John Turturro
Turturro in 2008, photo by Prphotos
Birth Name: John Michael Turturro
Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.
Date of Birth: February 28, 1957
Ethnicity: Italian
John Turturro is an American actor, writer, director, and filmmaker. He is known for his roles in the films Five Corners, Do the Right Thing, Mo Better Blues, Miller’s Crossing, Jungle Fever, Barton Fink, Fearless, Clockers, The Big Lebowski, He Got Game, O Brother, Where Art Thou?; The Luzhin Defence, Anger Management, Secret Window, The Good Shepherd, Transformers (2007), and its sequels; Margot at the Wedding, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Miracle at St. Anna, The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009), The Nutcracker in 3D, Cars 2, Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Ridiculous 6, Hands of Stone, Gloria Bell, and The Batman (2022); and television’s Monk, The Night Of, The Plot Against America, and Severance. He has directed the films Mac, Illuminata, both of which he co-wrote; Romance & Cigarettes, Fading Gigolo, and The Jesus Rolls, all of which he wrote; and starred in all but the third. He also directed the documentary Passione, filmed in Naples, Italy.
His father, Nicola/Nicholas Turturro, was from Giovinazzo, Apulia, Italy, and arrived in the U.S. in the early 1930s. His mother, Katherine/Catherine Florence “Kate” (Incerella), was born in the U.S., to Italian parents, from Campania and Sicily, respectively. His father was with the D-Day fleet supporting the landing operations of Allied troops in Normandy in 1944.
His brother is actor Nicholas Turturro and his cousin is actress Aida Turturro. John is married to actress Katherine Borowitz, with whom he has two children.
John’s maternal grandfather, an Italian immigrant, re-married to a black woman, John’s step-grandmother Deborah M. L. Elder, in 1937. John did not know this until his appearance on the show Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2017).
John’s paternal grandfather was Raffaele/Raffaelle/Ralph Turturro (the son of Nicola Turturro and Teresa Rutigliano). Raffaele was born in Giovinazzo. Nicola was the son of Michele Turturro and Anna Stufano. Teresa was the daughter of Raffaele Rutigliano and Maria Trapani.
John’s paternal grandmother was Angela/Angelina Michela Cortese (the daughter of Antonio Cortese and Vincenza Decicco). Angela was born in Giovinazzo. Antonio was the son of Giuseppe Cortese and Serafina Piscitelli. Vincenza was the daughter of Domenico Decicco and Angela D’Agostino.
John’s maternal grandfather was Giovanni/John Incerello/Incerella/Inzerillo/Inzirillo/Inserillo (the son of Antonio Incerella and Margareta Lafala). Giovanni was born in Naples, Campania, Italy.
John’s maternal grandmother was named Rosa/Rosina/Rose Terrasi/Terraso. Rosa was from Aragona, Province of Agrigento, Sicily. John is an honorary citizen of Aragona.
A DNA test on Finding Your Roots found that John has a common ancestor with television journalist and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel, through shared Southern European ancestry.
Sources: http://www.starpulse.com
Genealogy of John Turturro (focusing on his father’s side) – http://geneasud.20minutes-blogs.fr
Marriage record of John’s maternal grandfather, Giovanni/John Incerello/Incerella/Inzerillo/Inzirillo/Inserillo, to Deborah M. L. Elder – https://www.familysearch.org
Interesting
Can you change the picture of him?
http://www.prphotos.com/p/LKO-000161/john-turturro-at-68th-annual-cannes-film-festival–mia-madre–my-mother–photocall.html?&ps=5&x-start=1
Thank you!
I much like the current one as you can clearly see his face
He’s too tanned in it.
Definitely looks North African – Egyptian or Tunisian.
@phaedra His skin is that dark because he tans. It’s not natural.
He looks Northern African.
Not really.
http://cdn.richestcelebrities.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/John-Turturro-Net-Worth.jpg
No he dosen’t i bet you are from there that’s why you say this lol
I told y’all them Italians have Black blood. They are in denial.
@M they actually stated that fact in the movie ” Do The Right Thing” that he was in. Watch the movie. Also Vin Diesel is part black and plays Italian characters all the time. I think he even straightens his hair because it was even more coarse in the movie.
Diesel has played one one real Italian-American character: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Find_Me_Guilty
2 hours of makeup every morning to look like Jackie DiNorscio, because Diesel himself neither has Italian ancestry or look Italian at all.
Actually Vin Diesel has played Italian a two more times, that I know about in (Saving Private Ryan (1998), and then Boiler Room. I’m not sure what he was in the (Knockaround Guys)
Lumet’s movie was a starring role. Sometimes a character’s surname does not say much if there’s no further development (in Spielberg’s movie, “Caparzo” is after a famous winery in Tuscany, as surname it’s very rare).
Dominic Toretto was probably written as an Italian-American character initially. Over time, the movies have been pretty ambiguous about it. He has a cousin in Cuba in the eighth film (2017). In the ninth film (2021), John Cena/Finn Jones play his full (!) brother and Charlize Theron says that she knew the Toretto family was of mixed ancestry, but, looking at Cena, wasn’t aware they also included “a Nordic strain.”
Of course, he also likes saying, “salud, mi familia.”
9th movie? Damn.