Tony Shalhoub

Tony Shalhoub
Tony Shalhoub (December 2008)
Born	Anthony Marcus Shalhoub (1953-10-09) October 9, 1953 (age 58) Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S.
Residence	Los Angeles, California, Green Bay, Wisconsin
Education	University of Southern Maine
Alma mater	Yale School of Drama
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1986–present
Home town	Green Bay, Wisconsin, U.S.
Television	Monk, Wings
Spouse	Brooke Adams (m. 1992) «start: (1992)»"Marriage: Brooke Adams to Tony Shalhoub" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Shalhoub)
Children	2
Awards	Emmy Award, Golden Globe
Signature

Anthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub (born October 9, 1953) is an American actor. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci in Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk in the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk. He has also had a successful career as a character actor, with roles in films like Spy Kids, Men in Black, Men in Black II, Thirteen Ghosts, Galaxy Quest, 1408, Barton Fink, Big Night, The Siege, Cars (film) and The Man Who Wasn't There.

Early life

Shalhoub was born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. His father, Joe Shalhoub, a Catholic Maronite from Lebanon, immigrated to the United States as an orphan at the age of 10. He married Shalhoub’s mother, Helen, a second-generation Lebanese-American, and founded a family grocery chain, starting with a store in downtown Green Bay.

Being the second youngest of the couple's 10 children, Shalhoub was introduced to the theater by an older sister, who put his name forward to be an extra in a high school production of The King and I. Despite finding himself standing on the wrong side of the curtain during the final dress rehearsal, he became enamored with the theater. Shalhoub graduated from Green Bay East High School, where his senior peers named him the best dressed and most likely to succeed.^{[citation needed]} In his senior year he suffered a setback, breaking his leg in a fall off the stage into the pit during a rehearsal. Recovering quickly, he was able to perform in the school's final play of the year. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in drama from the University of Southern Maine in Portland, going on to earn a master's from the Yale School of Drama in 1980.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Stage

Shortly thereafter, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he spent four seasons with the American Repertory Theater before heading to New York City, where he found work waiting tables while honing his craft and auditioning. He made his Broadway debut in the 1985 Rita Moreno/Sally Struthers production of The Odd Couple and was nominated for a 1992 Tony Award for his featured role in Conversations with My Father. Shalhoub met his wife, actress Brooke Adams, when they co-starred on Broadway in The Heidi Chronicles. His off-Broadway credits include Waiting for Godot, For Dear Life, Rameau's Nephew, Zero Positive, and two productions of Shakespeare in the Park: Henry IV, Part 1 and Richard II.^{[citation needed]}

Shalhoub returned in December 2006 to the Second Stage Theatre in New York, off-Broadway, opposite Patricia Heaton for a run of The Scene by Theresa Rebeck.^[1] In 2010, he went to Broadway to act as Saunders in a revival version of Lend Me a Tenor in New York at the Music Box Theatre.^{[2][dated info]}

Screen roles

One of his first television roles was in 1991 as the Italian cabdriver Antonio Scarpacci in the sitcom Wings. Shalhoub was pleasantly surprised to land the role after having a recurring role in the second season. Shalhoub affected an Italian accent for the role. In the same time period, Shalhoub played physicist Dr. Chester Ray Banton in The X-Files second-season episode "Soft Light".

Shalhoub's film roles following his Wings breakout included an excitable producer in Barton Fink and a fast-talking lawyer in The Man Who Wasn't There (both directed by the Coen brothers), a linguistically unidentified cabby in Quick Change, a Cuban-American businessman in Primary Colors, a sleazy alien pawn shop owner in the Men in Black films, a sympathetic attorney in A Civil Action, a widowed father in Thir13en Ghosts, a cameo role in the film Gattaca, and a has-been television star in Galaxy Quest.

He had a co-starring role in the film Big Night, where he plays an Italian-speaking chef complete with accent. In 1995 he had a role in the hit NBC sitcom Frasier in the episode "The Focus Group" as an Arab newsstand owner named Manu Habbib. He did voice acting for the 1997 computer game Fallout.

Shalhoub demonstrated his dramatic range in the 1998 big-budget thriller The Siege, where he co-starred alongside Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, and Bruce Willis. His character, FBI Special Agent Frank Haddad, was of Middle Eastern descent and suffered discrimination after terrorist attacks in New York City.^[3] He returned to series television in 1999, this time in a lead role on Stark Raving Mad, opposite Neil Patrick Harris. However, the show didn't attract much of an audience, and NBC canceled the series in July 2000.^{[citation needed]}

Monk

After a two-year absence from the small screen, Shalhoub starred in another TV series, Monk, in which he portrays Adrian Monk, a brilliant Sherlock Holmes-type detective with many compulsions and phobias, for USA Network. Shalhoub was nominated for an Emmy Award^[4] for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in eight consecutive years from 2003 to 2010, winning in 2003, 2005, and 2006. He also took the Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy, in 2003.^[5]

During Monk

In addition to his acting work, Shalhoub, along with the Network of Arab-American Professionals and Zoom-in-Focus productions, established The Arab-American Filmmaker Award Competition in 2005. Arab-American filmmakers submitted screenplays, with the chosen winner flown to Hollywood to have their screenplay produced. Two runners-up were also invited to participate in the production.^{[citation needed]}

He appeared with Alec Baldwin in the 2004 Hollywood satire The Last Shot as a gruff small-time mobster with a love for movies, and as the voice of Luigi in the 2006 Disney/Pixar film Cars. The same year he appeared in Danny Leiner's drama "The Great New Wonderful" as a psychologist in post-9/11 New York City. The following year, 2007, he appeared in the 2007 horror film 1408 as well on stage off-Broadway as Charlie in The Scene.

He received a 2008 Grammy nomination in the category "Best Spoken Word Album for Children" for his narration of The Cricket in Times Square.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Shalhoub married actress Brooke Adams in 1992. The two have worked together in several films, and Adams has made several guest appearances on Monk, portraying several different side characters, including a flight attendant, the mother of a kidnapped violinist, a county sheriff, and a crazy cat lady. Shalhoub and Adams appeared on Broadway together in the 2010 revival of Lend Me a Tenor. At the time of their wedding, Adams had an adopted daughter, Josie Lynn (born 1989), whom Shalhoub adopted. In 1994, they adopted another daughter, Sophie (born 1993). The family resides in Los Angeles and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In 2006, Shalhoub's brother Dan appeared on the reality show American Inventor, pitching the Sha-Poopie, a catch-in-action pooper scooper.^[6] Judges rejected it. It later appeared in the 2009 Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Dog". Shalhoub is the cousin of Chicago radio personality Jonathon Brandmeier. He is also the brother-in-law of former Guiding Light actress Lynne Adams.^[7] His brother Michael Shalhoub is also an actor and made three guest appearances on Monk.

Filmography

Motion pictures

Television

Video games

Produced

Directed

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tony Shalhoub

• Tony Shalhoub at the Internet Movie Database
• Tony Shalhoub at the Internet Broadway Database
• 1st Annual Arab-American Film Maker Award 2005
• Star File: Tony Shalhoub at Broadway.com
• Interview with Tony Shalhoub in Venice Magazine
• Tony Shalhoub at Emmys.com