Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - Danny Aiello Encore

Episode Date: June 20, 2022

GGACP commemorates the birthday of late, great character actor Danny Aiello (June 20th) with this encore presentation of a wildly entertaining interview from 2015. In this episode, Danny joins Gilbert and Frank at the legendary New York Friars Club to talk about his journey from Greyhound bus dispatcher to Oscar nominee and shares his memories of goofing around with Paul Newman, sightseeing with Rodney Dangerfield and singing backup for Bette Midler. PLUS: Remembering "Moonstruck"! Uncle Miltie meets Jack Ruby! Robert De Niro learns to play baseball! And the "Pete Best" of "The Godfather"! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Try the new creamy parmesan and bacon Quarter P pounder today and discover how words are so unnecessary for a limited time only at participating McDonald's restaurants in Canada. Hi, I'm Gilbert Gottfried, and this is Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast. And today, I went with my co-host, Frank Santopadadre to the famous Friars Club, where we interviewed one of the great character actors of his generation, Danny Aiello. He was in Moonstruck, Radio Days, Oscar nominated for Do the Right Thing. He played Jack Ruby. And for some reason, he kept punching me. An entertaining, raw, brutally honest interview. Listen for yourself. Hi, this is Gilbert Gottfried, and I'm here with my co-host, santo padre and this is gilbert godfrey's amazing colossal podcast and on today's show we have one of my favorite actors a man who's been in the godfather uh do

the right thing and uh moonstruck once upon a time in America. The list goes on. Academy Award. Yes. You mentioned Godfather. I was in it for two minutes. Godfather 2. Yes. Godfather 2. Two minutes. But a memorable two minutes.

I always wanted to ask you this question, Frank. This is the first time I met you. But Godfrey, how many octaves have you got? You have a level of voice. I don't know if I should start at that level. Can I start beneath that? Because I'll be screaming like a son of voice. I don't know if I should start at that level. Can I start beneath that? Because I'll be screaming like a son of a bitch. But I love you.

That's you, baby. Anyway, continue on. The resume is not necessary. Now, do you ever pray in church for forgiveness for making Hudson Hawk? You know, that's an interesting comedian. You didn't get this. He goes right for the drug dealer. Let me tell you what Hudson Hawk has done.

It is one of the biggest cult movies ever on television. Do you know that? No. It was ahead of its time. Let me tell you, I'm raw footage. I'm with Brian Gumbel. We're in Italy, in Rome. And he asked me this question, similar to yours.

Danny, what do you think of this picture? I said, Brian, I don't know. He said, is it a comedy? I said, if it is, I have no idea. I said, I have never, I haven't been able to decide in my own mind. And this is God's truth. I told Brian. However, it was ahead of its time.

You know, Sondra Bernhardt was in it. Richard Grant. There were some wonderful people in it Richard Grant David Caruso who's not the greatest talent in the world but Les Moonves loves him he's a poser did I ever say your name in the introduction? no you didn't

anyway to Danny Aiella David Caruso's got an Italian name and he poses is he a poser? he's got the glasses that I established in De La Ventura. I'm sorry, I brought him up. No, I love him. He's not an actor, but he's a good guy.

I'm glad we said who we're talking to. Yes, yes, Danny Ayala. Oh, God. Welcome, Danny. I'm going to get in trouble here, I know that. But that's what you want, isn talking to. Yes. Danny Ayala. Oh, God. Welcome, Danny. I'm going to get in trouble here. I know that. But that's what you want, isn't it? Yes. Yes. Go ahead. Tell us some people you hate in that business, please. Well, people I don't like,

I wouldn't say hate. There's a guy like Marty Scorsese, a guy like Joe Pesci. I have difficulty with those people because I never did a Marty Scorsese movie. No. I was up for eight of them. Now keep in mind when he was doing some of his hottest things I was one of the hottest actors in the country at the time. I was on stage doing Knockout. So it was always curious to me why I wasn't in any of

his movies. I know why in my own mind and if I was to state it to anyone else they would say that's sour grapes. So one day I went over to him and I said, someone asked me, we were in Cannes, and a reporter said to me, Mr. Aiello, how come you never worked with Marisco Sesi? I said, maybe you should ask him that question. He said, well, I did. And I said, what did he say? He said, he didn't feel that you were right for what he was doing. And I looked at the guy and I said, what was I, too tall? What is he, five foot tall? I'm 6'3", so it went over big, even in Cannes, so to speak. But that's the only conversation I have about him. He's a great director, as you well know, so I resented the fact I never worked with him

because he was doing strokes that were quite brilliant in many of his movies. And certainly I thought that I should have been in those movies. Well, never say never, Dan. No, it's over. What he did was, I did another movie. It's interesting. Eight movies I was up for, he never saw me. Now, I set up a deal with Raging Bull, Bobby De Niro, and I submitted the script to him. It was given to me by someone else to give to him. Bobby agreed to do it. So Bobby always felt somewhat obligated to give me a part in that movie.

Now, keep in mind, I didn't need a part. I didn't need a part in the movie because I was at the time I was quite hot. They called me up. There's the only time Marty called me up. Bobby was sitting to his right. They're both looking at me. And I'm curious why they gave me a meeting in an office. Bobby's my friend.

He's like a brother to me at the time. And Marty says, Daniel, I'm going to offer you a role. There are no lines, but you threw out the movie. I said to him, you know, I thought I was more advanced in my business to accept up the role. I got up, very little talk, and I said, thank you, and I left. And that was when the animosity between us had begun. And just the other day, Brian Hamill, one of the great still photographers who does all Woody's movies, and he's one of my dearest friends. And I said to him the other day, why do you think Marty disliked me? And he always, whenever he saw me on the street, he would walk on the other side.

At the Academy Awards, he saw me walking down the stairs, he'd go the other way. Why? I said, why does he do that? He said, Danny, are you crazy? Don't you know what you did? I said, why does he do that? He said, Danny, are you crazy? Don't you know what you did? I said, what? We were walking into Sadi's one day, and you saw him sitting with a group of guys, and you said, you midget little motherfucker. And Marty went under the table.

I said, I did that? But it's possible that I did do that because I was so upset as to what he had done with me. So that's Brian Hamill's story. And we just found this out the other day. I didn't know. You've started the first celebrity feud on the Gilbert Gottfried podcast. I know who cares. I can beat the shit out of any one of them.

I'm six foot three. I hit them one shot, I'll knock them on their ass. I would love to fight each one of them. Are you serious? I'd be locked up for slaughter. Go ahead. I'm sorry. Frank, I don't mean to.

We'll get all the garbage out of the way. Right, Jose? Eddie, right, baby? I'm talking to your guys. I'm talking to your guys here. Well, I've lost control of this show. No, you haven't. Officially.

Now, you were telling us that your children and grandchildren are just like every single ethnic group on the planet. Well, my wife is Jewish. She's a Koan. Well, I'm sorry about this. I've been with her for a long time.

It's a good part of my life. And I love the mother and father who passed on. My mother, of of course loved Sandy she used to say and Sandy is quite beautiful even to this day but when we had gotten married she was like Lana Turner my mother saw her and she was captured by her beauty and uh we've been together for 60 years I mean that's a very long time and uh it's been hard it's been up and down you know because we both had we're both Geminis and we have different personalities and our dispositions are quite different. But we managed to last all of these years, but it hasn't been easy.

It's been very difficult. And religion being the first thing, because I was a proud guy at the beginning, an Italian guy. And if I'm married, my kid naturally has to be Catholic. But they did something that made me think that the kid wasn't Catholic. So Sandy and I, we separated for a while, about a week. It wasn't really a separation because we both lived in the same building. We separated by a few floors. 1461 Boston Road. She went to her mother who lived across the road and I lived here. So we would look out the window looking for each other. It lasted

about a couple of days, then we made up with each other. It lasted about a couple of days. Then we made up with each other. It was difficult, but I had 11 grandchildren. And they are Catholics. They are Jewish. There's a mixture. Whatever they wanted, they did. No one was committed to any particular language.

