Detailed Biography

Marisa Tomei is an American stage, film and television actress. Tomei first came to prominence as a supporting cast member on The Cosby Show spinoff A Different World in 1987.

She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in My Cousin Vinny . She received subsequent nominations for her performances in In the Bedroom and The Wrestler .

Her most commercially successful films to date are What Women Want , Anger Management and followed by Wild Hogs . She received critical acclaim for her performances in Unhook the Stars , Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and The Wrestler .

Early life

Tomei, an Italian American, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Patricia "Addie," an English teacher, and Gary A. Tomei, a trial lawyer. She has a younger brother, actor Adam Tomei, and was partly raised by her paternal grandparents, Rita and Romeo Tomei. Tomei grew up in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. While there, she became captivated by the Broadway shows that her theater-loving parents took her to and became drawn to acting as a career. After graduating from Edward R. Murrow High School, she attended Boston University for a year, transferring to New York University in 1983 after landing a role in the soap opera As The World Turns. Soon afterward, she dropped out of school as her career began achieving success.

Career

Tomei followed up As the World Turns, in 1987, with a role on the sitcom A Different World. Her breakthrough comedic performance came in My Cousin Vinny , for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. After her Oscar win, she received a Screen Actor's Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Female Supporting Actor for Nick Cassavetes' Unhook the Stars. Next, she received an American Comedy Award nomination for Funniest Supporting Actress for Tamara Jenkins' Slums of Beverly Hills. She was nominated for a Satellite Award, as Best Supporting Actress for What Women Want.

Former Saturday Night Live cast member Jay Mohr wrote in his book Gasping for Airtime that, as guest host in October 1994, Tomei insisted that a proposed sketch about another actress not be used because she didn't like the idea of making fun of her, which displeased the writers and performers, given the show's penchant for satirizing celebrities.

In 1996, Tomei made a guest appearance on the sitcom Seinfeld, playing herself in the two-part episode "The Cadillac". In this episode, George attempts to get a date with Tomei through a friend of Elaine. She has also made an appearance on The Simpsons, as movie star Sara Sloane who falls in love with Ned Flanders.

She received her first Golden Globe Award nomination and her second Academy Award-nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Todd Field's In The Bedroom . Tomei at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009

In 2003, Tomei appeared in the hit Anger Management with Adam Sandler and Jack Nicholson. In 2005, she was featured in an ad campaign for Hanes with the slogan "Look who we've got our Hanes on now", featuring various other celebrities including Michael Jordan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Damon Wayans, Matthew Perry and, on Spanish-language advertising, Aracely Arambula and Pablo Montero.

In 2006, Tomei had a recurring role on the TV series Rescue Me, playing Johnny Gavin's ex-wife Angie. She won a Gracie Allen Award for Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her work in the 4 episodes she was in the show.

In 2007, she appeared in the comedy Wild Hogs alongside John Travolta, Tim Allen, William H. Macy and Martin Lawrence. The film was a blockbuster hit and was one of the highest grossing movies of 2007. She also starred in the Sidney Lumet-directed Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, opposite co-stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. This role received extra attention because Tomei appeared in nude love scenes with both Hoffman and Hawke. In 2008, Tomei performed nude dance routines in the independent film The Wrestler opposite Mickey Rourke. She was nominated for a BAFTA, Golden Globe and Academy Award for this performance.

Academy Award controversy

After Jack Palance presented the academy award to Marisa Tomei in 1993, Rex Reed, an American critic, started a rumour that presenter Jack Palance had erroneously called out the wrong name because he was unable to read the printing on the card inside the envelope, became confused or was too "drunk" or "stoned" to announce the winner properly. By 1997 Reed was espousing on television his claim that a "massive cover-up" was underway to prevent the public from finding out about the mistake.

Bruce Davis, executive director of the academy,issued an official statement: "The legend of Marisa Tomei's 'mistaken Oscar' has appeared in various forms over the years and in that short time has achieved the status of urban myth. There is no more truth to this version than to any of the others we've heard. If such a scenario were ever to occur, the Price Waterhouse people backstage would simply step out onstage and point out the error. They are not shy."

Tomei refused to comment upon this calling it extremely hurtful. Roger Ebert commented on his website that "Not only is the rumor untrue, it is unfair to Marisa Tomei, and Rex Reed owes her an apology."

Theatre

Tomei has also done substantial work in the theater, including taking lead roles on Broadway in Wait Until Dark and Salomé , and many Off-Broadway plays.

Personal life

In the early 1990s, Tomei dated Robert Downey, Jr. . In 1999, she dated actor Dana Ashbrook and had a relationship with playwright Frank Pugliese, living with him in Greenwich Village.

Tomei was the recipient of an honorary degree from Boston University.