Post by Naj on Jan 3, 2004 14:03:52 GMT -5
Danny Pino recently starred as Desi Arnaz in the CBS television movie "Lucy" and was recently seen as a recurring character "Armadillo" on the critically acclaimed series "The Shield." His other recent television credits include "Baseball Wives" for HBO, "Point F of Origin" for HBO and "Men, Women and Dogs" for the WB.
Danny Pino comes from an extensive theatrical background. He most recently starred in "Up for Grabs" opposite Madonna on the West End. In addition, he starred opposite Billy Crudup in New York's Shakespeare Festival's productions of "Measure for Measure" directed by Mary Zimmerman, "The Winters Tale" directed by Brian Kulick and the workshop for "Thou Shall Not" directed by Susan Stroman for Lincoln Center Theatre.
cbs.com
Nice article from tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,274|85225|1|,00.html
Pino Is a Hot Reason to Watch 'Cold Case'
By Jacqueline Cutler
By any standard, Danny Pino has made it. Married to his childhood sweetheart, he lives in Hollywood, where he plays Scotty Valens on CBS' Sunday drama, "Cold Case" (which airs this week on Thursday, Jan. 1).
So, with the money, fame and a stable life, one would expect perks. And he gets them -- until he visits home, where mom still makes him do chores.
"Everybody had their things they had to do," he says. "I have to wash the dishes. I am so programmed, she doesn't even have to tell me anymore. I have taken enough sandals to the head to know it's time to take out the garbage."
Pino, 29, is the second-eldest of five brothers. "My mom is a stud," he says. "She really instilled a lot of great principles. She really is a great lady."
His mother, who has been teaching high school social studies for 32 years, and his father, an investment consultant, ran a tight ship. Both parents are Cuban natives who came here with nothing and worked hard.
Pino, who was born here, is fluent in Spanish and English, and made his stage debut in sixth grade. It was in "Tracers of the Lost Parts of Speech," a musical at Rockway Elementary School in Miami. "There were dancing verbs and nouns and pronouns running around me, and I was the crazy professor who had lost his glasses," he says. "I was a silver-haired sixth grader."
Much as he enjoyed this, Pino's aspirations ran toward the traditional. "I wanted to be everything," he says. "I wanted to be a ballplayer, a Coast Guard, a lawyer."
As a child, he played baseball, football and swam, eventually working as a lifeguard. He loved the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean in Miami, and finds the Pacific Ocean -- even in Southern California -- frigid.
Also as a child, he met Lily. They went through junior and senior high school and college together. Now married for 1 1/2 years, they live in Los Angeles.
Before he came west, however, there was a detour in Manhattan. Pino initially considered law as a profession. Though he had earned an undergraduate scholarship in drama, he was taking prelaw classes at Florida International University in Miami. "It was two minutes from my house," he says. "And I still had to do the dishes."
While studying prelaw, he wrote a one-man play and performed it. The pull of the stage was becoming too strong to ignore, and he knew he had to broach the subject with his father.
"My dad was not excited about me becoming an actor," Pino recalls. "My mom was always supportive of whatever I wanted to do. My dad is a little more difficult to sway."
He told his father that a professor recommended he attend graduate school to study drama, and the senior Pino told his son this would be acceptable only if he made it into one of the country's top three graduate schools.
Luckily, he was accepted into NYU. "The advantage of NYU, Yale and Julliard is that agents pay attention if you have gone there," Pino says.
Pino says 1997 through 2000, his years as a starving acting student in Greenwich Village, were wonderful. Living on noodles and tuna and attending classes while living in a small flat in the West Village was romantic, and he says he knew it then.
After earning a master's in fine arts, Pino then earned impressive stage credits. He worked with top choreographer and director Susan Stroman at Lincoln Center in "Thou Shall Not." He worked in the New York Shakespeare Festival's "Measure for Measure." Most recently, he was on the London stage with Madonna in "Up for Grabs."
Within a year of graduation, Pino headed west and landed a part in the TV series "Men, Women & Dogs," then had a recurring role on "The Shield" as Armadillo Quintero. It was while there that a wonderful role came his way, that of Desi Arnaz in "Lucy" earlier this year.
"At first, I was, 'Man, how great would it be to play this character?' " he says of Arnaz. "It would be such an honor, being Cuban myself. I grew up watching 'I Love Lucy.' Once I got the role, I started getting a cold sweat: 'Oh no, this is my responsibility now.' You become an advocate for this person. You want to portray them as honestly as you can. You don't want to make them better than they were, and you don't want to vilify them either."
He sought advice from Michael Chiklis, who had portrayed Curly from the Three Stooges and John Belushi, and who knew the challenges inherent to playing famous people.
"What he told me -- and it applies to every character you play -- is really investigate them and get to know this person," Pino says. "Build this person up, so that they are alive to you today. Approach it psychologically at first, then physically -- how the person walks ... . After you do all that and amass all of that information, once you are on set, you let it go. You don't want to be imitating. You want to be yourself."
With only the slightest prodding, Pino lets loose with a perfect Ricky Ricardo laugh, then handily switches gears and talks about detectives trying to solve cold cases.
For his current role as a street-smart detective in Philadelphia, Pino hung out with real street-smart Philadelphia detectives.
"What's interesting is what happens on the screen is essentially what happens in Philadelphia," he says. "I was eating a Philly cheesesteak, having a Tastycake, and a Phillies baseball game was on TV. Everybody was talking and I was looking at this cold case."
The presiding officer filled him in on what happened on the long ago night of the murder. Later, in the middle of the night, they went out searching for clues and found some. He carries the memory of that night with him to the set, using the the advice of the detectives and other actors to help guide him.