You know, I'm a firm believer that your environment will dictate what your children will become. I truly believe that. And I lived basically in a Jewish neighborhood at the time on Boston Road and Wilkins Avenue. So Jewish would have been the thing because three-quarters of the people I hung out with were Jewish guys. But then as time went on, they hung out in Catholic neighborhoods, my sons, and they became Catholic because of everyone going to church, everyone going to catechism, and they do what they do. So religion, to me, wasn't anything that devastated us at

the beginning it did because there was a sense of pride for her as well as me we always had the argument ah the jewish now the jewish that goes over the women i said yeah but the catholics it's the men no jewish women no catholic the men that's what we're doing constantly but but it was great and we went on through all of those hurdles, and we made it to where we are. But still, there's a lot of ups and downs, you know. And this brings us back. I just recently watched you here at the Friars Club.

You were doing a reading of The Shoemaker. Written by Susan Charlotte, yes. Yeah, and which I thought you were terrific in. Well, I've done it. Maybe I was good in it because I had done it on the stage. We did it as an off-Broadway show, 27 performances. It was a limited performance, sold out every night. And it was a great, great, it was about the Holocaust and it was also about 9-11.

And it was very difficult for me to do the most emotional play I've ever done in my life. And at the time, my son Danny had passed away of pancreatic cancer. You know, Danny was one of the great stunt coordinators, and he was 53 when he passed away. I worked with him. Yeah, he was a great kid. He was a great kid. I'm very proud of that. And so I went through a very emotional period. So the play to me, when doing a reading reading it was almost as if the things I

was doing on stage I was doing at that reading only there was no movement but of course the girl was great Angelica oh she's the daughter tons and Geraldine pages Wow Angelica page Angelica page good genes she was sensational Frank she was and you know it was fascinating to me and the fries called the motion can hope for us someone doesn't rant run every five minutes to the bathroom. Well, the average age here is deceased. And I'll say, I don't give a shit. I won't be honest.

If I'm performing, they go to the bathroom, I address it. I say, where the hell are you going? You're not coming back in. Am I lying, Louie? I said, you walk out, you're not coming back in. Carry a little bucket with your pee somewhere but don't leave and no one left

no one went out of that room and I said to them at the end of the Q&A I said this is unbelievable at the Friars Club where people they're used to walking out they don't apologize they get up like they're on the street somewhere they're going for Coca-Cola they don't apologize. They get up like they're on the street somewhere. They're going for

Coca-Cola. They don't give a shit. They don't care if you're doing gone with the wind. It's the most serious. They get up and they walk out like nothing's happening on the stage. It's a prize club. I love it. They're setting it up. That's just one way to put it. And you were saying the reason that you wanted

to play a Jew. Get even with all the goddamn Jewish guys who played Italian. F. Murray Abraham, all of them. Jimmy Cahn. I'm going to tell you something now. Jimmy's my boy. Oh, F. Murray Abraham's an Arab.

Let me ask you something. How did the stereotypical things start with Italians, characters? Let's use the Sopranos. And many of those, oh, yeah, oh, yeah. I never heard that language in my life. People speaking like that.

Okay. But let's explore it just a little bit. And I don't want to offend anyone because that's not my intention. I'm talking about historical facts. You ever hear of Paul Muni? Sure. Of course. I was a fugitive from a chain gang.

Yiddish theater. Okay. Paul Muni, the first Al Capone, Paul Muni. Okay. The next Al Capone, public enemy, Edward G. Robinson. Yiddish theater. Okay. Paul Muni, the first Al Capone, Paul Muni. Okay. The next Al Capone, Public Enemy, Edward G. Robinson. Yiddish theater. Okay. The next one.

What's the next one, Louie? Lee Jacob. Lee Jacob. Lee Jacob. Yiddish theater. Al Capone. Wait, let's keep going. I gave you Edward G. Robinson.

Rod Steiger. Oh, yes. All of these, the formulation of stereotypical Italians began with these. Listen, there were no Italians acting then because if you had an Italian name, there was Equal Gianelli, a B actor who was beautiful, a Mediterranean accent. He didn't speak like, oh, none of that. But his way of speaking certainly wasn't interesting enough to give him a wise guy part. So the big guys that got the part were the Jewish actors. And now, the Italian guys today who are doing, oh, oh.

They should check themselves out and realize that all of this was formulated as a result of the Jewish theater. They have established a way of speaking for all these morons who say, forget about it. I want to kill when they do that. I'm an Italian who never does that in any of my movies. I don't care how creepy my character was, how much Italian. You will never hear me say, forget about it. Dumb bastards. So the Italian actors are imitating Jews?

Right. When I did Jack, when I did Ruby, the guy who killed Oswald. Yes, yes. Jacob Rubinstein. Yes, and I played him in a way where I felt what I knew about Jewish guys. And there was no real accent anywhere. Yeah. You know, and I played him the way I thought he should be played.

But the point I made, I was doing it for comedic reasons. I wanted all of them. I said it for the New York Times. I said I want to get even with all those Jewish guys who have been doing these Italians. And that was the reason I loved it. And I won the Academy Award for something called Lieberman in Love, a Jewish guy.

It was only a 35, 40-minute film, but it was a short film, but I won the Academy Award with that. Christine Lottie directed it. As a Jewish guy. I want you to know that. I never played a Puerto Rican yet. Again, I can never say never. So why do you think of James Caan?

I love Jimmy. I love Jimmy. And Jimmy's great. But the thing that happened with him, The Godfather, as you well know. Godfather 1, 2, and everything. Well, in 2, he was two he was killed wasn't he no he pops up first one as a memory he pops in the memory the part that jimmy got just so you know the history of it i want to give you a little historical facts for you to sure impart it to your people that are listening how many are listening? Your family?

Just the people in this room. His whole family? Who's that? Eddie, any of your family listening? All right, so we got about 15 people. Where was I? On a good night. No, I heard you're number one, kid. That's what I heard.

And I'm not here because of that. I agreed to do your show before I knew you in number 1, 2, 3 or 4 Jimmy Conn had a different role the role of Sonny Corleone was being done by Carmine Caridi I know this now we celebrate at the improv

I was at the improv, a non-actor at the time trying to find my way I didn't know what I was doing once in a while I had MC up there Bud Friedman gave me the job but he recognized my talent. You were a bouncer at the improv. We should point out to him a little back story.

I was a bouncer at How Many Are You and all that crap. I didn't know it because I lost my job as a union president with Greyhound as a result of a war that got strike. I was the youngest president in the country at that particular time. I represented people in Montreal, New York, Chicago, everywhere as they represent for drivers, ticket agents, porters, red caps, everything. And I was trying to become an actor, so I found the improv. He gave me a job as a bouncer, and I was observing. I never wanted to be a comedian or a monologist because that was beyond anything I could do. I thought I wasn't equipped to do that.

But I observed, observed. Carmine used to come in. He was the only notable actor who would walk in and people would recognize as an actor. Very few actors came into the improv. Lots of comedians. Richie Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield, all hung out. He comes in one

day. Now, I used to, when the show was over, at 3 o'clock in the morning, I'd get up and I'd read from a book, The Godfather. And I would be impersonating Sonny Corleone. I would do the mon book, The Godfather, and I would be impersonating Sonny Corleone. I would do the monologues that he had because I myself, who was not an actor, I was trying to prove to myself I can do this part. And I could have, there's no question about it. Carmine walks in one day and says, I got the part of Sonny Corleone. He addresses it to all of us. Carmine was one of my best friends. I wanted to cry, laugh, scream because my buddy is going to play the major part

because all of us knew the major part because all of us read the book. We know what Sonny Corleone was, mercurial, sexy, everything that a star would eventually become as a result of this part. Two weeks go by, and we get a a call he hasn't got the part and we had all of us were in there when it was when he addressed it he had the role he got paid for the role everything and they said that they changed it around because al became michael jimmy became sunny and who was the other guy louis because they felt that he was too tall. He was 6'4", Carmine, to be Sonny Corleone. Now, Jimmy Conn was about 5'10", much smaller, so height had

a lot to do with it, and connection had a lot to do with it, but it was the biggest heartbreak in your life that you can imagine. Not only Carmine, he dealt with it like a champ. He was a goddamn champ. He's my hero. I would have died. I wouldn't have run into a room for 365 days and cried my eyes out to have the possibility of a role like that given to me. It's sound. You got it. The contract is signed. It's your role, the biggest role, to have it taken away from you.

