Vincent D'Onofrio
(Robert Howard / Producer)
Vincent D'Onofrio is truly an actor's actor, amassing an accomplished body of work that reflects a drive to seek out the
evocative and inspiring. With no less than four starring roles in the in the coming year, the spotlight is about to turn on
this compelling actor.
The surge of the independent film market has opened up innumerable and challenging
acting opportunities for D'Onofrio, so much that he has taken on the role of producer in two of his upcoming
films. In FEELING MINNESOTA, he and Keanu Reeves play brothers in a lowlife triangle with Cameron Diaz. Exploring the darker side
of life, D'Onofrio stars as a pathetic, sleazy accountant and con man.
In THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD, directed by Dan Ireland, he stars as Robert E. Howard in
an exploration in the imagination and early death of the author who created Conan the Barbarian. DOnofrio produced the film, which recently won both Best Film and Best Actor awards
at the Seattle Film Festival. He is also producing and starring in GUY for Polygram/Gramercy Pictures, a documentary-style drama
directed by Michael Lindsey-Hogg, in which D'Onofrio falls off the deep end emotionally in a desperate love story.
Extremely prolific, he has also finished Alex Cox's THE WINNER for LIVE Entertainment/Orion Pictures, playing a man who has reached
rock bottom when he wins a fortune in Las Vegas. The film also stars Rebecca De Mornay, Michael Madsen, and Delroy Lindo. Teaming
up with friend Gregory Hines in Colombia Pictures THE OX AND THE EYE, he stars as a Seattle Seahawks tight end who is blinded by an
injury and befriended by a paraplegic.
In a surprising move, D'Onofrio will next segue to a villainous role in the big-budget science-fiction comedy,
Barry Sonnenfeld's MEN IN BLACK. The Columbia Pictures release, which required six hours a day in
the makeup chair for Rick Baker's prosthetics, also stars Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, and Linda Fiorentino.
In 1987, DOnofrio first came into prominence with his unforgettable role in Stanley Kubrick's
gritty FULL METAL JACKET. Gaining a well publicized 70 pounds for the role, he left
a lasting impression as an unstable Vietnam War recruit who shoots his drill instructor then himself. As his next move, D'Onofrio opted to drop the weight for a romantic role opposite Lili Taylor in MYSTIC
PIZZA.
Always turning in new directions to feed his imagination, D'Onofrio starred as a failure-ridden loser in the critically acclaimed, yet little
seen, 1991 film CROOKED HEARTS. That same year, he performed supporting roles in two high profile ensemble pictures, Oliver Stone's JFK and Joel Schumacher's DYING YOUNG. The following year, in Robert Altman's acerbic
industry satire THE PLAYER, D'Onofrio unsettlingly portrayed tortured and murdered
screenwriter David Kahane. Taking a romantic aside in 1993, he put forth winning
portrayals in MR. WONDERFUL and HOUSEHOLD SAINTS.
In Tim Burton's ED WOOD, D'Onofrio immersed himself in the character of a young Orson Wells. Most recently,
he unflinchingly portrayed a murderous cop in STRANGE DAYS and took a comic turn in STUART SAVES HIS FAMILY, directed by Harold
Ramis.
Last Modified 12-December-1996
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