Nicholas Turturro

Nicholas Turturro, Jr. is an American film, television and prolific onstage character actor, perhaps best known for his role as Detective James Martinez on NYPD Blue from 1993 to 2000.

Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York. His mother, Katherine, was an amateur jazz singer who worked in a Navy yard during World War II, and was of Sicilian descent. His father, Nicholas Turturro, Sr., was a carpenter and shoemaker who emigrated from Giovinazzo, Italy at the age of six and fought as a Navy serviceman on DDay. His brother, John Turturro, is also an actor. Their cousin, Aida Turturro, played Janice Soprano in The Sopranos. In 1983, Turturro, then a struggling actor, was employed as a doorman for the apartment building where Billy Joel resided at the time. Turturro would rank all the women Joel brought home by holding up his fingers Joels soontobe wife, Christie Brinkley, was the only one to get ten fingers twice.

Source: Wikipedia