He didn't cry. He didn't do anything but deal with it like a master, like a true hero. And his career was affected by it, as you well know, because not much happened thereafter. Small parts, you know, and Francis Coppola tried to make up by giving him the role of one of the brothers who I played the other brother. Now, isn't that strange? The Rosado brothers. I played one of the brothers and he played one of the brothers who I played the other brother. Now, isn't that strange? The Rosado brothers. I played one of the brothers and he played one of the brothers.

And that's what they made up for. Two lines in the goddamn picture. And he had Sonny Corleone. And then one other thing about the Godfather I want you to know. It's like Pete Best. Yeah. That's right.

I mean, my guests are so sad. I got a feeling that I'm terrified. I'm given a role. And I'm playing Tony Rosado. And I have to come in and I have to choke. Frankie Five Angels. Frankie Five Angels, Piantangelo, Mike Gasol. Okay, one of the great writers and actors.

Hat full of rain. So we're working on it. We're in a bar in Mulberry Street. And they say, all right, action, we're going to rehearse. So we start rehearsing. I walk behind him. And I had to put a put a garage around his neck. However, I was not choking by the neck. We had him built in a harness that came out of the back. So it appeared as if his neck was being stretched, but actually the force of the lift was done on his back. All the

strength was on his back. I tightened the rope so it looked like it was his neck. We're rehearsing. There were no lines. And we're rehearsing the scene. I lift him. And I say, Michael Corleone says hello. I cut. Now, we weren't shooting. It was a rehearsal. Francis looks at me. He said, what did you say? Now, at this point, I hadn't done anything. This is Francis Coppola. He's every book. He's all over the place. He asked me what I said. Now, I'm not even sure what I said. I said, well, I think I said Francis says, you know, Corleone says hello. Michael Corleone says hello. And he stayed for a minute, looks at me, keep it's a big question on, if you check the internet anywhere, everyone asks that question, where did it come from? It came from me and it wasn't written, but I didn't know what I was saying. I had no idea. I was so intimidated working with him. I said, I could have said bullshit. I said, fuck you. Yeah. Up your ass. I could have said anything.

I said, Michael Corleone says hello. Why did I say that? I have no idea to this day. What's the perfect line? I have no idea. He's sending a message. Well, some kind of message. And what are your recollections of the great comics who came in the improv in those days? Well, Richie, of course, was great prior. There was some unknown.

Marvin Braverman. You know, people like you would know. And I did. Rodney was sensational. And Rodney was one of the biggest helpers for me when I began acting. He would go on Merv Griffin, any show, and he'd talk about me. No one knew who the hell I was. He would say, Danny Aiello took me to Orchard Beach the other day.

We were sitting out, and I was watching. His family's house was right there, and I was looking out over the water. And the most attractive thing I'd seen in that water was a floating tire floating by. Just but he'd say anything then he talked about when I drove myself we have to make a straight right here or straight left he said I never heard things like Danny was saying so he would promote me over and over with no outcome for him other than to do to benefit me and he did quite a bit Rodney was great Richie Pryor was sensational. I love David Brenner. May he rest in peace. David, my

true friend and I was sworn by Bud Friedman, the owner of the Improv, never to put him on at prime time when he wasn't there because Bud never thought of him as a comedian. He just never enjoyed him. Now, whenever Bud wasn't there,

I would put him on at prime time forever, constantly. Bud never said anything. I guess maybe no one told him or he felt it was all right. But it was wonderful that just recently Bud had mentioned to me, and it was in a book also, that he and David had made up before David passed away. You know what I mean? Things that he didn't know about David, he expressed to me. He said, you know, Danny, I mean things that he didn't know about David he expressed to me he said you know Danny I never realized that David helped so many comedians I said bud we were there he would have talks with 20 15 comedians giving them ideas as to what they should do this man used to be a producer for Sonny Fox an old show on television Wanderondorama. That's right. You got it, Frank. He was wonderful in so many ways, so bright in so many ways.

He came from South Philly. And the thing about David was he invited me up to his apartment, and he has index cards in one of these metal cabinets. If I tell you what he did, Gilbert, you're a comedian, I'm going to ask you a question. Have you ever

done what I'm going to tell you now? He opens the cabinet and pulls out jokes. Jokes dated when he said it, the time he said it, the reaction from the audience. Okay? Have you ever heard of anything like that? He was so together in that manner. Other comedians get up, they try a joke, they remember it didn't work, they write little pens on the thing.

He had index cards, hundreds of them, that he would refer to. When did I tell this joke? When was this? 8.30 at night, I did this, and the reaction to it, and he'd number the reaction. The higher the number, the bigger the reaction. This was David. I loved him. He was a great, great guy.

One of my dearest. Mike Preminger, a writer. Now, your audience wouldn't know him. I honored him. He was a great, great guy. One of my dearest. Mike Preminger, a writer. Now, your audience wouldn't know him. I honor them in my book. I mentioned 30 of them. And I've rendered a guess that the audience reading my book has not heard of any of them. But what was my concluding? I said equally talented. Some of these people unknown, but equally talented with the ones that you do know. To explain to them in my way of writing that some people don't get the breaks others do. They have the talent, they might not be in the right place at the right time. Was that good info?

Oh my God. That's great. You know Gilbert has a wonderful David Brenner impression. Let me hear you. So I was born in South Philly. Oh, I see. You ever known... This is my favorite Brenner.

Oh, this is him. He goes, you know how these guys, they're always bragging how many times they can have sex in one night. Why not guys going to finally admit that after the first time It's like trying to hammer a nail With a fish That's great

You honor him, babe We were looking forward to having him on the show It was sad when he passed I went to see him I saw him not long before he died We hugged. He also get his haircuts at my, Tony Rossi is my cousin on 57th Street, so we

would see each other there. And we had talks and this came as a, Frank, as a nice man. I got to work with him a few times. He was going with one of the most beautiful women, Miss Tel Aviv. Do you remember her? Oh, wow. Yes. She was the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen. I had a crush on her, but I was

married. There was no danger. You sang backup at the Improv, didn't you? For a couple of famous people. Bette Midler, I sung the backup for along with Buddy Hughes and Bobby Alto and Bobby, and who? Buddy Mantia?

Buddy Mantia is my ace. We know Buddy. Buddy's my ace. But we were called... What were we called, Louie? The... Come on. Come on, Louie.

You son of a bitch. But Buddy Mantia... Buddy Hughes was a singer, a black guy. And Bobby, of course... And Bobby Alto was great. The Untouchables. So I was one of the Untouchables, the original Untouchables. Then Bob Pine came along.

Bob's another great comedian. Bob would get up and he would ask an audience, give me a couple of lines. They'd give him the lines and he'd improv singing. And we would go, do-a, do-a, if you're sweet. Well, he was in a doo-wop group. Well, I'm a singer son of a bitch, man. I want you to know. Four albums.

Remember that. I got my blues album coming out in about three weeks, Louie. Okay. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing colossal podcast after this. Gifting dad can sometimes hit the wrong note. Oh. Instead, gift the Glenlivet, the single malt whiskey that started it all, for a balanced flavor and smooth finish. Just sit back and listen to the music.

Ooh. This single malt scotch whiskey is guaranteed to impress Dad this Father's Day. The Glenlivet. Live original. Please enjoy our products responsibly. Now, you also told me one time that at one time... I never get boring, man. I want you to know that.

I never get... It's hard to stay at this level. It's like you. It's like you on your talking level. It's hard to... It's hard to come down. I'm sorry. You...

I love this. I love it, Frank. I'm sorry. I love this. I love it. Frank, I love it. We love having you. I love it. You told me at one time that in your younger days you loved hitting people. Yeah, I was a hitter. No question about it. I used to bang them out

in a minute. You know what I used to bang? I used to bang right straight hand, left hand. I loved to do it to people who about it. I used to bang them out in a minute. You know what I used to bang? I used to bang right straight hand, left hand. I love to do it to people who deserve it. You know what I mean? They play, you're a nice guy. You sit. You're being nice to a person. You're being nice.

