The unspoken code of life in the Bronx neighborhood where Calogero “Chazz” Palminteri grew up was, “You didn’t see nothing."  And that’s exactly what he said as a 9 year old when sitting on his stoop at East 187th and Belmont Avenue he saw a man shoot another man in broad daylight.

“I thought it was over a parking spot. As I got older, I knew that wasn’t it but I never did find out what happened.”

Because he never said what he saw that day, Chazz got the attention and respect of the man who pulled the trigger, Sonny, the Mafia kingpin who controlled his Italian-American neighborhood. It was an experience that shaped his life, spawned the acclaimed one-man show, A Bronx Tale, and the same-titled motion picture adaptation starring and directed by Robert DeNiro with Palminteri playing the role of Sonny.

“I wanted to be an actor when I was really young,” Palminteri admits. “I didn’t have a mentor but I had two really talented parents. My father was a musician, he played the sax and had a great singing voice, and my mother was an actress and wonderful artist. A Bronx Tale was a love letter to them.”

In his late teens, he was lead singer for the Rock cover band, "Razzamachazz, then turned his attention to acting, landing small parts in theater and film in New York. He moved to Los Angeles in 1986 and was cast as cops, gangsters and bad guys, the roles an Italian American with Sicilian roots is forever typecast. Palminteri hoped to move into film but when nothing came his way, he decided to write his own starring role based on the events and the wise guys he grew up around in his Bronx neighborhood.

“I wanted to talk about the working man and how my Dad would say that the tough guys are the ones that hold down a job and work hard not harass people and pull the trigger."

He would write for a week then perform what he had for his actor’s workshop. After 10 months, he had a cohesive semi-autobiographical account of growing up in the Bronx in the sixties under the protection of an Italian-American crime boss. His one-man show debuted in Los Angeles in 1989 to strong reviews. He moved it to New York where it played Off Broadway at Playhouse 91 for four sold-out months. That’s where Robert DeNiro saw the show.

“He loved it and wanted it to be his directorial debut,” remembers Palminteri. “He said you’d be great in this, you can write the screenplay because you know the story. I’ll play Lorenzo and I’ll direct it, and you’ll play Sonny.”

The movie was released in 1993 and finally doors were opening for Palminteri. He went on to star in supporting roles in The Usual Suspects, Analyze This, and Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In the past 19 years, Palminteri has appeared in over 50 movies yet everyone he meets wants to talk about A Bronx Tale.  Palminteri decided it was time bring the show back to Broadway.

“It has such a great message for fathers and sons, fathers and daughters,” he insists. “We really didn’t give it a proper run the first time around. Once the film deal happened, I cut it short to concentrate on writing the screenplay. I feel like it is my obligation to do this again. I’m young enough to still do it. I play the whole movie on stage, by myself. It’s a real workout, so I thought I should do it now.”

In A Bronx Tale, the young, impressionable Calogero is torn between the influences of two dominant father figures — his dad, Lorenzo, a hard working bus driver and Sonny. Even though Sonny tells him to stay in school, get a good education and not to hang out with the wrong guys, Calogero sees the clothes, the cars, the money, the women and is seduced by it all.

“The great thing about the story is it’s not black and white, about good and evil, it’s about gray and gray,” Palminteri explains. “My father, as great as he was, had some faults. And Sonny, as bad as he was had some good things about him. I took the best of both men. That’s what makes this story resonate.”

Palminteri plays 18 roles, including himself at 9 and as a teen, his father, the neighborhood wise guys and Sonny. A Bronx Tale was a highlight of the past Broadway season, playing a limited run at the Walter Kerr Theatre. The script remains the same as the original production but this time around it is staged by Tony Award-winning director Jerry Zaks.

“He just makes it flow and I think it’s funnier because of him.” Palminteri says. “It took about three days, but it all came back to me. When I did it before, I wasn’t married and I didn’t have children, and as an actor, I was relating as the son to the father. Now, I relate more to the father to the son because I have a son. Now, I feel stronger in that role and I think the play is better.”

How much of A Bronx Tale is truly Palminteri’s story?  He did witness a killing. His father was an honest, hardworking bus driver. He did date a black girl despite his parents’ disapproval. He did run with friends who got into trouble and were killed. And Palminteri did hang out with the wise guys and threw dice for them. The essence of his life and the story he tells is the contrast between the mafia and the working man, through the eyes of a young boy.

“What I really want people to see is what my father instilled in me — the saddest thing in life is wasted talent. He wrote it on an index card and I never forgot it. I’ve carried it with me my whole life. And, that’s why I brought it back; to help kids realize that life is walking a tightrope. The choices you make when you’re young will shape your life forever.”

And does he still carry the index card his father gave him all those years ago?  “It’s in my son’s room, now,” Palminteri explains. “And I told him when he gets older to give it to his son.”

His teenage son has seen Palminteri make movies all over the world but when he saw him in the play, something changed. “I don’t know what it was but he looks at me differently now. And, he said to me, Dad don’t worry, I promise I won’t waste my talent.”

Listen to more on Chazz Palminteri and A Bronx Tale.

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