceptance speech when she won Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Cold Mountain in 2004. They had starred together in the 1996 film The Whole Wide World.

• Gained a record-breaking 70 pounds for his role in the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, outdoing the 60 pounds Robert DeNiro gained for Raging Bull. D'Onofrio's record was finally broken by Christian Bale, who gained 100 pounds for his role as Batman/Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins. Bale also holds the opposite record, for the most weight lost for a role, having dropped 63 pounds for his previous role The Machinist.

• Gained 45 pounds for his role in The Salton Sea.

• As a teenager growing up in Miami, Florida, D'Onofrio became adept at magic, especially sleight of hand. He has joked if he was not acting, he would have become a magician.

• He is left-handed.

• His nickname is "The Human Chameleon".

• He is 6'4" tall.

• His sister, Elizabeth D'Onofrio, worked with him in A Whole Wide World. She was a waitress.

[edit] Film and television credits

[edit] Films

• The Break Up (2006)
• Five Minutes, Mr Welles (2005)
• Thumbsucker (2005)
• Case of Evil (2002)
• The Salton Sea (2002)
• The Red Sneakers (2002)
• The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002)
• Bark (2002)
• Impostor (2002)
• Chelsea Walls (2001)
• The Cell (2000)
• Steal This Movie (2000)
• Happy Accidents (2000)
• That Championship Season (1999)
• The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
• Spanish Judges (1999)
• The Velocity of Gary (1998)
• Claire Dolan (1998)
• The Newton Boys (1998)
• The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1998) - TV remake of the 1974 film
• Guy (1997)
• Men in Black (1997)
• Boys Life 2 (1997)
• Good Luck (1996)
• Feeling Minnesota (1996)
• The Winner (1996)
• The Whole Wide World (1996)
• Hotel Paradise (1995)
• Strange Days (1995)
• Stuart Saves His Family (1995)
• Nunzio's Second Cousin (1994)
• Imaginary Crimes (1994)
• The Investigator (1994)
• Ed Wood (1994)
• Mr. Wonderful (1993)
• Household Saints (1993)
• Being Human (1993)
• Malcolm X (1992)
• Salt on Our Skin (1992) - also known as Desire
• The Player (1992)
• JFK (1991)
• Naked Tango (1991)
• Fires Within (1991)
• Dying Young (1991)
• Crooked Hearts (1991)
• Naked Tango (1990)
• The Blood of Heroes (1989) - also known as Salute of the Jugger
• Signs of Life (1989)
• Mystic Pizza (1988)
• Adventures in Babysitting (1987)
• Full Metal Jacket (1987)
• It Don't Pay to Be an Honest Citizen (1984)
• The First Turn-On!! (1983)

[edit] Television (including notable guest appearances)

• Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001—) as Detective Robert Goren
• Men in Black: The Series as Bugs (voice) in "The Big Bad Bug Syndrome" (Episode 2.5) 24 October 1998
• Homicide: Life on the Street as John Lange in "The Subway" (Episode 6.7) 5 December 1997
• The Equalizer as Davy Baylor in "Suspicion of Innocence" (Episode 3.3) 30 September 1987
• Miami Vice as Leon Wolf in "The Afternoon Plane" (Episode 3.17) 20 February 1987
• The Equalizer as Thomas Marley in "Counterfire" (Episode 2.7) 19 November 1986

[edit] Documentaries

• Anatomy of a Homicide, PBS (1998)[1]

[edit] External links

• Vincent D'Onofrio at the Internet Movie Database
• Vincent D'Onofrio — Belgian website on Vincent with forum (in French)