Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Who's Almost Who In Knickerbocker Village History: Tony Danza


We'll reveal why he earned this distinction on the next post
Tony Danza (born April 21, 1951) is an American actor best known for starring on the TV series Taxi and Who's the Boss?. He also hosted his own talk show, The Tony Danza Show.
Danza was born Anthony Salvatore Iadanza in Brooklyn, New York, to parents Anne (1925-1993) and Matty (1920-1983) Iadanza. Anne was born in Sicily and immigrated to the United States with five brothers and sisters in 1929. Danza has one younger brother, Matty Jr. (born 1954), who owns a restaurant in Los Angeles called Matty's on Melrose. When Danza was 14, he and his family relocated to the Long Island community of Malverne, and Danza attended Malverne High School, graduating in 1969 and was said to score a near perfect SAT score. Danza earned a bachelor's degree in history education from the University of Dubuque, which he attended on a wrestling scholarship, graduating in 1973. It was during his first year of college that he got the Robert Crumb Keep on Truckin' tattoo on his upper right arm. In a 1985 interview in Us Weekly magazine, Danza remarked, "I was playing pool with a guy who had all these tattoos, and I wanted to be friends." Also while in college, Danza met and married his first wife, Rhonda (Yeoman) Iadanza, and they have two children together, Marc (born 1971) and Gina (born 1983; Gina was born during a reconciliation Danza and Yeoman had after their divorce).
Shortly after his college graduation, Danza was discovered by a producer at a boxing gymnasium in New York, and he then earned a spot on the television show Taxi.
From 1976 to 1979, Danza was a professional boxer with a 9-3 record, with all of his fights, wins and losses, ending by knockout.

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