Marisa Tomei was born on December 4, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York, to Patricia “Addie” Bianchi, an English teacher, and Gary Tomei, a lawyer. Both of the actress’s parents were of Italian descent. Growing up, her mother worried about her pronunciation, constantly correcting her speech to get rid of her strong Brooklyn accent. As a teenager, Marisa attended Edward R. Murrow High School, graduating in 1982. Her brother Adam Tomei and Darren Aronofsky also attended the same high school. For more interesting details about the actress’s life, visit brooklyn-trend.com
A Brief Stint in College
After high school, Marisa enrolled at Boston University but dropped out after just one year to take a leading role in the CBS drama “As the World Turns.” This series opened the door for her in film. In 1984, she made her big-screen debut with a small role in the movie “The Flamingo Kid.” Three years later, the actress became well-known for playing Maggie Lauton, Lisa Bonet’s college roommate, in the sitcom “A Different World.”
But her true breakthrough came in 1992 when she starred as Joe Pesci’s hilarious, fast-talking girlfriend in the film “My Cousin Vinny.” This role earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Later that year, she had a brief appearance as the sharp-tongued Mabel Normand in Richard Attenborough’s biographical film “Chaplin” and soon landed her first leading role in “Untamed Heart.” Her next leading role and attempt to channel Audrey Hepburn was in the 1994 romantic comedy “Only You,” which was only moderately successful.
Marisa’s other 1994 role as Michael Keaton’s pregnant wife in “The Paper” was well-received, even if the film itself was not. Fortunately for Tomei, she was able to bounce back the following year, playing a single mother in Nick Cassavetes’ “Unhook the Stars,” which earned her a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She also delivered a strong performance in “Welcome to Sarajevo” and, in 1998, gave one of her best performances in recent years as a sexually liberated cousin in Tamara Jenkins’s “The Slums of Beverly Hills.”
“What Women Want”
Marisa starred alongside Mel Gibson in the hugely successful romantic comedy “What Women Want,” and during the 2002 awards season, she proved her first Oscar wasn’t a fluke. The actress received a second nomination in the same category for the critically acclaimed dark drama “In the Bedroom.” Marisa Tomei also appeared as a guest on the animated TV phenomenon “The Simpsons” as Sara Sloane, a movie star who falls for Ned Flanders. In 2006, she appeared in four episodes of “Rescue Me,” playing Angie, the ex-wife of Tommy Calvin’s brother, Johnny, played by Dean Winters.
At 42, Marisa took on a provocative role in legendary director Sidney Lumet’s “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead,” where she appeared nude in love scenes with co-stars Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Marisa then played another challenging role as a stripper in the popular film “The Wrestler,” starring Mickey Rourke. Her brilliant performance earned the actress numerous awards for Best Supporting Actress from many film associations, a third Academy Award nomination, and nominations for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA. Many critics called this role the most outstanding of her career.
Whose Oscar Is It Really?
The actress had a rather interesting story in her career. After winning the Oscar for “My Cousin Vinny,” Tomei became the target of a bizarre conspiracy theory, primarily pushed by film critic Rex Reed. Reed claimed that Tomei didn’t actually win the Oscar. The critic stated that the show’s host, Jack Palance, read the wrong name from the teleprompter or got confused while reading the winner’s card for Best Supporting Actress, calling out Tomei’s name instead of Vanessa Redgrave’s or Emma Thompson’s. Rex Reed argued that since Tomei’s name was last alphabetically, that’s why the mistake happened. However, the show’s producers and the Price Waterhouse Cooper vote counters responded that if something like what Reed or other Tomei critics suggested happened, a PWC representative would have come on stage to announce the error and then declare the actual winner. This situation actually occurred during the 2016 Academy Awards ceremony when “La La Land” was mistakenly announced as the winner for Best Picture, after Warren Beatty was given the wrong information (a duplicate of Emma Stone’s winning card for Best Actress). This completely debunked Rex Reed’s conspiracy theory, becoming the final undeniable proof.
In the early 1990s, Marisa Tomei was in a relationship with Robert Downey Jr. In 1999, she was with actor Dana Ashbrook. The actress also had a relationship with Frank Pugliese.
