Anthony Joseph Scotti (born December 22, 1939) is an American actor, television and film producer, and co-founder of

Scotti Brothers Records Scotti Brothers Records (typically spelled Scotti Bros. Records) was a California-based record label founded by Tony and Ben Scotti in 1974. Their first success was releasing singles and albums from teen pop star Leif Garrett. They later helpe ...

. He is married to French singer

Sylvie Vartan Sylvie Vartan (; born Sylvie Georges Vartanian on 15 August 1944) is a Bulgarians in France, Bulgarian-French singer and actress. She is known as one of the most productive and tough-sounding yé-yé artists. Her performances often featured ela ...

Early life

Scotti and his brother Ben both played football for the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

. As declared on 25 February 2024 during the Italian TV show Domenica In, Tony's family originates from Gesualdo (Avellino).

Career

Acting

Born in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, the county seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, and a principal city of the New York metropolitan area. ...

, Scotti began his career as an actor, portraying

Sharon Tate Sharon Marie Tate Polanski (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she appeared in advertisements and small television roles before appearing in films as well as working as a model. After receiv ...

's love interest, Tony Polar, in the 1967 film, '' Valley of the Dolls''. For his role in ''Valley'', Scotti was required to sing and performed the song "Come Live With Me" in the film and on the film's soundtrack. Scotti's second and last acting appearance was the title role in an unaired 1968 television pilot film, ''Nick Quarry'', based on the 1967 film, ''

Tony Rome ''Tony Rome'' is a 1967 American neo-noir mystery crime thriller film directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Frank Sinatra in the title role, alongside Jill St. John, Sue Lyon and Gena Rowlands. It was adapted from Marvin H. Albert's novel ...

''.

Scotti Bros.

While pursuing his film career, Tony Scotti had a mildly successful singing career with 3 low-chart national singles as a soloist, and two as the leader of Heaven Bound. In 1971, Scotti abandoned his film career and joined the record production department of

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

as a senior vice president. In 1974, Scotti, along with older brother

Ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett, Benson or Ebenezer, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben meaning "son of" is also found in Arabic as ''Ben'' (dialectal Arabic) or ''bin ...

, formed Ben Scotti Productions, a music marketing firm. The company eventually branched out into television and produced the pop music series, ''

America's Top 10 ''America's Top 10'' (commonly abbreviated to ''AT10'') was a popular weekly syndicated music television chart show that began airing in 1980 and ran until 1992. The show was hosted by Casey Kasem throughout its run, with Charlie Tuna announci ...

''. The success of the show prompted the brothers to form a television syndication company,

All American Television All American Television (later known as All American Communications Television and formerly Scotti Brothers-Syd Vinnedge Television and Scotti Vinnedge Television) was a television syndication company active from 1981 to 1998. It was founded by ...

in 1981. The company would go on to distribute shows like ''

Baywatch ''Baywatch'' is an American Drama (film and television), drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz ...

'' and ''

Acapulco H.E.A.T. ''Acapulco H.E.A.T.'' is a 1993 syndicated television series. It follows the adventures of the "Hemisphere Emergency Action Team" (H.E.A.T.), a group of top-secret agents based in Acapulco, Mexico, recruited by "C-5", a secret, inter-governmental ...

'' In the mid-1980s, the company began producing movies under Scotti Brothers Pictures and would go on to release ''

Eye of the Tiger "Eye of the Tiger" is a song by the American rock band Survivor. It was written as the theme song for the 1982 film ''Rocky III'' and released that year as a single from Survivor's third album, '' Eye of the Tiger''. Sylvester Stallone, the di ...

'' and '' Lady Beware''.

Filmography

Film

Television

In popular culture

Scotti signed pop music parodist

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American comedy musician, writer, and actor. He is best known for writing and performing Comedy music, comedy songs that often Parody music, parody specific songs by contempo ...

to the Scotti Bros. label in 1981. Scotti was portrayed by Yankovic himself in the 2022 film '' Weird: The Al Yankovic Story''; the film is a satirical biopic loosely based on Yankovic's own life (in which "Weird Al" is portrayed by

Daniel Radcliffe Daniel Jacob Radcliffe (born 23 July 1989) is an English actor. Radcliffe rose to fame at age twelve for portraying the title character in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He starred in all eight films in the series, from '' Harry Potter a ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scotti, Tony 1939 births Living people Male actors from Newark, New Jersey American male film actors Film producers from New Jersey American male singers American music industry executives American male television actors American television producers Businesspeople from Newark, New Jersey Maryland Terrapins football players