RAY ROMANO

'Raymond Romano' (born December 21, 1957 in Queens, New York) is an Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe-nominated, American actor and comedian best known for his starring role on the sitcom ''Everybody Loves Raymond''. His other notable roles include Manfred "Manny" the Mammoth (“''Ice Age'', ''), and Handy Harrison (''Welcome to Mooseport'').

Contents

Early life

Career

Filmography

Acting

Writing

Bibliography

References

External links

Early life

Romano, an Italian American, was born in Queens, New York to Albert and Lucie Romano. Romano attended elementary and middle school in Forest Hills, Queens, at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. After transferring from Archbishop Molloy High School, Romano graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1975.^[1] He was in the same high school class as Fran Drescher and later appeared on Drescher's sitcom ''The Nanny'' as an old classmate. Before breaking into show business, Romano briefly attended Queens College in Flushing, New York, and had planned to become an accountant.

Career

Romano started his career appearing on many outlets including Comedy Central, where he had been a recurring guest voice on the show Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. He also was a contestant on Star Search in the stand-up comedy category. He was originally cast to play "Joe" on the American television sitcom ''NewsRadio'', but was fired, to be replaced by Joe Rogan. Shortly thereafter, he became the star of his own show, ''Everybody Loves Raymond'', that featured a cast and format more suitable to Romano's brand of humor.
Ray and his comedian friend Kevin James starred in the salesman comedy ''Grilled'', as two guys of the same profession who are both very desperate to land a big sale.
Romano was featured on a 2000 episode of ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'', on which he won US$125,000 for the NYPD's D.A.R.E. Unit.
In 2001, he was named one of E!'s top twenty entertainers of the year. In the same year, he was featured with his brother (a teacher at a school in Long Island) on a New York Police Department recruiting poster.
In 2004, he became the highest paid television actor in history for his role of Raymond on CBS's ''Everybody Loves Raymond.'' It was later revealed on E! that he had broken another record by his show having the highest revenue, at US$3.9 billion.
On December 13 2003, he was featured as a special guest star, sending a birthday card to Bob Barker in his eightieth-birthday bash on the seventh "Million Dollar Spectacular" special of the long-running daytime CBS series ''The Price Is Right''.
Romano was the subject of the documentary film ''95 MILES TO GO''. The film documents Romano's road-trip for a series of gigs across the South. The film was released in theaters on April 7, 2006 by ThinkFILM [1].
In August of 2006, Romano was interviewed in front of a live audience at UCLA by fellow stand-up veteran, David Steinberg, for an episode of ''Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg''. The program first aired on the TV Land network in March 2007.

Filmography

Acting

★ ''The Last Word'' (2007)

★ ''The Grand'' (2007)

★ '''Til Death'' (2007) Man in restaurant that talks to Eddie (Brad Garrett) and his wife.

★ ''The Knights of Prosperity'' (2007)

★ ''The King of Queens'' (1998-2007) (guest star) TV series – Raymond Barone

★ ''Grilled'' (2006) movie – Maurice

★ '' (2006) (voice) movie – Manny

★ ''Making the Cut'' (2006) HBO documentary; himself

★ ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' (1996-2005) TV Series – Raymond Barone

★ ''The Simpsons'' (2005) (guest voice) TV series – Ray Magini (appeared in the 351st episode of that show, as Homer Simpson's supposedly imaginary friend)

★ ''95 Miles to Go'' (2004) movie – himself

★ ''Eulogy'' (2004) movie – Skip Collins

★ ''Welcome to Mooseport'' (2004) movie – Handy Harrison

★ ''Ice Age'' (2002) (voice) movie – Manny

★ ''The Nanny'' (guest star) TV Series – Raymond Barone

★ ''Cosby'' (guest star) TV Series – Raymond Barone

Writing

★ ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' (1996–2005)
Ray Romano guest starred in Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and played Mr. Lowe.

★ Fred Stoller actually plays Dr. Lowe in Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide.

Bibliography

''Everything and a Kite'', 1999, Bantam Books.
"Raymie, Dickie and the Bean," 2005, Simon & Schuster
"Everybody Loves Raymond: Our Family Album," 2004, Pocket Books
"Live At Carnegie Hall," (CD), 2001, Sony

References

1.

External links

★

★ Official Site

★ Ray Romano interview