Tony Tarantino (born July 4, 1940) is an American actor and producer. He is the father of filmmaker

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...

Life and career

Tarantino was born in New York City, the son of Elizabeth Jean and Dominic James Tarantino, both of southern Italian ancestry. In a 2017 interview, Tony Tarantino spoke of an incident in 1960 when he was 20 years old and talent agent Henry Willson offered him acting opportunities and a lavish lifestyle in exchange for

gay sex Gay sexual practices are sexual activities involving men who have sex with men (MSM), regardless of their sexual orientation or sexual identity. These practices can include anal sex, non-penetrative sex, and oral sex. Evidence shows that sex betw ...

. Shocked, Tarantino says he punched Willson in the face, knocking Willson to the ground. After Willson got up he told Tarantino he'd never work in Hollywood or New York again as an actor. Tarantino stated he was thereafter quickly fired from his role on the TV western series '' Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre''. Tarantino changed his name to Tony Maro and booked several acting jobs with Paramount as an extra, but says he was thrown off the lot within two hours once his true identity was discovered. Tarantino is the father of

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

. During a 2010 interview, the younger Tarantino said: "Well, I never knew my father ..That's the thing. I never knew him ..He wanted to be an actor ..Now he's an actor only because he has my last name. But he was never part of my life. I didn't know him. I've never met him." Tarantino has produced such films as ''Prism'' and ''Underbelly Blues''.

Political positions

In October 2015, his son

received backlash from police unions after speaking at an anti-police brutality rally in New York, saying: "I have to call the murderers the murderers." Tarantino responded, saying he had relatives in the police and that what Quentin had said was "dead wrong".

Filmography

As producer

As director

As actor

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tarantino, Tony 1940 births 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American composers 21st-century American male actors 21st-century American male musicians American cinematographers American male composers American film producers American male film actors American television actors English-language film directors Living people Male actors from New York City People from Queens, New York