Tony Shalhoub (born October 9, 1953) is a three-time
Emmy Award and Golden Globe-winning
American television and film actor. He is currently the star and executive producer of the USA Network television show Monk in which he plays an
obsessive-compulsive detective who is
often called on by the San Francisco Police Department to solve crimes
no one else can. Before he played Adrian Monk, he was also well known for his role as the
Italian cabdriver, Antonio Scarpacci, on the NBC television series
Wings, on which he played the role from 1991 to 1997.
Biography
Early life
Shalhoub was born Anthony Marcus Shalhoub in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he was raised. His father, Joe Shalhoub, emigrated from Lebanon to the United States as an orphan at the age of ten. He later
married Shalhoub's mother, Helen, a second-generation Lebanese-American, and founded a
family company from the humble start of one grocery store in the center of Green Bay. His family were Maronite Christians, some of whom left Lebanon.
Tony Shalhoub's brothers and sisters introduced him to the theater. When Tony was just six years old, one of his elder sisters
volunteered her little brother to play an extra in a high school production of The King and
I. Even though the young Tony was left standing on the wrong side of the curtain during the final dress rehearsal, he became hooked to the theater. Tony graduated from Green Bay East High School, with his senior peers finding him the best dressed and most
likely to succeed. He then graduated with a bachelor's degree in drama from the University of Southern Maine in Portland,
Maine, and earned a masters degree from the Yale School of
Drama in 1980.
The stage
Shortly thereafter, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he spent
four seasons with the American Repertory Theatre 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 Central Park, Henry IV, part I and Richard II.
Shalhoub was to return in December 2006 to Off-Broadway at Second Stage Theatre with (Everybody Loves Raymond
star) Patricia Heaton for a run of The
Scene by Theresa Rebeck.[1] Rebeck's black comedy takes a look at the NYC entertainment
scene with Shalhoub starring as Charlie, a has-been actor who is married to Heaton's character Stella, a very successful producer
of a morning television show.
Breaking in to screen roles
By 1991, one of his first television roles was as the Italian cabdriver Antonio Scarpacci in the long-running sitcom
Wings, which also starred Tim Daly,
Steven Weber, Crystal Bernard,
Thomas Haden Church, and Rebecca Schull.
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 the lead victim in the X-Files second-season episode "Soft Light." In 1997,
Shalhoub's days of driving in a taxicab came to a bitter end when Wings was cancelled by NBC, and he found himself looking for other
roles that would match that character's popularity.
Among his film roles, after Wings, include a fast-talking lawyer in The
Man Who Wasn't There, 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, and a has-been television star in Galaxy Quest. One of his more unusual roles was in Big Night
where he plays an Italian-speaking chef, complete with accent.
Shalhoub demonstrated his dramatic range in the 1998 big budget thriller, The Siege
starring Denzel Washington, Annette Benning
and Bruce Willis. His character, FBI Special Agent Frank Haddad, was of Middle Eastern
descent and suffered discrimination after Arab terrorists attack sites in New York City.
He most recently appeared with Alec Baldwin in the Hollywood satire The Last Shot as a
gruff small-time mobster with a love for movies, and as the voice of Luigi in
the Pixar film Cars.
He later returned to series television in 1999, this time, in a lead role on Stark Raving Mad, opposite Neil Patrick
Harris (who would later star in How I Met Your Mother). Unlike
Wings, the show didn't attract much of an audience during the first season, and NBC pulled the plug on the series in July
of 2000.
Shalhoub did voice acting for the cult classic computer game Fallout.
He was one of the celebrity judges for the "Bush In 30 Seconds" advertisement
competition.
On Monk
After a two-year-absence on the small screen, Shalhoub finally found another TV series
that is already matching the popularity of Wings, starring on Monk, on
which he currently plays a San Francisco detective who was diagnosed with
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, for USA
Network. He even beat out Michael Richards for the role, who was originally cast
when the show was being considered for broadcast on ABC, a network which
later reran the first season in 2003. Shalhoub was nominated for Emmy Award for Outstanding
Lead Actor in a Comedy Series five times consecutively from 2003-2007. He took home the trophy three times, in 2003, 2005, and
2006. In addition, he won the Golden Globe in 2003 and a SAG Award in 2004 and 2005. Shalhoub's Monk was already renewed for its sixth season, as of
2006.
Career 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.
To participate in the production, two runners-up are also invited.
Most recently, Shalhoub can be seen onscreen in the horror film 1408 (film) as
John Cusack's literary agent.
Personal life
Shalhoub married actress Brooke Adams in 1992. The two have worked together in
several films, and Adams has also made guest appearances on Monk. At the time of their marriage, Adams had an adopted
daughter, Josie Lynn (born 1988). In 1993, they had another daughter, Sophie. The family resides in Los Angeles and Green Bay.
Shalhoub's brother Michael has appeared on two episodes of Monk, and in 2006, another brother, Dan, appeared on the
reality show American Inventor. Shalhoub is the cousin of Chicago radio
personality Jonathon Brandmeier. He is the brother-in-law of former
Guiding Light actress Lynne Adams.
Shalhoub's brother, Dan, appeared in the third episode of Simon Cowell's reality
television series, American Inventor airing on ABC. Dan Shalhoub pitched his Sha-Poopie invention, a small disposable box on a retracting
stick that is used to catch a dog's fecal matter. The idea grossed out the judges who promptly voted not to advance Dan Shalhoub
to the next round.
Filmography
Motion pictures
Television
| Year |
Title |
Role |
Other notes |
| 2002 - Present |
Monk |
Adrian Monk |
|
| 2000 |
Madtv -Season 5, Episode 18
-Season 5, Episode 24 |
Taxi Cab Driver, Himself |
|
| 1999 - 2000 |
Stark Raving Mad |
Ian Stark |
|
| 1999 |
Ally McBeal -Season 2, Episode 18
Those Lips, That Hand |
Albert Shepley |
|
| 1997 |
White Lightning |
Baby Duck |
Voice (animated) |
| 1996 |
Frasier -Season 3, Episode 23
The Focus Group |
Manu |
|
Almost Perfect -Season 1, Episode 16
Auto Neurotic |
Alex Thorpe |
|
| 1995 |
Gargoyles -Season 2, Episode 31
Grief |
The Emir |
Voice (animated) |
| 1995 |
The X-Files -Season 2, Episode 23
Soft Light |
Dr. Chester Ray Banton |
|
| 1992 |
Dinosaurs -Season 2, Episode 14
Fran Live |
Jerry |
Voice (puppet) |
| 1991 - 1997 |
Wings |
Antonio Scarpacci |
|
| 1991 |
Monsters -Season 3, Episode 17
Leavings |
Mancini |
|
| 1987 |
Spenser: For Hire -Season 2, Episode 19
The Road Back |
Dr. Hambrecht |
|
| 1986 |
The Equalizer -Season 1, Episode 19
Breakpoint |
Terrorist |
|
Awards
References
External links
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