Joseph Cortese (born February 22, 1948) is an American actor who had major roles in films such as ''

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

'' (1980), ''

Evilspeak ''Evilspeak'' is a 1981 American horror film directed by Eric Weston and co-written by Weston and Joseph Garofalo. The film stars Clint Howard as an outcast cadet named Stanley Coopersmith, who frequently gets tormented by his mates and advisers ...

'' (1981) and ''

Monsignor Monsignor (; it, monsignore ) is an honorific form of address or title for certain male clergy members, usually members of the Roman Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" ca ...

'' (1982).

Early life

Cortese was born on February 22, 1948 in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Midwestern College Midwestern College was a private liberal arts college that operated from 1965 to 1970 in Denison, Iowa. Midwestern was one of several colleges in the upper Midwest established by local civic leaders with the support and encouragement of Parsons ...

where he earned his BA in theatre. Cortese went to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and trained under

Milton Katselas Milton George Katselas (December 22, 1933 – October 24, 2008) was an American director and producer of stage and film, as well as a Hollywood acting instructor and coach who trained under Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg at the acclaimed '' Ac ...

Career

Cortese has had major roles in films such as ''

'' (1980), ''

'' (1981) and ''

'' (1982). His other film appearances include roles in '' Arizona Slim'' (1974), ''Jessi's Girls'' (1975), ''

The Death Collector ''The Death Collector'' (also known as ''The Family Enforcer'') is a 1976 low-budget crime film directed by Ralph De Vito and starring Joseph Cortese, Joe Pesci and Frank Vincent. It was Ralph De Vito's only film as a director, and Joe Pesci's fi ...

'' (1976), ''

Deadly Illusion ''Deadly Illusion'' is a 1987 action/crime thriller film directed by Larry Cohen and William Tannen. It stars Billy Dee Williams, Vanity, and Morgan Fairchild. Plot Hamberger is a freelance private eye without a license and without a car, who h ...

'' (1987), ''

Ruby A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sa ...

'' (1992), '' Illicit Dreams'' (1994), ''

American History X ''American History X'' is a 1998 American crime drama film directed by Tony Kaye and written by David McKenna. The film stars Edward Norton and Edward Furlong as two brothers from Los Angeles who are involved in the white power skinhead and ne ...

'' (1998) and ''

Against the Ropes ''Against the Ropes'' is a 2004 American sports film, sports Drama (film and television), drama film directed by Charles S. Dutton (in his List of directorial debuts, feature film directorial debut) and starring Meg Ryan and Omar Epps. The story is ...

'' (2004).

Personal life

Cortese was married to actress

Kim Delaney Kim Delaney (born November 29, 1961) is an American actress known for her starring role as Detective Diane Russell on the ABC drama television series ''NYPD Blue'', for which she won an Emmy Award. Early in her career, she played the role of Jenn ...

from 1989 until their divorce in 1994. They have a son, Jack, born circa 1990.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * 1948 births Male actors from New Jersey American male film actors American male television actors Living people Actors from Paterson, New Jersey {{US-screen-actor-1940s-stub