Danny Aiello, of ‘Do the Right Thing’ fame, dead at 86 .

 

Oscar-nominated actor Danny Aiello, known for films including “Bang the Drum Slowly” and “The Godfather: Part II,” died Thursday night at age 86.

Aiello, who received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for in Spike Lee’s 1989 drama “Do the Right Thing,” died at a New Jersey medical facility after an illness, according to TMZ.

Manhattan-born Aiello first rose to prominence playing Horse in the 1973 movie “Bang the Drum Slowly,” which co-starred Robert DeNiro, Michael Moriarty, Vincent Gardenia and Phil Foster. The next year, playing mobster Tony Rosato in “The Godfather: Part II,” he uttered the infamous line, “Michael Corleone says hello!” before putting Frankie Pentangeli (Michael V. Gazzo) in a choke-hold. In a 2014 interview with Charlie Rose, he said he is often asked whether the line was improvised — admitting it was. “I have no idea why I said what I said,” he recalled, adding that the short piece of dialogue stuck. “I thought I was in trouble with the director.”

The Italian-American actor, who had more than 100 acting credits to his name, also starred as Cher’s hapless fiance Johnny Cammareri in the 1987 film “Moonstruck.”

“In “Moonstruck” I was such a wimp,” he recalled in a 2014 interview with SIlive.com following the publication of his memoir, “I Only Know Who I am When I am Somebody Else: My Life on the Street, On the Stage, and in the Movies,” adding that people were often taken aback meeting the 6-foot-3 actor.

“People are shocked when they meet me. They expect me to start throwing punches,” he said. “I can be an imposing guy. I’m 228 lbs., I’m 6’3,” I can throw a punch.”

Aiello also made a memorable cameo in Madonna’s music video for her 1986 single “Papa Don’t Preach,” playing a father whose daughter gets pregnant and decides to raise the baby herself. It turns out he wasn’t even familiar with the Material Girl at the time — and thought the project was “crap.”

“I had no idea who [Madonna] was, so I said to [daughter] Stacey in passing, ‘They want me to do this music video with this girl named Madonna,’” he said in a 2011 HuffPost interview. “She said, ‘Dad, Dad, you have to.’ I went back and said I’ll do it if my daughter is permitted on the set taking pictures with Madonna. … Madonna sort of backed up and told her representative that I don’t do that. My daughter has hated her ever since. … I’m a movie actor doing this piece of crap!”

He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Sandy Cohen, with whom he had four children.

NY Post