I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else

November 17, 2014
With raw honesty, this straightforward account covers an unusual career for an unusual actor. Aiello's life had an unpromising start growing up with a mostly absent father in cold-water New York flats, in a family that "still had one foot in the last century." He was a teenage soldier, a Greyhound baggage handler, a union organizer, and a Bronx pool hustler and small-time thief before his physical presence landed him a job as a bouncer at The Improv comedy club. He parlayed his emcee duties into some stage work and, with the encouragement of friends, started acting, breaking into stage and film work in the early 1970s. His career arguably peaked when he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing," which he talks about in a declarative, factual manner. There's little introspection of the actor's craft here, but there are some good stories, including a hilariously ribald account of a dinner at Bea Arthur's house and a catty rift with Lauren Bacall on the set of Robert Altman's "Ready to Wear." Most of all, though, Aiello's sense of his unlikely journey justifies his pride at his hard-won good fortune. Agent: Jennifer DeChiara, Jennifer DeChiara Literary Agency