Tony Danza
Tony Danza was born on April 21, 1951 in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Anne (1925-1993) and Matty (1920-1983) Iadanza. Anne was born in Sicily and immigrated to the United States with five brothers and sisters in 1929. Danza has one younger brother, Matty Jr. (born 1954), who owns a restaurant in Los Angeles called Matty’s on Melrose. When Danza was 14, he and his family relocated to the Long Island community of Malverne, and Danza attended Malverne High School, graduating in 1969 and was said to score a near perfect SAT score. Danza earned a bachelor’s degree in history education from the University of Dubuque, which he attended on a wrestling scholarship, graduating in 1973. It was during his first year of college that he got the Robert Crumb Keep on Truckin’ tattoo on his upper right arm. In a 1985 interview in Us Weekly magazine, Danza remarked, “I was playing pool with a guy who had all these tattoos, and I wanted to be friends.” Danza now also sports a “Keep Punching”/boxing gloves tattoo on his right shoulder. Also while in college, Danza met and married his first wife, Rhonda (Yeoman) Iadanza, and they have two children together.
Shortly after his college graduation, Danza was discovered by a producer at a boxing gymnasium in New York. He then earned a spot on the television show Taxi.
From 1976 to 1979, Danza was a professional boxer with a 9-3 record, with all of his fights, wins and losses, ending by knockout.
In 1986, Danza married for the second time, to Tracy Robinson. The couple divorced in 2007 and have two daughters, Katherine (born 1987) and Emily (born 1993).
In 2005, Tony Danza became a grandfather when his son Marc and his wife, Julie, had a son, Nicholas. In 2008, Danza and his son Marc published a cookbook Don’t Fill Up on the Antipasto: Tony Danza’s Father-Son Cookbook.
Danza is best known for his roles in Taxi (1978-1983), in which he played cab driver and part-time boxer, “Tony Banta,” and Who’s the Boss? (1984-1992), portraying housekeeper and single father, “Tony Micelli.”
Danza also starred in the short-lived sitcoms Hudson Street (1995) and The Tony Danza Show (1997), not to be confused with his talk show of the same name. He had a role in the TV drama Family Law from 2000 until 2002.
He was nominated for an Emmy Award for a guest-starring 1998 role in the TV series The Practice. His movie debut was in the comedy The Hollywood Knights (1980), which was followed by Going Ape! (1981). He received critical acclaim for his performance in the 1999 Broadway revival of the Eugene O’Neill play The Iceman Cometh.
In 2002, Danza released his debut album The House I Live In as a 1950s-style crooner.