And then this son of a bitch suddenly turns the thing. He thinks he's interpreting you as some kind of a dishrag, a meaningless person. It's those people I love to hit. Because when they're on the ground, they look up and they say, why? Why did you hit me? We're down at Peter Grant's place on 23rd Street.

I walk in. A bartender comes from behind the bar. He comes and starts choking me. This is me. I'm a young vigorous. He's choking me. I knocked him out with one shot. Now listen to this.

Tony Conforti picks him up, takes him into the bedroom. Tony was my associate. He was great. Takes him into the bedroom. And the guy, his name was Larry. He said, what did I do? What happened? He said, Danny knocked you out.

What? Knocked me out? Why? What did I do? He said, you were choking him. He said, I was auditioning. I wanted him to see what an actor I was. He's trying to be one of the result. I am telling you it's God's truth.

This is what happened. It never happened to me again. Didn't you smack around the wrong guy at the improv one night? Doug Ireland. Doug Ireland weighed about 450 pounds. He was the mayor's pet. Now, you know the woman with the big hat? Mayor Lindsay.

No, he was with... Oh, right. This was her press guy. He's sitting in there watching Cassandra dance. Do you remember her? Oh, yeah. She was with High Steel Women. I love Cassandra. She used to get up, and

she wasn't very funny. She was building. She was building. Here's in the back of to get up, and she wasn't very funny. She was building. She was building. Here in the back of me, fuck, get off that fucking stage. Now, I'm off duty. I'm in the front.

I'm off duty. I hear they're very protective, very protective of the comics. I walk back. I said, listen, do me a favor. Leave the kid alone.

She's trying something out. Don't make any trouble. You understand? Don't do it. He said, fuck your mother. Now, if you're going to curse someone in my family, make sure it's not something out. Don't make any trouble. You understand? Don't do it. He said, fuck your mother. Now, if you're going to curse someone in my family, make sure it's not my mother. In our neighborhood, we used to throw out something that gave the person, the perpetrator, a chance.

What did you say? As if you didn't hear it the first time, right? And the guy said, your mama. And before he got it up, I hit him with a right hand. He goes right through the table. Through the table. The table. Okay, now Bud Friedman, what are you doing? They're gonna

close me. That's Mayor Lindsey's people. I said, that's some bitch deserved it. He was cursing her and so forth. Bud gave me two weeks vacation with pay. He would never close down. That was the guy I sm smoked the shit out of. Who saw that? Brian Hamill said

he walked in and saw it. Wow. It's the only guy that was one other guy. Jimmy Walker. You remember Jimmy Dynamite Walker. Jimmy was cool.

I used to drive him home at the Grand Conference. Dynamite. Him and Marvin and I used to drive. I was the only guy with a car. I couldn't even afford gas.

He was paying me $190 a week. Three children, then four, right? Jimmy, I used to drive home every night. There's a guy by the name of Price. That's all I'll say. He was an actor's studio, black dude. He comes up, and he's tearing apart verbally Jimmy.

So I look at him, and I say, why don't you leave him alone, man? And he says, listen to this. And he calls me. He said, fuck you, you white devil. He says to me, a devil. So I said something to him. Well, fuck you too. And Jimmy's standing there, right?

He throws a kick at me. Obviously, he was a karate guy. Now, I remember exactly where we're standing now. Who's there? Bud Friedman's there. You know the door where the stage was you walk in? Bud walks out and sees this happening. Guy throws a kick, hits my lip.

Black polish on my lip. I mean just the tip. He didn't mean it. He wanted to kick my teeth out. I parry, take the ball. Beam! Goes out like a goddamn light. Bud runs out and says, get out of here, get out of here.

And here's what bothers me the most this is what bothers me i looked at jimmy and i got the feeling he resented that i hit a black guy and you were defending him i was defending to this day i love you gotta understand i love jimmy i love him i just got the feeling he thought if it was a white guy, it would have been more acceptable. But this was a black dude. He was an actor, studio actor. And I hit him a shot. He went, look, I jabbed him.

He threw the kick at me. I slipped. Hey, I ever tell you about the fight on George Washington Bridge? I don't think so. It's the story we just met. This is in the book. I shouldn't be telling them. What's the name of the book? The book is called I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else.

My wife, Sandy, Stacy and I are in a car. It's a big Cadillac. We're driving from long from New Jersey. Oh, I think you may have told me this story. We have New Jersey. I'm looking for a house out there with my wife. We're driving back to the city. We come up against a car with three women and a guy driving pretty big guy i couldn't tell how big but he was driving at the time suddenly he's making we're all moving to go to the tow boat to get first he won't let me go he's just keeps moving agitating if i move the little he'd do this you know something was going on so he's laughing and so forth. Now, Sandy knows me.

He said, please, Danny, don't get out. Now, my daughter, no, don't get out of the car. So I stay in the car, okay? The guy throws a cigarette at the window where my wife is sitting. Now I'm trying to get out of the car. She's screaming. My daughter's screaming, Daddy, please don't get out. I hold myself.

Now we push up a little bit. We go into single file. Wouldn't you know it that we go into double file again, starting on the bridge. There's a lot of traffic. He pulls up next to us again, container of coffee, throws it on the hood of the car, and takes off. This is God's truth.

I'm saying, fuck, and I go after him. They're screaming. My wife is screaming. We're racing across the saying, fuck, and I go after him. They're screaming. My wife is screaming. We're racing across the bridge, racing, okay? He's about 20 feet in front of me, slams on the brakes in front of me. I slam on the brakes, maybe five feet between us. We both get out of the car. I'm in trouble because I got a leather jacket on, you know, and I had my glasses on. I had to take them off. So as I come out, he throws a kick. I parried a kick. I hit him. I hit him right. He hits the decal of my cab and goes over on the thing. I jump on him and I'm pummeling him. He's about 6'3", 180 pounds, 28 years old. That's what it turns out he was.

And I'm banging him and banging him and banging him. So a guy who jumps out of his car pulls out and says, stop it. You're going to kill him. You're going to kill him. So I leave him there and I start walking back and I see my wife and kid. We're sitting in the bridge. The girls start calling my wife a whore. You rich people are all the same. Big Cadillac, big shit. This is what they're talking.

Now, the Cadillac was a rented car because I was doing knockout at the time on Broadway. The rental car was Bill Sargent, my producer who got me the car. So we go back and we're sitting there in the middle of the bridge. I'm like this and I'm saying, something's going to happen here. Something's going to happen. When we get home, I'm going to call the police. So I go home and we're living on 238th Street in the Bronx. I call up the transit police.

They get on the phone. Yeah, we had this report. You know, we have a criminal complaint against you. I call up the transit police. They get on the phone. Yeah, we had this report. You know, we have a criminal complaint against you. I said, against who? Well, Danny Aiello. Danny Aiello. I said, who said what? Well, they said that you assaulted them. I assaulted them, boom, boom, and so forth. So I said, how'd they know my name? How did you know my name? They said, well, they put in the criminal thing. I said, how could they know my name? said well they put in the criminal thing i said how could they know my name it was a rental car not to my name it was given to me so obviously it was them thinking there was a case danny ilo i'm starring on broadway this is it all right so i had to go to court okay and we're in court and while we're in court the judge is talking to me and he says to me uh

well first of all before that the women are getting up and they're lying I'm there to watch the witnesses because I'm the person being accused. My witnesses couldn't be there. They come in later, so no one, you know, that's what they do. So they lie, and this woman's lying, this woman's lying. Then he gets up. He's 28 years old, about 6'3", 6'4". He works on containers on the waterfront. So my lawyer is not a criminal lawyer.

He's a financial advisor. Jay Julian. He's a financial advisor. Jay Julian. He's a financial advisor. He's up there. He said, let me ask you something. Where do you work? He said, well, I work on the waterfront. Pretty tough guys, good shape on the waterfront. Right. How old are you? 28. What do you weigh? About 180 pounds. All right. You're going to sit there and tell me that this actor was like 46 years old, and he's got a 10-year-old daughter sitting in the front seat with his wife, and you're telling me that he caused this here problem? That he said, and that was what he said. Then I come on the stage, and we're doing the same thing.

I'm telling him what happened. And then I went crazy, like I'm doing here. I said, Your Honor, can I tell you what happened? I said, he said, Danny, are you a fighter? I said, no, I'm not a fighter. I'm starring on Broadway. I said, I'm a fighter, you know, as an actor. I said, no, I'm not a fighter.

