Arnold Zwicky's Blog

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One more actor displaying ethnic versatility: Lebanese-American Tony Shalhoub (son of Lebanese-Americans, grew up in Green Bay WI). Some of his roles are not ethnically marked, but some are characters of Middle Eastern descent, and several are presented as ethnically Italian.

From Wikipedia:

Anthony Marcus “Tony” Shalhoub (… born October 9, 1953) is an American actor. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci in Wings and detective Adrian Monk in the TV series Monk, for which he has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. He has also had a successful career as a character actor

Shalhoub as Monk, not ethnically marked:

(#1)

But Antonio Scarpaccio in Wings is Italian, with the accent to go along with the character, as is the (Italian-speaking) chef in the movie Big Night:

(#2)

Then there are ethnically faithful roles, for instance a Frasier episode in which Shalhoub played an Arab newsstand owner and the movie The Siege, in which he played an FBI agent of Middle Eastern descent. Somewhat further afield: in the movie Primary Colors he played a Cuban-American businessman.

I’m pretty sure he’s never played a Jew.

This entry was posted on April 1, 2015 at 6:12 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.