Vincent Gallo

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Vincent Gallo

Gallo in portrait.
Born April 11, 1961 (1961-04-11) (age 47)
Buffalo, New York
Occupation actor, producer, composer, director, screenwriter, songwriter, singer
Years active 1981 - present

Vincent Gallo (born in Buffalo, New York on April 11, 1961) is an American film actor and director, producer, and screenwriter. Although he has had minor roles in mainstream films such as Goodfellas, he is most associated with independent movies. Buffalo '66, which he wrote, directed, and starred in, is considered his most notable film. In the 1980s, Gallo worked as a figurative painter in New York City, performed in a rap duo, and played in a band called Bohack. In the late 1990s, Gallo played in a rock band called Bunny, and in the early 2000s, he released several recordings.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Both of Vincent Gallo's parents emigrated from Sicily. After his father kicked him out of the house at the age of 16, Gallo began living in New York City and from there traveled around most of Europe. As a teenager, Gallo was frequently arrested for petty crimes and for indecent exposure, and has reminisced in print about his compulsive teenage masturbatory habits.[1] While living in New York, Gallo was a go-go dancer at various gay clubs and has also admitted to prostituting himself to gay clientele. [2] " I did do sexual things for money. With men, I've never performed or had fellatio performed, but I did do jerk-off things. I would go in a peep booth and watch straight porn and get paid 5 or 10 dollars to have somebody watch me masturbate."[3]

Since 2004, Gallo is known to be suffering from prostatitis due to self-induced stress.[4]

Gallo has modeled, most notably for Calvin Klein, and been photographed by Richard Avedon. He first began painting, then racing motorcycles, and finally became an actor. He has directed two films, Buffalo '66 and The Brown Bunny. Buffalo '66, which he wrote, directed, and starred in, is considered his most notable work. Gallo is known for his outspoken views and claims, once stating: "I stopped painting in 1990 at the peak of my success just to deny people my beautiful paintings; and I did it out of spite."[5]

[edit] Films

During Gallo's artistic period in the 1980s, when he worked as a musician and painter in New York City, he also began experimenting with film. He made the short film "If You Feel Froggy, Jump" and appeared in a film called the "New York Beat Movie" (1981) with painter Jean Michel Basquiat. In 1984, Gallo acted in "The Way It Is" (1984), which included actors Steve Buscemi and Rockets Redglare. After starring in the obscure 1989 film Doc's Kingdom, he began acting in small parts in more well-known films such as Goodfellas, The House of the Spirits, and The Perez Family. French director Claire Denis hired Gallo to act in several films such as the "short film Keep It for Yourself, the made-for-TV U.S. Go Home, and its follow-up feature Nénette et Boni (1996)."[6]

Gallo acted in the film Arizona Dream, with Johnny Depp, in the cult comedy Palookaville, and in The Funeral, and had a lead role in the film Truth or Consequences, N.M. .

In 1998, his debut film Buffalo '66 was nominated for, but did not win, an award for "Best First Feature" at the Independent Spirit Awards[7]. Gallo made this drama for $1.5 M and did most of the creative tasks (writing, directing, lead acting role, music) himself. The release of Buffalo '66 "...gained him a solid fan base[8]." Gallo proceeded to act in the crime drama Freeway 2: Confessions of a Trickbaby, a drama entitled Stranded: Náufragos, a thriller called Hide and Seek, and a romantic comedy called Get Well Soon. Gallo acted in another Claire Denis film, a bizarre erotic/horror movie called Trouble Every Day.

