Anthony Joseph Scotti (born December 22, 1939) is an American actor, television and film producer, and co-founder of

Scotti Brothers Records Scotti Brothers Records (typically spelled Scotti Bros. Records) was a California-based record label founded by Tony and Ben Scotti in 1974. Their first success was releasing singles and albums from teen pop star Leif Garrett. They later helped ...

. He is married to French singer

Sylvie Vartan Sylvie Vartan (; born Sylvie Georges Vartanian; hy, Սիլվի Ժորժ Վարդանյան. on 15 August 1944) is an Armenian-Bulgarian-French singer and actress. She is known as one of the most productive and tough-sounding yé-yé artists. ...

Early life

Scotti and his brother Ben both played football for the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

Career

Acting

Born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Sharon Tate Sharon Marie Tate Polanski (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she played small television roles before appearing in films and was regularly featured in fashion magazines as a model and cover ...

's love interest, Tony Polar, in the 1967 film, '' Valley of the Dolls''. For his role in ''Valley'', Scotti was required to sing and performed the song "Come Live With Me" in the film and on the film's soundtrack. Scotti's second and last acting appearance was the title role in an unaired 1968 television pilot film, ''Nick Quarry'', based on the 1967 film, ''

Tony Rome ''Tony Rome'' is a 1967 American neo-noir mystery crime thriller film directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Frank Sinatra in the title role, alongside Jill St. John, Sue Lyon and Gena Rowlands. It was adapted from Marvin H. Albert's novel '' ...

''.

Scotti Bros.

While pursuing his film career, Tony Scotti had a mildly successful singing career with 3 low-chart national singles as a soloist, and two as the leader of Heaven Bound. In 1971, Scotti abandoned his film career and joined the record production department of

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...

as a senior vice president. In 1974, Scotti, along with older brother

Ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, � ...

, formed Ben Scotti Productions, a music marketing firm. The company eventually branched out into television and produced the pop music series, ''

America's Top 10 ''America's Top 10'' (commonly abbreviated to ''AT10'') was a popular weekly syndicated music television chart show that began airing in 1980 and ran until 1992. The show was hosted by Casey Kasem throughout its run, with Charlie Tuna announcin ...

''. The success of the show prompted the brothers to form a television syndication company,

All American Television All American Television (later known as All American Communications Television) was a television syndication company active from 1981 to 1998. It was founded by Anthony J. Scotti, Ben Scotti, and Syd Vinnedge. The company was known for producing ...

in 1981. The company would go on to distribute shows like ''

Baywatch ''Baywatch'' is an American action drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz, and Gregory J. Bonann, ...

'' and '' Acapulco H.E.A.T.'' In the mid-1980s, the company began producing movies under Scotti Brothers Pictures and would go on to release ''

Eye of the Tiger "Eye of the Tiger" is a song by American rock band Survivor. It was released as a single from their third album of the same name and was also the theme song for the 1982 film ''Rocky III'', which was released a day before the single. The song ...

'' and ''

Lady Beware ''Lady Beware'' is a 1987 American thriller film directed by Karen Arthur and starring Diane Lane, Michael Woods and Cotter Smith. It was filmed on location in and around Pittsburgh. Plot Katya Yarno is a window dresser for Horne's department ...

''.

Filmography

Film

Television

In popular culture

Scotti signed pop music parodist

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specifi ...

to the Scotti Bros. label in 1981. Forty years later, Scotti was portrayed by Yankovic himself in the 2022 film '' Weird: The Al Yankovic Story''; the film is a satirical biopic loosely based on Yankovic's own life (in which "Weird Al" is portrayed by

Daniel Radcliffe Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. He rose to fame at age twelve, when he began portraying Harry Potter in the film series of the same name; and has held various other film and theatre roles. Over his career, Rad ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scotti, Tony 1939 births Living people Male actors from Newark, New Jersey American male film actors Film producers from New Jersey American male singers American music industry executives American male television actors American television producers Businesspeople from Newark, New Jersey Maryland Terrapins football players