"I have had a lot of luck of being with the right actors and having them give me the right advice," Pino says. "When a teacher tells you, it is theory. When an actor tells you and you admire their work, then all of a sudden, so many doors are open for you."
Danny Pino comes from an extensive theatrical background. He most recently starred in "Up for Grabs" opposite Madonna on the West End. In addition, he starred opposite Billy Crudup in New York's Shakespeare Festival's productions of "Measure for Measure" directed by Mary Zimmerman, "The Winters Tale" directed by Brian Kulick and the workshop for "Thou Shall Not" directed by Susan Stroman for Lincoln Center Theatre.
cbs.com
Nice article from tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,274|85225|1|,00.html
Pino Is a Hot Reason to Watch 'Cold Case'
By Jacqueline Cutler
By any standard, Danny Pino has made it. Married to his childhood sweetheart, he lives in Hollywood, where he plays Scotty Valens on CBS' Sunday drama, "Cold Case" (which airs this week on Thursday, Jan. 1).
So, with the money, fame and a stable life, one would expect perks. And he gets them -- until he visits home, where mom still makes him do chores.
"Everybody had their things they had to do," he says. "I have to wash the dishes. I am so programmed, she doesn't even have to tell me anymore. I have taken enough sandals to the head to know it's time to take out the garbage."
Pino, 29, is the second-eldest of five brothers. "My mom is a stud," he says. "She really instilled a lot of great principles. She really is a great lady."
His mother, who has been teaching high school social studies for 32 years, and his father, an investment consultant, ran a tight ship. Both parents are Cuban natives who came here with nothing and worked hard.
Pino, who was born here, is fluent in Spanish and English, and made his stage debut in sixth grade. It was in "Tracers of the Lost Parts of Speech," a musical at Rockway Elementary School in Miami. "There were dancing verbs and nouns and pronouns running around me, and I was the crazy professor who had lost his glasses," he says. "I was a silver-haired sixth grader."
Much as he enjoyed this, Pino's aspirations ran toward the traditional. "I wanted to be everything," he says. "I wanted to be a ballplayer, a Coast Guard, a lawyer."
As a child, he played baseball, football and swam, eventually working as a lifeguard. He loved the warm water of the Atlantic Ocean in Miami, and finds the Pacific Ocean -- even in Southern California -- frigid.
Also as a child, he met Lily. They went through junior and senior high school and college together. Now married for 1 1/2 years, they live in Los Angeles.
Before he came west, however, there was a detour in Manhattan. Pino initially considered law as a profession. Though he had earned an undergraduate scholarship in drama, he was taking prelaw classes at Florida International University in Miami. "It was two minutes from my house," he says. "And I still had to do the dishes."
While studying prelaw, he wrote a one-man play and performed it. The pull of the stage was becoming too strong to ignore, and he knew he had to broach the subject with his father.
"My dad was not excited about me becoming an actor," Pino recalls. "My mom was always supportive of whatever I wanted to do. My dad is a little more difficult to sway."
He told his father that a professor recommended he attend graduate school to study drama, and the senior Pino told his son this would be acceptable only if he made it into one of the country's top three graduate schools.
Luckily, he was accepted into NYU. "The advantage of NYU, Yale and Julliard is that agents pay attention if you have gone there," Pino says.
Pino says 1997 through 2000, his years as a starving acting student in Greenwich Village, were wonderful. Living on noodles and tuna and attending classes while living in a small flat in the West Village was romantic, and he says he knew it then.
After earning a master's in fine arts, Pino then earned impressive stage credits. He worked with top choreographer and director Susan Stroman at Lincoln Center in "Thou Shall Not." He worked in the New York Shakespeare Festival's "Measure for Measure." Most recently, he was on the London stage with Madonna in "Up for Grabs."
Within a year of graduation, Pino headed west and landed a part in the TV series "Men, Women & Dogs," then had a recurring role on "The Shield" as Armadillo Quintero. It was while there that a wonderful role came his way, that of Desi Arnaz in "Lucy" earlier this year.
"At first, I was, 'Man, how great would it be to play this character?' " he says of Arnaz. "It would be such an honor, being Cuban myself. I grew up watching 'I Love Lucy.' Once I got the role, I started getting a cold sweat: 'Oh no, this is my responsibility now.' You become an advocate for this person. You want to portray them as honestly as you can. You don't want to make them better than they were, and you don't want to vilify them either."
He sought advice from Michael Chiklis, who had portrayed Curly from the Three Stooges and John Belushi, and who knew the challenges inherent to playing famous people.
"What he told me -- and it applies to every character you play -- is really investigate them and get to know this person," Pino says. "Build this person up, so that they are alive to you today. Approach it psychologically at first, then physically -- how the person walks ... . After you do all that and amass all of that information, once you are on set, you let it go. You don't want to be imitating. You want to be yourself."
With only the slightest prodding, Pino lets loose with a perfect Ricky Ricardo laugh, then handily switches gears and talks about detectives trying to solve cold cases.
For his current role as a street-smart detective in Philadelphia, Pino hung out with real street-smart Philadelphia detectives.
"What's interesting is what happens on the screen is essentially what happens in Philadelphia," he says. "I was eating a Philly cheesesteak, having a Tastycake, and a Phillies baseball game was on TV. Everybody was talking and I was looking at this cold case."
The presiding officer filled him in on what happened on the long ago night of the murder. Later, in the middle of the night, they went out searching for clues and found some. He carries the memory of that night with him to the set, using the the advice of the detectives and other actors to help guide him.
"I have had a lot of luck of being with the right actors and having them give me the right advice," Pino says. "When a teacher tells you, it is theory. When an actor tells you and you admire their work, then all of a sudden, so many doors are open for you."
