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Robert Davi Biography

Robert John Davi (born June 26, 1951) is an American actor, singer, and entertainer. Over the course of his acting career, Davi has performed in more than 130 films. Among his most recognized roles are opera-singing heavy Jake Fratelli in The Goonies (1985), Vietnam veteran and FBI Special Agent Big Johnson in Die Hard (1988), Bond villain Franz Sanchez in Licence to Kill (1989), police deputy chief Phil Heinemann in Predator 2 (1990) and strip club manager Al Torres in Showgirls (1995). On television, he portrayed FBI Special Agent Bailey Malone in the NBC television series Profiler (1996–2000).

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Robert Davi Quotes

I trained with a guy named Tito Gobbi, who was the Marlon Brando of the opera world. Tito Gobbi was the greatest singing baritone in the opera world and I studied in Florence, Firenze, with him. That was my first love, as it was Frank Sinatra's, oddly enough.

Enough, First Love, Gobbi, Guy, Oddly, Singing

Concurrently, while I was in school, while I was winning awards for acting, I was winning awards for singing, in high school. One of the reasons why I decided to continue on with the acting was the opera world is fraught with a very long process, and I did love the acting, as well. The acting took off sooner, and then you get involved with that.

Awards, Continue, Fraught, School, Winning

I had a little bit of a vocal strain at a certain period of time that made me lay off the singing, and while I was lying off the singing, I was pursuing the acting.

Lying, Singing, Acting, Strain

Everyone, young and old, was responding to [Frank] Sinatra. So, the first time that I physically remember, it was as a youth. He always seemed to be there, let me put it that way. I can't remember the exact first time, but I can remember the effect his voice had on me.

Effect, Firsts, Responding, Seemed, Voice, Way

It didn't feel organic and [Tito] Gobbi was one of the artists that was able to, along with Maria Callas, incorporate not just the sound, but the emotion, the technique of the singing.

Artist, Singing, Sound, Technique

The [Frank] Sinatra interpretation of the music, as opposed to some other music that you were listening to - where you felt like they were singing at you - you felt Sinatra was singing to you. It's a very intimate art form, and that's what I responded to - the intimacy of his performance.

Art, Interpretation, Intimate, Listening, Singing

My parents, the effect that [Frank Sinatra] had on the Italian community, in terms of all our friends at the house were multicultural. We weren't just Italians. My dad's close friend was a black gentleman - this was back in the early 50s when Tony Bennett was reprimanded for having lunch, when he was in the military, with a black man.

Dad, Military, Italian, Gentleman, Black

I met Quincy [Jones], he had heard my album, someone played the album and he flipped over it.

Album, Albums, Heard, Mets, Quincy

I had a different upbringing - my dad worked three jobs. You know, it wasn't as easy as they had it.

Dad, Different, Jobs, Three, Worked

I was born in the 50s, my mom was pregnant in the 50s, [Frank] Sinatra had that big come back around then, From Here to Eternity.

Back, Born, Come, Eternity, Mom

I would want to bring a certain kind of unity and awareness to different things. Even in the 80s, I wanted to do something with Unicef, and I wrote a song for Unicef, but I didn't have any means or the celebrity.

80S, Different, Mean, Song, Unity

Oddly enough, my mother was born in Southampton. I have roots in Southampton, Bridgehampton, Sag Harbor. My grandfather, her father, Stefano Rullo, when he came from Naples, he went to Pennsylvania and worked coal mines.

Mother, Father, Roots, Harbor, Born, Bridgehampton

Here I was in Estonia, doing a concert for 5,000 people, and not many people know the song My Way - Gorbachev in the 80s, My Way had just become a famous song, and [Mikhail] Gorbachev in a satirical, kind of cynical manner coined the term the Sinatra Doctrine and My Way was the song because the Baltic states in the Warsaw Pact wanted to go their own way and secede from the Soviet Union, so joking he says," Yeah, we've got the Sinatra Doctrine now. "

Baltic, Cynical, Estonia, People, Song, Yeah

My grandmother told a story that when they used to leave from Southampton to go into the City, because he had apartment buildings in Queens - I was born in Astoria, Queens - they had apartment buildings in Queens and Manhattan, different businesses, and she wanted to pick blueberries on the side of the road and he wouldn't stop, so my grandma used to throw her purse out the window. She never had less than $4,000 cash, back in the 20s, and he would then stop the car and she would pick blueberries. And, he never had a record.

20S, City, Grandma, Grandmother, Queens, Used

The music and the message, to me, is something that is imperative and that's what drives me know.

Imperative, Imperatives, Knows, Message, Messages, Music

[Frank] Sinatra, to everyone, even Tony Bennett, was such a huge influence because he had mastered not only music, but film and radio.

Radio, Influence, Film, Everyone, Huge

And just everyone in the 40s, you got to realize, for his time period, take Justin Bieber and put it on steroids - there was no one like Frank Sinatra before that. And you didn't have the amount of outlets that you have today and the variety that you have today. So, the Great American Songbook united the nation unlike any other music, because there weren't so many different kinds of communications.

Communication, Different, Outlets, Sinatra, Take, Today

I think back, when I saw The Great Gatsby , the film, my grandfather probably helped supply all the alcohol to all these Southampton parties, back then.

Alcohol, Back, Party, Supply, Think, Thinking

Hollywood is a very liberal community. There are a lot of guys that are also conservative that are frightened or fearful of being able to come out. And there's also the alternative. I'm one of the few conservatives that are involved with the Creative Coalition. It's trying to propagate the arts in schools and education, and a lot of things I believe in. It's a bipartisan thing, but when there is this strong partisanship. . . The other thing is, I'm pro-life, that's absolute, but I'm for live and let live. I'm an entertainer, I don't believe in stopping anyone's freedoms of lifestyle.

Absolute, Art, Believe, Creative, Freedoms, Strong

I had always been affected by films, as well, of course - and great films.

Film, Wells, Courses, Films, Course, Affected

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