Bobby Cannavale ( kan-uh-VAH-lee; born May 3, 1970) is an American actor. His breakthrough came with the leading role as FDNY Paramedic Roberto "Bobby" Caffey in the NBC series Third Watch, a role he played from 1999 to 2001.
Cannavale received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Will & Grace in 2005, and received nominations for his recurring role on Nurse Jackie (2012, 2013). He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for portraying Gyp Rosetti in Boardwalk Empire in 2013. Other television roles include Vinyl, Mr. Robot, Blue Bloods and Master of None. He has also starred in the Amazon Prime series Homecoming (2018–20), the Hulu series Nine Perfect Strangers (2021), and Netflix's The Watcher (2022).
Cannavale made his Broadway debut in the 2008 Theresa Rebeck play Mauritius for which he earned a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. In 2011, he starred in the Stephen Adly Guirgis comedic play The Motherfucker with the Hat, earning a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination. He portrayed Richard Roma in the 2012 revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross.
Cannavale has acted in the drama films The Station Agent (2003), Win Win (2011), Blue Jasmine (2013), I, Tonya (2017), Motherless Brooklyn (2019), The Irishman (2019), and Blonde (2022) as well as the comedy films Paul Blart: Mall Cop (2009), The Other Guys (2010), Annie (2014), Spy (2015), and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017). He entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) portraying Jim Paxton in Ant-Man (2015) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018). He has voiced recurring roles for the animated Netflix series BoJack Horseman and Big Mouth, and provided voice acting work for The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature, Ferdinand (both 2017), Tom & Jerry, Sing 2 (both 2021) and Under the Boardwalk (2023).
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Early life
Cannavale was born on May 3, 1970, in Union City, New Jersey, where he grew up, the son of Isabel and Salvatore "Sal" Cannavale. His father is of Italian descent, while his mother is Cuban and moved to the U.S. in 1960. His uncle is Enzo Cannavale, an Italian actor who performed in the Academy Award–winning Cinema Paradiso. He was raised Catholic and attended St. Michael's Catholic School, where he participated in a number of extracurricular activities, including being an altar boy and member of the chorus.
When he was eight, Cannavale secured the plum role of the lisping boy, Winthrop, in his school's production of The Music Man and later played a gangster in Guys and Dolls, which cemented his love for performing. Cannavale's parents divorced when he was 13 and his mother moved the family to Puerto Rico. After two years in the American territory, they settled in Margate, Florida. From 1983 to 1986, Cannavale attended Coconut Creek High School, but during his senior year, he was expelled "for being a cutup." He then returned to New Jersey to live with his grandmother, in order to be closer to New York to launch his acting career and went to summer school to earn a diploma from Union Hill High School.
Career
Cannavale began his acting career in the theater – with no acting training – and gained early film roles in Night Falls on Manhattan (1997) and The Bone Collector (1999), Cannavale became well known when he starred as Bobby Caffey for two seasons on Third Watch. Following this, in 2001, he starred with Alan Arkin in 100 Centre Street – which was written and directed by Sidney Lumet, his then-father-in-law.
In 2002, he joined the cast of Ally McBeal for the last five episodes, but the show was then cancelled. Following this, he starred with Yancey Arias and Sheryl Lee in the miniseries Kingpin. In 2003, Cannavale briefly appeared on the last two episodes of Oz. He also appeared in the film The Station Agent as a man who befriends a little person removed from society. From 2004 to 2006, he had a recurring guest role on Will & Grace as Vince D'Angelo, the boyfriend (and eventual husband) of Will Truman (Eric McCormack). However, in the reboot, they are revealed not to be married. For this role, he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2005. He has also appeared in the films The Guru (2002), Shall We Dance? (2004), Romance & Cigarettes (2005) and Snakes on a Plane, and guest-starred in Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Oz, Law & Order – and its spin-off series Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He appeared in The Take (2007) as Agent Steve Perelli, alongside John Leguizamo and Tyrese Gibson.
Cannavale serves as the voice of Corado R. Ciarlo, known as "Babe", in the Ken Burns PBS film series The War (the story of World War II) from the perspective of the men who fought in combat and their loved ones at home. He also read the audiobook versions of Richard Price's 2008 novel Lush Life and Ed Falco's 2012 novel The Family Corleone. On August 25, 2008, ABC ordered his pilot Cupid, a remake of the 1998 program which had starred Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall, to series. In the new version of the series, Cannavale starred opposite Sarah Paulson with script development overseen by original series creator Rob Thomas. Cupid premiered on March 31, 2009, but was cancelled by ABC after less than two months, on May 19, 2009.
In 2008, he received a Tony Award nomination for his role as Dennis in the Broadway play, Mauritius. In 2009, CBS announced Cannavale would reprise his role of Det. Eddie Saccardo on the television show, Cold Case, for three episodes, starting with the third episode of Season 7. Cannavale was in the film The Other Guys (2010), and played the role of Terry Delfino in the film Win Win (2011). He later starred in the Broadway play The Motherfucker with the Hat alongside Chris Rock and Annabella Sciorra. On May 3, 2011 (his 41st birthday), he was nominated for a Tony Award for his leading role in that production.
Personal life
From 1994 to 2003, Cannavale was married to actress/screenwriter Jenny Lumet – director Sidney Lumet's daughter and performer Lena Horne's granddaughter – with whom he has a son, actor Jake Cannavale. Cannavale and Jake were cast as father and son in season four of Nurse Jackie. From 2004 to 2007, he was in a relationship with Annabella Sciorra. Cannavale has been in a relationship with Australian actress Rose Byrne since 2012. Their first son was born in 2016, and a second son in 2017.
