Joe Marinelli, the veteran actor of the character who had fun and attracted admirers like the cross gangster Bunny Tagliatti on the NBC soap opera Santa Barbarais dead. He was 68 years old.
Marinelli died on Sunday, his wife almost 34, said musician Jean Marinelli, The Hollywood Reporter.
After playing Bernardo “Bunny” Tagliatti from 1988 to 1900, Marinelli portrayed Banking Thief Pauly Hardman on the drama of the CBS day Guiding light In 1993 and another crook, Joseph Sorel, on ABC soap General hospital From 1999 to 2001.
More recently, he took over the director of UBA Donny Spagnoli during the first three seasons of the Apple TV + Drama The morning show.
Marinelli, who studied the game at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also presented himself in the 2004 films Aside And One last walk and star in many television series, Hunter,, EAST,, The king of the queens,, NYPD Blue And The west wing has Practice,, Home,, Castle,, Desperate housewives And Ray Donovan.
During his passage on Santa BarbaraBunny fell hard for Gina Demott Capwell (Robin Mattson), had a fierce rivalry with Mason Capwell / Sonny Sprack (Lane Davies and Terry Lester), bought a nightclub he called Bunny’s Lair and came so close to marry Vanessa Defranco (Denise Gentile).
In an interview in 2013, Marinelli said that he had put a lot of himself in his most famous role.
“Bunny allowed me to bring so many things: my sense of humor, my love to create different characters – in this case, men and women – and a strong moral code,” he said. “Me, like many people, I can injure myself, and when Bunny was injured, he turned to his female ego.”
Born January 21, 1957 in Meriden, Connecticut, Joseph Anthony Marinelli and his family moved to Southern California in 1961. He attended Arcadia high school, Reno (Nevada) High School and Loyola Marymount University before going to Rada in London.
Back in the United States, Marinelli continued to study theater with actress Jean Muir and the casting director (and and Hearing Author) Michael Shurtleff and did a lot of local theater in Los Angeles while making both ends as a carpenter.
From 1984, he won episodes of CAGNY & LACEY,, Paper dolls,, Hill Street Blues And The lawwhere he was spotted by Jill Farren Phelps, executive producer of Santa Barbarawho hired him to play rabbit. (Phelps’ brother was the boss of Marinelli as a carpenter.)
“I was wondering what I would learn by playing a transvestite,” he said. “One thing I learned is that the pants are much more comfortable than nylons. I also learned that other people thought I was very courageous.
“By making up a day, a woman’s voice whispered in my ear:” You must be very comfortable in your sexuality. When I turned around, they left.
He left Santa Barbara When his contract was not renewed, but he said: “It was like a gift, because the casting directors in town had the absence of non-stop. I was walking in a room and that people were starting to laugh and told me that their wife or husband loved Bunny. I kept working for a long time, and Lorimar and Warner Bros., in particular, actively tried to get my own spectacle. The next 10 years have been absolute Bliss. ”.
In addition to his wife, who played the French horn in Hollywood Bowl and for the show FX Best thingsThe survivors include his sons, Vincent and David.
On Facebook, Leigh McCloskey (Ethan Asher on Santa Barbara) paid tribute to his co-star.
“A softer man or a more expensive friend that you could not find than Joe Marinelli,” he wrote. “I knew that Joe was sick and admired his tireless spirit so much throughout what looked like a very difficult test, if not impossible.
“Joe was a champion. He was a great actor partner, professor, philosophical friend, believing passionate people and an extraordinary storyteller with laughter and depth revealed the human mind so beautifully and so many different ways.”
