Brancato Views

• Books

Lillo Brancato, Jr. (born March 30, 1976)[1] is a Colombian-born American actor, known for his performance as Calogero Anello in Robert De Niro's 1993 directorial debut, A Bronx Tale. He also played Matthew Bevilaqua, a young mobster on The Sopranos. In December 2005, Brancato was charged with second-degree murder for his role in a burglary in the Bronx, New York. Authorities say that an off-duty police officer, Daniel Enchautegui, confronted two burglars and was killed in a shootout. Brancato was subsequently acquitted of murder, but he was convicted of first-degree attempted burglary and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Co-defendant Steven Armento was convicted of firing the fatal shot.

Brancato was born in Bogotá, Colombia. Adopted when he was four months old, he was raised by Italian-American parents, Lillo, Sr., (a builder) and Domenica (an electrolysist),[2] in Yonkers, New York. Although he is of Colombian descent, Brancato has said I consider myself Italian. I was raised to eat pasta .[3] Brancato was discovered while swimming at Jones Beach by a talent scout who noticed Brancato's resemblance to Robert De Niro. Brancato was a fan of De Niro and impressed the scout with an impression of Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver. This won him the role of De Niro's son in A Bronx Tale.[4]

Brancato acted in three films in the mid-1990s, prior to joining the cast of The Sopranos. He played the main character C , a teenager torn between his father and a mob boss who befriended him as a kid in A Bronx Tale in 1993. He also starred alongside Gregory Hines, Danny DeVito, and Mark Wahlberg in the 1994 movie Renaissance Man. In 1995, he played a minor role in Crimson Tide with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman.

In the second season of The Sopranos, which HBO broadcast in 2000, Brancato starred as Matthew Bevilaqua, a young mobster associated with Tony Soprano's crime syndicate. Bevilaqua first appeared in the second season premiere, Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist's Office... , and appeared in five more episodes, the last one being Bust Out , However, he was murdered in the previous episode, From Where to Eternity . In 2001, Brancato starred opposite fellow Sopranos cast member Drea de Matteo in Abel Ferrara's 'R Xmas.