Acting
Joe Grifasi
Biography
Joseph G. "Joe" Grifasi (born June 14, 1944) is an American character actor of film, stage and television. Born in Buffalo, New York, Grifasi joined the U.S. Army prior to studying acting. He has appeared in more than 50 feature films including Presumed Innocent, The Deer Hunter, Big Business, Beaches, Auto Focus, Matewan, Naked Gun, Dark Matter, Natural Born Killers, Chances Are, Changing Lanes, One Fine Day, F/X, Benny & Joon, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Brewster’s Millions, Batman Forever, The Flamingo Kid, Ironweed, and Splash. His television credits include The Bronx is Burning (as Yogi Berra), 61* (as Phil Rizzuto), Law & Order, ER, LA Law, Chicago Hope, Hill Street Blues, SCTV, Roseanne, and The Practice. Grifasi’s Broadway credits include Dinner at Eight, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, A Memory of Two Mondays, Boy Meets Girl, The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The 1940’s Radio Hour and Happy End. His off-Broadway credits include Conversations in Tusculum, The Boys Next Door (Drama Desk Nomination), Once Around the City, Golden Boy, Filumena and Says I, Says He. He has been married to jazz soprano saxophonist and composer Jane Ira Bloom, whom he met while studying at the Yale School of Drama, since 1974.
Movies with Joe Grifasi
13 Going on 30
2004
The Deer Hunter
1978
Changing Lanes
2002
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
1988
Batman Forever
1995
Natural Born Killers
1994
Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult
1994
Splash
1984
Brewster's Millions
1985
Presumed Innocent
1990
Moonstruck
1987
Money Train
1995
Tornado
2024
Radium Girls
2020
F/X
1986
The Hudsucker Proxy
1994
Benny & Joon
1993
Chances Are
1989
Matewan
1987
One Fine Day
1996
The Naked Man
1998
Auto Focus
2002
Big Business
1988
Ironweed
1987
Still of the Night
1982
Slow Burn
2005
The Out-of-Towners
1999
Bad Medicine
1985
The Pope of Greenwich Village
1984
Queenie in Love
2001
Switching Goals
1999
61*
2001
Household Saints
1993
No Pay, Nudity
2016
Two Bits
1995
The Flamingo Kid
1984
The Other Me
2000
The Deal
1998
Baked in Brooklyn
2016
City of Hope
1991
Taking the Heat
1993
On the Yard
1978
The American Side
2016
Kojak: Ariana
1989
A Crime
2006
The Front
2010
Something Short of Paradise
1979
Heavy
1995
Citizen Cohn
1992
Honky Tonk Freeway
1981
Secret Service
1977
Perfect Witness
1989
Looking for an Echo
2000
The Feud
1989
Hide in Plain Sight
1980
The Gentleman Bandit
1981
Shadow of a Doubt
1996
The Elephant Man
1982
A Jersey Tale
2004
One Police Plaza
1986
A Midsummer Night's Dream
2014
Primary Motive
1992
Will There Really Be a Morning?
1983
Jack Reed: A Search for Justice
1994
The 6th Annual Young Comedians
1981
The Appointments of Dennis Jennings
1988
Sunday
1997
Me To Play
2021
Lewis Black: Red, White & Screwed
2006
The Last New Yorker
2010
Endgame
2023
The Dreams of Rene Sendam
2022
TV Shows with Joe Grifasi
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
1999
Law & Order
1990
The Good Wife
2009
Elementary
2012
ER
1994
The Practice
1997
New Amsterdam
2018
Chicago Hope
1994
Evil
2019
Matlock
1986
The Equalizer
1985
Great Performances
1971
The Good Fight
2017
Bull
2016
Hill Street Blues
1981
L.A. Law
1986
Moonlighting
1985
Early Edition
1996
Hope & Faith
2003
Lodge 49
2018
Conviction
2006
I Know This Much Is True
2020
Remember WENN
1996
The Beat
2000
Roseanne
1988
Tarzan
2003
Deadline
2000
Capital News
1990
The Bronx Is Burning
2007
Class of '96
1993
Canterbury's Law
2008
Moon Over Miami
1993
Undue Influence
1996
WIOU
1990
Sinatra
1992
Some of My Best Friends
2001