He said, but you're a tough guy. I said, no, I'm not a tough guy. I'm like any guy. I'm not going to protect him. He said, this is the judge, nice guy. So now I said, Your Honor, can I tell you what happened? Bing, bing, bing, he threw a cigarette. Bing, bing, bing. He threw a cigarette. Bing, bing, bing.

He threw a container of water. He kept getting in front of me. He insulted me. I got out. He rode. He took off. I went after him. We both got out of the car.

And with these hands, I beat the shit out of him. But here's the thing. Here's the thing that's going to rock you. Stacey is a truth teller from the word go. My daughter has never lied in her life, all right? We're in the car. I'm taking you back to the bridge. Alright, listen. If something happens,

we go to court. We tell the truth. All we have to tell the truth. Stacy, what'd you see? Daddy, all I saw, you were holding his hair and you... There was room for a joke. I said, Sandy, she's not going to court. She's not a woman. That was the George Washington Bridge court. She's not a winner. That was a George Washington bridge.

Oh, God. That's hilarious. And the case was dismissed. It was dismissed. But he was trying to sue me. That's what it was. Crazy bastards. Is there anything else you got, kid?

Frankie? I want to ask you about your Oscar-nominated role, Do the Right Thing. And how Spike came to you and what happened. And I understand you had significant input into the character. Yeah, I wrote most of my character. The entire speech there of this is my place. I built it with my bare hands, every light socket, every piece of tile, me with these hands. And he allowed that to happen. It wasn't that I was some kind of hero doing that. What he did was permit his actors to put something of themselves

into it. Now, some of us were capable of writing, others weren't. So what others would do is just remember, tell him and he'd say, yeah, do it. But I had extensive dialogue, which I had to write before he would okay it. There was one line in particular. I said, these people grew up on my food, and I'm proud of that. And it was one of the most quoted lines, right, Louie? It was one of the most quoted lines in the New York Times. And I truly believe that line got me an Academy Award nomination. But when I said that, I looked at when we were about to shoot it, I said, is that corny, Spike?

That sounds corny. They grew up on my food. Pizza? He said, no, keep it in. So it was as if he wrote it. You know what I'm saying? It's a hell of a performance. And just keep in mind that anything that I put there in writing, ultimately, the decision as to what will go in is made by him. So for all intents and purposes, you could say that he wrote it. You know what I mean? Because we both agreed on it. Ultimately, the last word is the director.

I always said to him, look, we'll try this. Let's try this. If you don't like it, we drop it. That's it. But let me throw it up in the air and see what you want. And I love doing that. It's a cooperative effort. And Spike was like that. I didn't want to do the movie because he sent me the script. I was in Canada preparing for The Last Don, I think

it was, which was a big movie. Piece of shit, but a big movie. Made me a million and a half dollars in 12 days. That's a putz-up thing, isn't it? It made me a million and a half dollars in 12 days. Good for you. So I got away with it. So I went out there. He sends a

script to me, and I don't get the script. He calls me up in Toronto, and he says, Danny, did you get the script? And by that time, I had received a call from the border. He didn't have enough postage on it, so it couldn't go past the border to me. I said, you cheap fuck. You didn't put enough goddamn stamps on the thing. I read it.

I opened it up. First time I'm reading it. Pizza guy. Now, you've got to understand. I told you about forget about all that shit. We're talking about stereotyping, yeah. I pictured me with a big fucking hat on my head twirling fucking pizza. I told you about forget about all that shit. We're talking about stereotyping, yeah. I pictured me with a big fucking hat on my head, twirling fucking pizza.

I called him up. I said, this ain't me. I said, you know what? This is Tannemount 2, Watermelon Man. If I was offering you, I said, Spike, if I offered you a fucking part in my movie and said, watermelons are involved, what the fuck would you do? When we got back to New York, he took me to the Knick games. He took me to

Yankee games. Not that I needed that because my nephew is Michael Kay. He's the Yankee announcer, my sister Rosebud's kid. But he took me all of those places, and then he made changes and said, you can make significant changes with my final say. I said, all right, let's do it. And that was it. The biggest thing was getting the Academy Award. I thought it was a piece of shit.

I'm going to tell you why because i did fort apache the bronx and all we showed in fort apache the bronx were bad things in the neighborhood drugs everything rose everything bad and that was bad because the neighborhood was very upset there were riots as a result because we're showing an element in the movie that wasn't the whole neighborhood, but it was the bad element. Now, what he did, he beautified it. He made that street look beautiful. He made the guys never have a curse word, no drugs involved. They were all in their own heads.

And I used to say, this is a fairy tale. This isn't real. This is bullshit. But I also told him that. But then i realized what spike was doing spike wanted race to be dealt with not under the influence of drugs you know what i mean not you being a drug addict and calling him a black bastard or not you but say you wiped any son that's not it they were all in their own head drugs were not involved and they were saying how they felt sober. And that was a point he was trying to make. Sure, I call it a fairy tale the same way I call Godfather fairy tale.

It's not real. I mean, wise guys don't talk like that. They sound like Shakespeare. I mean, some of the guys sound very Shakespearean and they didn't sound like the characters that I've grown up seeing and hearing. You know what I mean? Yeah. So that's that's the talk that I've grown up seeing and hearing. You know what I mean? Yeah. So that's the talk that I had with him. And then it took me a little while to say, all right, I understand what he did. And then, of course, I get the Academy Award nomination. And at the beginning, I wasn't a favorite.

And then I became the guy. I was the favorite to win. Everyone thought I was going to win. Everybody, every newscaster you should win, you should have been best actor and then she gets on the stage Gina Davison said and the winner is at least it started with a D

I got a slight heart excuse my language but it was Denzel Washington and a tribute to Denzel Denzel was questioned by a reporter after the event. And the first thing the reporter said, did you feel you were going to win? And what he said, his response made me feel pretty good. He said, I thought Danny Aiello was going to win.

That meant a lot to me. But I promise you, Frank and Gilbert, I promise you, I didn't go there thinking I was going to win. I haven't been that lucky in my life. A lot of shit that I've earned in my life, I earned. I didn't have connections when I did parts. The parts that I won awards for were parts that anyone could have done. I mean, I didn't get the major, you know, the MGM, Warner Brothers, all the huge goddamn, I didn, all the huge, God damn. I didn't get a huge studio guy behind me.

I slipped in there. Something happened, you know. God, I mean, this thing, do the right thing. Bobby was asked to do it. He refused. He suggested somebody else, and I was like the third or fourth choice. And then they say the reason that the thing won the stuff that it won was because of Danny. I don't say that's true, but I do say to you that the thing won the stuff that it won was because of Danny. I don't say that's true.

But I do say to you that I never had the break. With Marty Scorsese working with all the things, that's why I'm down on him so much. Not to allow me to be a part of a painting that he's stroking. You know, to be a part of what he is doing. Personally, I told you what I feel about him. But creatively, the man is a great director. How could I say anything else? Well, you're sitting at the Academy Awards. Does it occur to you at any point, this is a long way from the MTA?

When you read my book, you're going to see the interesting opening to my book is, here I am writing my book with a satellite 18,000 miles above me guiding my car and I'm reading and who am I doing the book with Siri I wrote the whole fucking book with Siri of course she missed both a lot of words I mean she does miss a lot and words. She didn't know what I was saying. But, you know, I mean, she does misspoke a lot. And I don't particularly like her accent. But the bitch was with me for the whole goddamn book. But what I'm saying, remember, I started out as a kid, kerosene lamps in my house,

coal stoves, keeping the house warm. Okay? We lived in railroad flats on West 68th Street. The way, unfortunately, a lot of people still are living today. No father, my mother legally blind, later in life, not at that particular time, sick kid, sick, celiac, I had all eczema, I was hospitalized constantly, was let back in school, demanded to be sat in the back because when they sit me in the front, I was a little skinny kid and people made fun of me.