In 2003, Gallo starred in and directed the film The Brown Bunny. The film, which chronicles a motorcycle racer's cross country road trip, co-starred Chloë Sevigny. Due to its graphic sexual content and Gallo's use of a still from one of the controversial sex scenes in a billboard advertisement, it became a media scandal, which provided the film with a great deal of free publicity. According to Andrea LeVasseur of the Allmovie, The Brown Bunny "premiered to much derision at the Cannes Film Festival."[8]

A war of words erupted between Gallo and popular film critic Roger Ebert in 2003 regarding Ebert's statement that The Brown Bunny was the worst film in the history of Cannes.[9] Gallo retorted by calling Ebert a "fat pig with the physique of a slave trader" and put a hex on Ebert, wishing him colon cancer.[9] Ebert then responded, paraphrasing a statement once made by Winston Churchill that "although I am fat, one day I will be thin, but Mr. Gallo will still have been the director of The Brown Bunny."[10] Regarding Gallo's alleged hex, Ebert quipped "the video of my colonoscopy is more entertaining than your movie," a comment that Gallo later claimed to find funny. Ebert responded favorably to Gallo's second edit of The Brown Bunny which stripped 26 minutes from the runtime, and the pair reconciled amicably thereafter.[9]

A shorter, re-edited version of the film played later in 2004 at the Toronto International Film Festival (although it retained the controversial sex scene). While not receiving the highest praise, neither did it garner the same level of derision as the Cannes version, and on the August 28, 2004 episode of the television show Ebert & Roeper, Ebert gave the new version of the film a "thumbs up" rating. In a column published at about the same time, Ebert reported that he and Gallo had made peace.

Ironically, the outrage and hysteria surrounding The Brown Bunny meant it ended up being the most talked-about film of the festival. The $10 million film had the second highest per-screen average at the box office the weekend it opened, beaten only by an IMAX movie [11]. The film won approval from Sony Pictures Entertainment, which acquired multiterritory distribution rights of the film in February 2005. Sony Pictures Entertainment also released the film on DVD in North America in August 2005. According to Ryan Werner (who had worked for Wellspring), this film ended up being profitable for everyone involved, including Wellspring and Gallo himself.[12]

The character of fictional writer/director Billy Walsh on HBO's Entourage has drawn strong comparisons to Gallo, but the shows creators state the character is based on director Rob Weiss. Others say it is a composite of several different people including Quentin Tarantino and David O. Russell.[citation needed] In addition to sharing physical similarities, the fictional Walsh is portrayed as a writer/director and editor with control issues over his work. On a recent season 4 episode, a possible reference to Gallo is made when Walsh tells the Ari Gold character (Jeremy Piven) "Good thing I paint" after being threatened that he will never be allowed to direct again. Like Gallo, Billy Walsh is said to have a strong acting background, this being referenced in the first episode in which Walsh appears on the show in season 1.

[edit] Music

Gallo played electric bass and sang in the mid-1970s in several adolescent garage bands such as Blue Mood, a progressive rock cover band named Zephyr (not the late 1960s band) which did one performance in New York State, and the Plastics[13] At the age of 16, Gallo moved to New York City and was a latter member of the band, Gray, with visual artist Jean Michel Basquiat (who was not yet famous). Gray played at clubs such as Max's Kansas City, CBGB's, Hurrahs, and the Mudd Club. A few of Gray's recordings appear on the soundtrack for the film Downtown 81.[14]. In the early 1980s, Gallo performed solo as the Nonsexuals, rapped in a duo called Trouble Deuce under the name Prince Vince (along with Nick Nice, who went under the name DJ High Priest).

Gallo played in a band called Bohack which recorded an album entitled It Took Several Wives.[13] When Bohack disbanded, Gallo turned his attention to acting, directing, and composing in films. He wrote songs for the soundtrack of the 1998 film Buffalo 66. He played in a rock band with Lukas Haas called Bunny, and Gallo put out his own CD under Warp Records, titled "When"[13] . Bunny did a Japanese tour and recorded an album for Sony with producer Eddie Offord. In Japan, for his 2001 When tour, Josh Klinghoffer and Carla Azar of Autolux supported him as his tour band.

