Joe Piscopo
photo credit: Getty Images
photo credit: Peter Kramer/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images
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Joseph Charles Piscopo

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Joe Piscopo

Active - 1976 - 2016  |   Born - Jun 17, 1951 in Passaic, New Jersey, United States  |   Genres - Comedy, Action, Adventure

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Biography by AllMovie

Best remembered for his work on the long-running sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live between 1980 and 1984, comedian Joe Piscopo has also had a sporadic movie career. Heralding from Passaic, NJ, he started out in standup and also worked in regional and improvisational theater before joining the show. On SNL, Piscopo was famed for his dead-on parody of Frank Sinatra and other celebrities ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Leonard Nimoy to Barbra Streisand. He made his feature-film debut (not counting an unbilled appearance in Dino De Laurentis' King Kong) in Johnny Dangerously (1984).

Movie Highlights

Huck and the King of Hearts
Johnny Dangerously
Open Season
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Factsheet

  • Got started in show business as a DJ and dinner-theater performer.
  • Joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1980, the first season in which no members of the original cast remained. Piscopo and fellow newcomer Eddie Murphy were the only cast members of the 1980 season to be kept on the show after Dick Ebersol took over as executive producer in 1981.
  • Gained inspiration for his "You from Joisey?" SNL skit when a woman excitedly approached him—and asked that question—after seeing his car's New Jersey license plate.
  • Appeared in Billy Joel's music video for "Keeping the Faith."
  • Met his current wife, Kimberly, when she was babysitting his first child.
  • Founded the Positive Impact Foundation, a nonprofit organization that creates positive media for at-risk youth.