- published: 24 Aug 2010
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Robert Jason Costanzo (born October 20, 1942) is an American actor. He has an acting career spanning over thirty years and is often found playing surly New York types such as crooks or low level workers and mixes both drama and comedy roles. He often serves as a voice double and is often mistaken for fellow actor and friend Danny DeVito.[citation needed]
Born in Brooklyn, New York, he is the son of actor Carmine Constanzo.
His first role was in the 1975 movie Dog Day Afternoon playing a cop, although this was an uncredited part. This was followed by a role as a paint store customer in the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever. Other movie roles include Total Recall, Die Hard 2, Dick Tracy,City Slickers, and Down and Derby. His television appearances are varied, with him appearing in Boston Legal, Hannah Montana, Friends, Days of our Lives, The Golden Girls and numerous other series. He also starred as Commissioner Stenchler in the Sega CD game Sewer Shark.
He is also a cartoon voice actor and has done voices on shows including The Fairly Oddparents, The Zeta Project, House of Mouse, Duckman, Bonkers, and Random! Cartoons, among others. He also did the voice of Detective Harvey Bullock on Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures and Static Shock, as well as in the theatrical release Mask of the Phantasm, and the video releases Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero, and Mystery of the Batwoman, He also played a vocal role in the 2010 video game Mafia II as Joe Barbaro.
John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, dancer, and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta's acting career declined in the early 1980s and continued to deteriorate for the rest of the decade. His career enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Pulp Fiction, and he has since continued starring in Hollywood films, including Face/Off, Ladder 49, and Wild Hogs. Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in Get Shorty.
Travolta, the youngest of six children, was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, an inner-ring suburb of New York City. His father, Salvatore Travolta (November 1912 – May 1995), was a semi-professional American football player turned tire salesman and partner in a tire company. His mother, Helen Cecilia (née Burke, January 1912 – December 1978), was an actress and singer who had appeared in The Sunshine Sisters, a radio vocal group, and acted and directed before becoming a high school drama and English teacher. His siblings, Joey, Ellen, Ann, Margaret, and Sam Travolta, have all acted. His father was a second-generation Italian American and his mother was Irish American; he grew up in an Irish-American neighborhood and has said that his household was predominantly Irish in culture. He was raised Roman Catholic, but converted to Scientology in 1975.