In 2002 he released "Recordings of Music for a Film", which is a remastered version of his older music. He also did shows with Jim O'Rourke playing on bass. Gallo has also performed shows with Sean Lennon, whom he collaborated with on an album they completed in 2004, that has yet to be released. Nikolai Haas, Lukas Haas's younger brother, was a drummer for a few of Gallo's shows. Gallo also curated one weekend of the UK music festival All Tomorrow's Parties in April 2005. His friends John Frusciante and PJ Harvey appeared on the bill. Gallo selected Yoko Ono as a headline act, and also performed with her and her son Sean Lennon at this event.

In 2006 he contributed beatboxing on Zoozersadd's [1] third album, "The Gates of Hell," produced by fellow indie filmmaker, Joel Potrykus [2].

Gallo's most recent musical project is the band RRIICCEE, with Hole co-founder Eric Erlandson, which plays only improvised music. Gallo says they have no plans to record an album.

[edit] Music Videos

Gallo also appears in the following music video by other artists:

Grounded by My Vitriol (2001). Cosmopolitan Bloodloss by Glassjaw (2003). 99 Problems by Jay-Z (2004). Bitter by Lit.

Also, video for the songs Going Inside by John Frusciante, and Anemone by L'arc~en~Ciel were directed by Gallo. [15]

[edit] Website

In early 2005, Gallo made a posting on his merchandise website offering his "disease-free" sperm for $1 million. However he added that he "maintains the right to refuse sale of his sperm to those of extremely dark complexions. Though a fan of Franco Harris, Derek Jeter, Lenny Kravitz and Lena Horne, Mr. Gallo does not want to be part of that type of integration."[16]

He also offered a $50,000 discount to any woman "who can prove she has naturally blonde hair and blue eyes" and "anyone who can prove a direct family link to any of the German soldiers of the mid-century".[16] Gallo also expressed his desire to impregnate a Jewish woman, because "this connection to the Jewish faith would guarantee his offspring a better chance at good reviews and maybe even a prize at the Sundance Film Festival or an Oscar."[16] In early 2006, Gallo made another website posting offering his services as an "evening or weekend escort" and was open to any woman who would pay his fee of $50,000 for one night or $100,000 for a weekend.

[edit] Political ideology

Gallo claims to be a supporter of the Republican Party, and has been seen at a New York fashion show with George W. Bush's daughters Barbara and Jenna[17]. He has claimed that his fantasy is "becoming more like the stereotype of the Republican Party."[18] He also wishes to look "more like [American conservative journalist] George Will."[18] In his own words, Gallo "considered himself a radical, always, but an extremely conservative radical".[19]

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] Actor

[edit] Writer/Director

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Independent
  2. ^ Bnet
  3. ^ Gawker
  4. ^ Chicage Sun-Times
  5. ^ Flux
  6. ^ Vincent Gallo - Trailer - Showtimes - Cast - Movies - New York Times
  7. ^ Vincent Gallo - Trailer - Showtimes - Cast - Movies - New York Times
  8. ^ a b Vincent Gallo - Trailer - Showtimes - Cast - Movies - New York Times
  9. ^ a b c Ebert, Roger (2005). Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2006. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 9780740755385. 
  10. ^ Ebert, Roger (2006). Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2007. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing. ISBN 9780740761577. 
  11. ^ Weekend Box Office Results for August 27–29, 2004
  12. ^ Hollywood Reporter Business Plans.
  13. ^ a b c allmusic ((( Vincent Gallo > Biography )))
  14. ^ allmusic ((( Downtown 81 > Overview )))
  15. ^ "John Frusciante music videos". Music Video Database. Retrieved on 2008-04-08.
  16. ^ a b c Miscellaneous Merchandise
  17. ^ Party Girls
  18. ^ a b Vidéos MySpaceTV : Vincent Gallo on Politics par jeremy
  19. ^ useaction=vids.individual&videoid=1395752466 Vidéos MySpaceTV : Vincent Gallo on Politics par jeremy

[edit] External links

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