When I sat, I don't want to say this because all this people saying oh you're brutalizing this in a way I was verbally done you know I was always a tough kid but when it came to my diseases I would rip myself apart mama had to put gloves on me to go to sleep at night or socks on my hands because I would rip gouges in me because of eczema I would sit in the front and I always had the feeling that they were all laughing in back of me, that they were making, you know, look at him, he's so disgusting. So that's what I grew up with. But sports saved my life because I was an outstanding ball player. So when I played ball, stickball, whatever the fuck it was in the street, I kicked ass. I don't even shit how sick I was but when I played ball all of that was

undressed wasn't even there but the moment the sport was over I went home gloves on my hands and all that shit come back to me

to this day I got hit with it again Louie right I got an attack of it just recently but fortunately you don't scratch as much but your story is inspiring

I mean look what you came from I love people to be inspired by it because I was a baggage man at Greyhound. I've heard you do the bus reads, the stations. May I have your attention, please? A platform of three. Coach for Philadelphia, Chester, Wilmington, Sova, Seaford, Lower, Salisbury, Princess Anne,

Pocomoke City, Kipta Beach, Little Creek, and Norfolk. This coach connects in Jersey City for Newick, Mount Claire, Denville, Dover, Bud Lake, Hackettstown, Stroudsburg, Mount Pocono, Tobyhanna, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Clark Summit, Nicholson, Halstead, Great Bend, Binghamton, Cortland, Ithaca, Geneva, Canandaigua, Pittston, Tawanda, Waverly, Elmira, Corning, Bath, Batavia, Hornell, Mount Morris, and Buffalo.

That's incredible. That, to me was Am I reading anything? No That was all by heart Son of a bitch I'm jumping out the goddamn window That was amazing

That happened to be David Well the big guy on the Today Show Lederman's favorite bit Whenever big guy on the Today Show. Letterman's favorite bit. Whenever I go on the show, he asks me to do that. I hate to repeat it, but he loves to hear it. It's great. Oh, what do you remember about working with Paul Newman?

Oh, what a great guy. What a great man. When I'm shooting, I was relatively new then, and I was intimidated. The fact, I didn't show it, but I went to my camper, because I lived in a building where I threw the kid off. We should tell people you played a racist cop in Fort Apache. I played a racist cop in Martin and did a lot for my career, Fort Apache, the Bronx, and Paul Newman was the star of it. Kenny Wall played the young.

Ed Asner's in it. Ed Asner was great. Terrific picture. Yeah. Picture was really good. Sully Boyer. I don't know if you remember Sully Boyer. He's an actor. He come from Active Studio. He's a great guy. Picture was really good. Sully Boyer. I don't know if you remember Sully Boyer. He's an actor.

He come from Active Studio. He's a great guy. Paul Gleason. I did a sitcom with Paul in L.A. I love Paul. But Newman. I'm sure we don't even know each other. We had a lot of scenes together

and I'm shooting a scene and he's off camera. I'm on. So the scene involves Paul and I but at one time it's my close so he's expected to sit there and do lines with me. While I'm on. So the scene involves Paul and I but at one time it's my close So he's expected to sit there and do lines with me while I'm doing lines. He's sticking his finger in his nose He's doing this he's doing this picking shit with his mouth and all crazy things

So naturally when we reversed the camera he developed for me a pair of balls. Well, I did the same thing But he was such a great guy ate a lot of popcorn was a beer drinker we used to go out to fort amaro quite a bit the italian neighborhood and eat at angelo's up there and what's fascinated me about paul i really think he had eczema like i did or something similar because i went into the campo once and i saw him which i've never done in life and i thought i was going to recently do it He puts his face in ice water because he used to get the red blotches, and I never asked him that question. Fascinating. But he used to put his face in ice water. I remember that vividly, and I remember the popcorn, which I love, beer, which I don't drink.

You know, I don't drink anything, but no drugs. I'm going to tell you something. Let me see how you buy this, you two. You know how many parts I lost in movies because of drugs? I never did them. You hear what I'm saying? Yeah. You understand what I'm saying to you? Draw your own conclusions. I never did drugs in my life, not pot, not heroin, not cocaine, nothing. And I'll tell you why. A Spanish friend of mine, Bay Domini, a great artist, a kid, the age of 16, died of an overdose. I didn't know what the fucking overdose of drugs

was. Heroin. The suspicion I got, I used to go to his house. We lived in the same building. You ready for this? Every time I went, another piece of furniture was gone. Drapes were gone. I didn't know what was happening. He was unloading his house. He was buying, selling his mother's entire apartment piece by piece to support his drugs. Soon after that, he dies. I was so crippled by that that it stayed with me all my life. So it wasn't that I'm so pure.

I had a tremendous fright of what that shit can do to you because I give an example. You don't have to be a sick fuck to play a sick fuck. You understand what I'm saying? Listen to what I'm saying to you. If you're going to play a sick fuck, too many of our kids think you've got to get whacked out. You've got to drink. No, acting is about fucking imagination.

So you were never a method guy? Never. Well, I'm a method guy. Yeah, method does not mean you got to use the shit that's being used for that character you can use a reasonable facsimile facsimile and in this case i used powder and hurley burley which won me the best actor award me and sean penn were in it in california i got it for a drug addict a crazy bastard and if you saw pictures of me and that you would have thought i was stoned i'm saying you, you can do that without being assisted by drugs.

And it kills me. Jimmy Hayden. Jimmy Hayden was a kid who played in Sergio Leone's movie. Once Upon a Time in America. Good-looking kid, right? He used to come visit me when I was doing Knockout on Broadway. Great kid. I studied acting.

I'd meet him in Rome while he was doing the movie because I'm doing the movie with him. I come back, he dies of an overdose you know when i see him being carried out in a rubber bag this is jimmy a wonderful kid drugs he was a drug and that day he was without pacino on broadway doing what was it buffalo american buffalo and they gave him a standing ovation that night when he got off the stage and he goes back to his house and he dies. Seymour Hoffman, great fucking actor. And I'm sure he was using then. He didn't have to use because the guy's brilliant. You don't have to use to be great.

You don't have to rip off your fucking hair like gold to be a great painter. He just happened to rip his fucking ear off oh you know i'm saying you don't have to and i plead with people you don't and i say to kids what bothers me about trying to kill drugs is that they generally get people who are drug addicts to come in and talk to the kids now any kid would sense would say well shit this guy is a star in the new york jets he would did drugs and he kick it. I'm going to try drugs and kick it like he did. I think the guys that should be teaching or instructing are guys who never did drugs, who became famous in certain fields as ballplayers, as actors.

That's it. That's how I feel about that shit. But I hate drugs. But that's my character. Does he look like a guy who never used drugs? We're looking at a picture of Danny and Hurley Burley. I want best actor for drama. Wow.

I remember working with your sons on some horrible TV show. And one of your... They were both stuntmen. No, Ricky was an actor, but they both worked as stunts. Danny used to get work for Ricky. And one of them, he was like 6'4", they both worked their stunts and he used to get work for one of

them he was like like six four and barrel chested and he was my stunt man you had to believe you had to believe all of a sudden i grew enormous i was this giant italian guy oh god but i remember them saying to me that when they would come home at night, you used to say to them, get over here. Get over here. I want to smell your breath. Yeah, I used to do that a lot in my house. I had terrible memory of my son who died. I used to worry about him.

He was such a weak child. He was just a beautiful little blonde-headed kid, never got in trouble. And I knew we went to church one day, and I stopped going to church as a result. We're sitting in the front pew. The incense comes out. Then he passes out. I thought he died in my arms. I never saw my kid pass out, and he faded.

I run out of the church screaming at the top of my lungs. I'm running down Southern Boulevard under the L. That's where we lived then, near Stebbins Avenue. And I'm screaming, my son, my son, and he comes about. And then I'm there when he actually dies. And it reminded me of the time he didn't. But I knew that day when he came about and came, you know, fresh and he didn't die, I knew that I had to watch him for the rest of my life. I just knew it.

Every time he was doing something, when he was doing a stunt, I would be in terrible pain. He'd jump off a roof, glide something on a cable, maybe 18 floors up. I couldn't handle it. I couldn't handle it. Ricky never did those things. Ricky would get in the car. Danny would give him easy jobs. But Danny was a coordinator. You had to do everything. But he started as a stuntman, meaning you did everything. Then, of course, he coordinated and he assigned people to work. And he always used to say things like,

He used to say things like, Dad, we're not daredevils. We're not kamikazes. We're stunt people. We plan. We're careful. You know what I mean? He took great pride in no one getting hurt when he was with him. And this happened because Vic McNatter, who did Full Apache the Bronx, was Danny's mentor.

