--- name: "Joe Viterelli" canonical: "https://film.one/person/joe-viterelli" fi1m_id: "joe-viterelli" imdb_id: "nm0899995" tmdb_id: 60023 wikidata_id: "Q706246" roles: ["Actor"] born: "10 March 1937" died: "28 January 2004" reviewed_on_fi1m: 5 average_fi1m_score: 66 average_as: "actor" average_over: 5 updated: "2026-10-05T01:47:48.171676+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Joe Viterelli ## Identity Joe Viterelli - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/joe-viterelli - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** joe-viterelli - **IMDb ID:** nm0899995 - **TMDB ID:** 60023 - **Wikidata ID:** Q706246 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Viterelli, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q706246, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0899995/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/60023 Actor. Born 10 March 1937 in New York, USA. Died 28 January 2004. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 10 March 1937, New York, USA - **Died:** 28 January 2004 - **Active:** 1993–2001 - **Average Fi1m score:** 66, as actor, over 5 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 69 (4), 2000s 55 (1) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 65 to 62 across 4 titles - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 2 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 4 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Comedy 3, Crime 3, Drama 2, Mystery 2, Romance 2, Action 1 - **Screen time:** 7 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $475m across 4 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Viterelli, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q706246, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0899995/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/60023 ## Streaming the US now - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Bullets Over Broadway*](https://film.one/film/bullets-over-broadway.md) (80), [*Mickey Blue Eyes*](https://film.one/film/mickey-blue-eyes.md) (66) - **The Roku Channel:** [*Eraser*](https://film.one/film/eraser.md) (58) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Joe Viterelli > A big, sad-eyed man who took up acting at 53 and spent the next twelve years playing the mobster who stands behind the mobster. Joe Viterelli did one thing, did it with patience and good timing, and knew exactly what it was worth. Look for him at the edge of the frame. He is the large man behind the boss, hands folded, face like something left out in the rain, waiting for other people to finish talking. Joe Viterelli spent his whole career as the mobster's mobster, the enforcer, the loyal one, and he played it with a deadpan so complete that the joke was usually that nothing on his face moved at all. The menace was in the size. The comedy was in the stillness. He did not act until 1990, when Sean Penn talked him into a part in *State of Grace*. He was 53. Before that he had run music schools, bars and a cleaning service, and driven a truck, and none of it seems to have been wasted: he sounded like New York because he was New York, and directors casting gangsters could hear it. Woody Allen gave him Nick Valenti, the gangster who bankrolls the play in *Bullets Over Broadway* (1994), and people started to notice. The part they remember is Jelly, Robert De Niro's endlessly patient henchman in *Analyze This* (1999), directed by Harold Ramis, which he played again in *Analyze That* (2002). That was his last film. He died in 2004, after more than forty of them. What he had was timing, and a way of letting a little sadness show through a face built for intimidation, so that the henchman seemed to have a life he was not telling you about. Our review of *Bullets Over Broadway* had no room for him, and that is fair; it is Dianne Wiest's and Chazz Palminteri's film. But we will admit that every time Allen's camera found him we felt a small, disproportionate pleasure, because a man that size doing that little is funny before he opens his mouth, and Allen knew it. *Shallow Hal* (2001), where he played Steve Shanahan, was his one step away from the gangster type, and the film