Joe Pantoliano Biography

Fast Facts

• Nickname "Joey Pants" came from his childhood in Hoboken, NJ, when neighborhood kids had trouble pronouncing his last name
• While playing Maggio in the 1979 NBC miniseries From Here to Eternity, he met David Chase, the future creator of The Sopranos, who was then a writer for The Rockford Files
• Published his autobiography Who's Sorry Now: The True Story of a Stand-Up Guy (written with David Evanier) in 2002
• At his 1994 wedding to Nancy Sheppard, the ceremony was performed by comic (and ordained minister) Charles Rocket
• A collector of rare and first-edition books, he has owned works by F
• Scott Fitzgerald and J
• D
• Salinger, as well as the Budd Schulberg screenplay for On the Waterfront
• Following a diagnosis of clinical depression in 2006, started a charity called No Kidding, Me Too! (www
• nkm2
• org), which is dedicated to removing the stigma associated with mental illness; also directed a 2009 documentary of the same name
• With childhood friend and chef Rich Pèpe, launched a line of pasta sauce in 2010 called Pèpe & Pants, with a portion of the proceeds going to charities, including No Kidding, Me Too!