He taught him everything from that's when Danny first started, Full Apache the Bronx. And Vic McNatter, who was the the sun coordinator did the next movie i think it was with i can't remember his name he went off the uh the pier at 40 something street into the water someone else was supposed to do the stunt he didn't show up he did it windshield came back broke his neck he died and danny was in the water with the other water people just standing there. So I figure after that happened, they all seemed to be more careful with what they were doing. It's terrible. Vic McNabb, a great guy.

I love them, too. So many people passed, man. So many good people. But I don't want to get off on a dime. We've got to do something else. We've got to do something else. We will return to Gilbert Gottfried's amazing, colossal podcast. But first, a word from our sponsor.

Well, you said your son would do a lot of your stunt work. Yeah. Well, we're at 57, so we're doing Hudson Hawk, your favorite movie. You know, there's a great scene in that movie when you guys are doing that. I don't want to interrupt you. When you guys are committing the heist and you're both singing Swinging on a Star. It's a great scene. Are you kidding?

I'm knocking. Who would you rather swing on a star than Gary Moonbeam? The movie has great moments, though. It has great moments. And like I told you, it's a cult hit. 57th Street. 57th Street. 39 flights up where they're about.

Danny and Bruce's stuntman going across a cable. The cable might have been about 30 feet long. They had to go from one building to the next. Below them, I don't know how many streets were below, but some asshole asked me to sit across the street and watch. I could never watch. But I'm standing in the doorway, and I'm looking up, and I'm watching my son with the other kid going,

and suddenly the cable goes like this. Now, little did I know that that was the plan. They had the cable drop. So to give the audience another sort of thrill. But, of course, I didn't know it was going to drop. I thought they were just going to go across, and I was there, but the cable dropped. Boom, and then, you know, reinstituted itself,

and it was solid, and they went across the other side. It was then that I said, I will never watch him do a stunt. I used to say, Danny, don't do this shit. Danny, don't do that. He said, Dad, someone's going to do it. What about me? Who's going to? Someone, this is what I do. This is what I do, Dad.

And I couldn't deal with it. Couldn't deal with it. Could not deal with it. It's a hard thing for a father to say. It's like a father watching a fighter, his son. Some of them, they got balls like I've never seen before. They watch him, their eyes rip open. And I'm saying, how do they do that? Of course, you know, Ricky, I don't know if you know, that was a top fighter. Ricky, 21 fights, 17 knockouts. They were all after Rick to go pro. Do you know who was after him? Don. Don was after him like crazy.

But Ricky, fortunately, I hate to say, got a pinched nerve in the back of his neck, had to be operated on. He was a great left hooker. See, in my house, I know you guys would dig this or understand, but I used to measure my kids. We lived in the projects. We lived in the projects at 228th Street, the Marble Hill Projects. This is before I became an actor. So Ricky would be, he was the oldest one. Now he's about six years old. I would paint a picture of where he was, you know, a line of his height, okay? So as we went on, it went a little higher and a little higher. But you know what I did? That room was the kitchen, dining room, and the family room, all connected. But this one wall, this one thing was where I measured them

and where he learned to throw a left hook. Now, you've got to know how to throw a left hook. I mean, a left hook is not a fairy punch. Your whole body, when you hit a guy with a left hook, you're hitting with your ass, everything. Bam! You see this? You see your hands? Watch him. You see your right hands? You see that punch coming.

You don't see... Bam! Like that. Ricky, from 6 to 12, he used to shake the five-story building. I wish we had video. That's how hard he hit. left hooker I was crazy over left hooks

now I have to ask you something is this me I remember one time my sister who's a photographer took your picture and you said to her you've got that urge that Jewish urge did I say that

what is that Jewish urge it might have that what is that Jewish urge it might have been something I learned from my wife because my wife has a lot of urges and she's Jewish could that have been it I can't picture myself saying that I really can't but it might have been something I'm reflecting

you know from my wife Sandy has urges you haven't seen can I ask you about my fiance's favorite movie? About Moonstruck? Yeah, Moonstruck. You're so funny in it. Johnny Camareri. Piece of shit. You didn't like that one either. When I did that, I was ashamed to let my mother see it.

Are you serious? I played a major wimp in that movie. But you're so funny. I looked at the director, Norman Jewison, and I said, Norman, this is the worst. He said, are you kidding? I said, Norman, please. I said, Norman, this is the worst. He said, are you kidding? It's the best. I said, Norman, please. I don't even want to see this movie.

But I must admit that it did everything for me. Well, I always laugh at the fact that there's hardly any Italians in the film. I know. That's true. Russian actor. And that was a Greek accent. Olympia Dukakis never stole the tie into me. Written by an Irishman and directed by a Jewish dude from Canada. Norman Jewison.

Norman Jewison. Great director. But you're Italian and Nick Cage is Italian. Vincent Gardini. And the great Vincent Gardini. Vincent said to me one day, my first movie, a baseball movie, I'm doing Bang the Drum Slowly.

Great movie. Eddie, you guys got to hear this. You got to hear this, kid. I'm in the corner. I don't know about acting. What do I know? I never studied. That's your first movie?

Yeah. I never went to an instructor. I never went to an actor's studio. I know this shit. I had no idea. I'm sitting in the corner. I had a couple of lines, maybe three lines. Vinny walks over and says, what's the matter, kid?

What's wrong? Something wrong? I said, well, Mr. Gardini, you know, my problem is, this is my first movie. And, you know, I have a few lines. I'm not, I'm not quite sure how I want to say them. You know, I know that if I do this, and I do it the way I'm thinking, it's going to be on the screen. Now, if I see the movie 50 times, if I suck, I'm going to suck 50 times. I said, so it frightens me. So he looks at me and he says, don't worry, kid. You're probably never going to work again anyway. That's true.

I swear to almighty God. That's fantastic. Then he is up there looking down. Louis, did he say that? Yeah, and that was Robert De Niro. Robert De Niro played catch. Michael Moriarty. He played the catcher that threw like this.

Yes. Like his goddamn elbow was tied to his side. Who do you think was teaching him how to catch balls in the third? Me and Tommy Signorelli. We used to spend hours trying. He was thrown like this. The painter's kid. What the hell is that?

You grew up in New York and you're throwing like that? Someone had a tremendous influence on him. I don't know who it was, but it certainly wasn't a baseball player. Now, you said that you hate the way Italian families are played in movies where they're constantly cursing. Yeah, well, when I saw The Sopranos, I looked at one episode and look, The Sopranos did well. A lot of my friends were there who had nothing but extra roles all their lives and pictures. And suddenly it came about that they became recognizable characters and they made a lot of money and i was happy for them for many of them it's just and that's not their fault we depict characters we're picked we get paid to play them and i understand people play the way david price or whatever the

hell his name is david what is it the director africa Chase. What bothered me is a kid comes in, he's smoking dope in front of his father and mother. That's something we don't need because that's not true. Now, it may very well be true today. In modern society, a kid can smoke pot. Maybe the mother's doing it with them. I don't know. But I lived in the dirtiest of neighborhoods. I lived in neighborhoods where people couldn't pay the rent.

When we couldn't pay the rent, we moved to another place that would accept a few dollars for us to go in. You understand? In one month, I moved 13 times from Stebbins Avenue to Boston Road. We were poor. We had shit. But the one thing we never did was disrespect anyone. Now, I didn't have a father. My mother was there smoking dope, saying hell in front of my mother. Doesn't happen. Now, you may think I'm a dinosaur. I wish there were more like me because it drives me frigging crazy when I see the shit that they're showing on television. I'm sitting there dating naked. Why don't this president wake his ass up and say, stop this shit.

Stop this garbage on television. I'm talking garbage. People naked, dating naked. What is this? What the hell have we come to? Why do you think Arabs hate us, man? Gilbert, there goes your shot at dating naked. Why do you think they hate us?