around him was too busy with its own sermon to give him much to do. The complaint against him is the obvious one. The parts followed the Mafia stereotype and never asked him to stretch, and there is not much in the record to argue with that. He would not have argued either. Told that his fan mail came mostly from children, he said, "Look at me, I'm a role model." Forty films, one part, and no complaints from the man himself. Most actors who started at twenty would take that. ## Biography Joe Viterelli was an American actor best known for playing Italian-American mobsters. Born in New York City on 10 March 1937, he worked in business before entering acting in his early fifties. He made his screen debut in *State of Grace* (1990) after Sean Penn offered him a role. Viterelli appeared in more than forty films, including *The Firm* (1993), *Bullets Over Broadway* (1994) as Nick Valenti, *Eraser* (1996), *Analyze This* (1999) and its 2002 sequel as Jelly, *Mickey Blue Eyes* (1999) and *Shallow Hal* (2001). He died in Las Vegas on 28 January 2004, aged 66, from complications following heart surgery. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, nytimes.com, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (5) - *Shallow Hal* (2001), Fi1m 55, as Steve Shanahan — [page](https://film.one/film/shallow-hal.md) - *Mickey Blue Eyes* (1999), Fi1m 66, as Vinnie D'Agostino — [page](https://film.one/film/mickey-blue-eyes.md) - *Eraser* (1996), Fi1m 58, as Tony — [page](https://film.one/film/eraser.md) - *Bullets Over Broadway* (1994), Fi1m 80, as Nick Valenti — [page](https://film.one/film/bullets-over-broadway.md) - *Fallen Angels* (1993), Fi1m 72, as Ugolino — [page](https://film.one/tv/fallen-angels-1993.md) ## Complete filmography (30) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Analyze That* (2002), as Jelly - *Serving Sara* (2002), as Fat Charlie - *Shallow Hal* (2001), as Steve Shanahan — Fi1m 55, [page](https://film.one/film/shallow-hal.md) - *The Cure for Boredom* (2001), as Fat Tony Ragoni - *See Spot Run* (2001), as Gino - *Wannabes* (2000), as Santo - *The Strip* (1999), series, Actor - *Mickey Blue Eyes* (1999), as Vinnie D'Agostino — Fi1m 66, [page](https://film.one/film/mickey-blue-eyes.md) - *Facade* (1999), as Max - *Analyze This* (1999), as Jelly - *Hitman's Run* (1999), as Jimmy / Howard Sussman - *A Walk in the Park* (1999), Actor - *Jane Austen's Mafia!* (1998), as Clamato - *Looking For Lola* (1997), as Salvatore Greco - *Out to Sea* (1997), as Mickey (uncredited) - *American Strays* (1996), as Gene - *Eraser* (1996), as Tony — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/eraser.md) - *Heaven's Prisoners* (1996), as Didi Giancano - *Black Rose of Harlem* (1996), as Costanza - *The Crossing Guard* (1995), as Joe - *Bullets Over Broadway* (1994), as Nick Valenti — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/bullets-over-broadway.md) - *Fallen Angels* (1993), series, as Ugolino — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/fallen-angels-1993.md) - *The Firm* (1993), as Joey Morolto (uncredited) — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/film/the-firm.md) - *In the Shadow of a Killer* (1992), as Gino Marchese - *Ruby* (1992), as Joseph Valachi - *What She Doesn't Know* (1992), as Fat Tommy Carducci - *Palace Guard* (1991), series, Actor - *The Commish* (1991), series, Actor - *Mobsters* (1991), as Joe Profaci - *State of Grace* (1990), as Borelli ## Gallery - ![Joe Viterelli](https://film.one/media/person/84884/gallery-3877c22b9397.jpg) Joe Viterelli — Image via TMDB - ![Joe Viterelli](https://film.one/media/person/84884/gallery-b1f6b824b43c.jpg) Joe Viterelli — Image via TMDB - ![Joe Viterelli](https://film.one/media/person/84884/gallery-363d2469e3f1.jpg) Joe Viterelli — Image via TMDB - ![Joe Viterelli](https://film.one/media/person/84884/gallery-22991284c3cc.jpg) Joe Viterelli — Image via TMDB - ![Joe Viterelli](https://film.one/media/person/84884/gallery-7d635a99273a.jpg) Joe Viterelli — Image via TMDB - ![Joe Viterelli](https://film.one/media/person/84884/gallery-9466b29f37d2.jpg) Joe Viterelli — Image via TMDB --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/joe-viterelli