They hate us because of our style of living and what we're watching. They don't want their families to watch that shit. Look, they have ways that they believe in, religions or what have you. Look, fuck terrorists. I know that. I'm talking about people, people. They don't want this shit in their home. We're in our home.

We sit down. I'm watching someone naked on the goddamn screen of my grandchild. It's all bullshit. It's crazy. I think the president should come out and say, stop all this shit. Stop it. Call it what you will, but stop what this is, what's happening. Sorry.

That's all right, buddy. You love that cover? I do. That's a major cover. Real quick, before we wrap it up, Gilbert and I are JFK assassination buffs. Can we ask you a little bit about Ruby? Yeah, well, my opinion differs from the movie itself, but yeah, you sure you can. I mean, what kind of research did you do?

What did you learn about Jack Ruby? It's interesting, that question, because it usually brings about not a satisfying answer. Milton Berle and Jerry Vale gave me all I had to know. Really? I want to know about Ruby. So Milton said to me, he used to have shirts in the back of his car, silk shirts. Jerry Vale backed him up on it at a different time. He would give them shirts because they performed. They went to his place.

At the Carousel Club? Yeah, and the women loved him. The women that worked for him loved him, okay? That's what I wanted to know about the guy. Now, Roger Ebert said, Danny, terrific, but he was too nice a guy to play him. Now, keep in mind, I really played him with Jewish prayers, prayers for the death. Now, John McKenzie, who directed it, pulled out the prayer I said at gravesite, which upset me tremendously because Ruby loved JFK, loved him, sat shiver with his sister.

He was not married, and his sister wasn't either. Sitting on milk boxes in her apartment, sitting shiver for the man they thought was the greatest for Jewish people. They thought that he was the savior of the Jewish people. I gave you that scenario, okay? I found out how much the women loved him and how much he loved working for the women. But remember, it's a shit business. It's a garbage can business. Wise guys come there just like wise guys came to Cafe Columbus, right?

Yes, yes. I remember that place. Chuck Rose comes over to me one day, DEA chief. He comes over to me and says, Danny, I'm not the only one in here tonight carrying a gun. Every wise guy in the world was there. Just like all of a sudden

these asshole writers are putting things out like this Ruby's place was any different than any other place. Here's what I got. He acted alone. I'm talking about Oswald. I'll never believe anything different, but I have no information other than my feeling. He acted alone, I believe. And I also believe in the final result that the warren commission came down with

i don't think it was a prejudiced group of people they were both republicans and democrats making that decision after having all the information in front of them they came down with it the only thing that happened is we started to get the revisionists we started to get i won't name them to give them any glory the the assholes who said, oh, this happened, this happened. There were always those conspiracy guys. I'm not saying you're not one of them. You might be, but you didn't write a book. I used to be, but I changed my mind. Okay, but you didn't write a book.

There were other guys who made a living. Their whole life became that. It was a cottage industry. Right. Well, I can understand that. I'm not saying, but they... What's his name, that director, Oliver Stone? Oliver Stone. Oliver Stone, when I said his story was true, at least we said that there are things in it that are true and there are things that are not true. And if you're doing a factual account of something, but you enter into that factual account some untruths, then the whole thing is not true. Do you follow what I mean?

Yes. You cannot use facts and then enhance those. I'm not going to fight you. Well, no, you can't embellish facts. You can't embellish facts with untruths. You can't do it. He said his thing was true. His is true.

What the audience doesn't see is how many times Danny has hit me. They're all love taps. That's why we're not on tape. They're all love taps. Which is why we're not on tape. They're all love taps. What is that, Louie? Now, can you please tell us the name of your book? It's called I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else. The book will be out October 7th at Simon & Schuster Gallery Books.

May I say it's a hot book. You know something? If it doesn't sell one, I wrote the book that I wanted to write. I said the things I wanted to write. I said the things I wanted to say. The wonderful thing is I had trouble. There was great difficulty and the difficulty is remembering. Now you can remember 10 years, 20 years. I was asked to remember my first Christmas that I remember having a tree. I was six years old. So I went to sleep at night thinking, what am I going to remember when I was six?

Something popped, then something else popped, then something else popped. And before you know it, I was six years old. I was remembering things that happened in my life when I was six years old. The first Christmas, my sister Helen went out and robbed a tree. That's the first time we had. She robbed a tree. We didn't know it. There were trees on the street. Do you know what we decorated our trees with? I'm going to pass this on to you.

Painted bottle caps with shoe strings tied to it. You made your own garland. Let me tell you what else. You know these socks that you have? You know what socks we use? Worn socks that we wore. Put candies in them. That's what my mother did.

Okay? These are the things that we use to decorate a tree. It looked more like a Hanukkah bush than a tree because Hanukkah bushes, who knows, with things to come, you know, I married a Jewish woman, it's more appropriate. But I'm just saying some of the things I remember, but I'll say this, Frank, in closing. It is the most difficult thing I would have ever done in my life. It is,

it damn near assassinated me. The emotion, the emotional level that you're on and you can't get off. Of course, when you go to sleep, you figure, I'm going to go to sleep. And then you sleep and you wake up a half hour later with an idea and you don't want to just write it down because i'm not that way i'll write it down do it in the morning i have to cover it then right then i have to do it this went on for 91 000 words 93 000

it's been reduced to that it's been reduced somewhat because of all the editing, which I did much of it. 350 pages now, right, Louis, which is fine. And pictures, you know, some. I didn't care about the pictures. But there's something I want to tell you. I want to see how both you and Frank think about this, and your wife, of course. Paul Mazursky was a dear friend of mine who just recently passed away.

I hope that Paul was going to write the foreword for my book. Sadly, he died. So I decided not to have one. Now, remember, foreword is people complimenting you. I didn't need any of that shit. I went through life without compliments and with some, so I didn't need that. But that's all that's there. That and a picture that he sent to me, big picture of him there, me here. And it said, to Danny, who loves you? Paul Mazursky. who loves you, Paul Mazursky. And after I put in what I put in,

on the bottom it says, to Paul, who loves you, Danny Ayo. That's the foreword. And what's the name of the book, one more time? I Only Know Who I Am, When I Am, Somebody Else. And just to cap that, I don't know who the hell I am.

I don't even know who I am. Do you have any music coming up, too? Anything we should know about? Because you're also a singer. Well, I'm a bad-ass singer, man. I want to know that you've sung with the Boston Pops. Sung with Boston Pops. But I wish the hell we had the music to show.

They'll let them hear. But we have something called Blues now. It's called, the title of my book is called, I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else. That's the title of the song. And the other song is a video which I've done called, it's about age. It's about forgetfulness. It's about no memory.

It's called This River, where a man has nothing and he goes and he sits by the river and he drinks and he remembers what he was and what he's turning out to be. The video is sensational. Forget about me doing it. It's sensational. We're going to send it to you, Frank, so we can see it. Thank you.

Are you finished? Yeah. Career-wise, yes. Wait, I just fall in the sun. In case they know I'm not hitting you, I'm hitting the table. That's approval. Approval. Gilbert, it was wonderful being here with you.

Thank you. I love you, and I did it because I want to do it with you and Frank. My pleasure, Dan. You're a gent. Thanks for your day. It's good working with you and Eddie, your beautiful wife. Danny Aiello. Danny, I could do a miniseries with you.

We could talk for 18 hours. Maybe you'll come back and talk about working with Woody Allen. Yes, I'll do all that shit. I won't be so talkative. This was one of those easy jobs. You caught me at a time when I was a little emotional. This is podcast verite. You can do what you want.

This is great. Well, this has been the great Danny Aiella and who I forgot to say at the beginning of the show and this is... And Lou. Thanks to Lou. Can I say two pictures that you haven't mentioned that you have to see?

Okay. Uh-oh. 29th Street, which is my license plate. I got it written down. See that movie and see Once Around with me and Jenna Rollins and Holly Hunter. Richard Drive? See those two movies. And Richard was sensational. George Gallo.

See those two. 29th Street, I love it. See, now once again, he grabbed my shoulder. And he says, is this okay? I love it. Next time we'll talk about 29th Street. This has been the Amazing Colossal Podcast. I'm Gilbert Gottfried. Here with my my co-host Frank Santopadre

and having a great time with Danny Hayawa.