Why He's No. 97

Sticking in the sci-fi/fantasy mold for his roles in Imposter and Spy Kids (both 2001), Shalhoub once again proved that he could do 180-degree character turnarounds with ease. Though Shalhoub would stay in sci-fi mode for his role in Men in Black 2, he would return to solid ground with his role as an obsessive-compulsive detective in the well-received television pilot Monk (2002). Directed by Galaxy Quest helmer Dean Parisot, the pilot for Monk successfully paved the way for the curiously innovative USA series to follow and found the actor warmly re-embracing the medium that had propelled him to stardom.

Back Stage

Tony Shalhoub (born October 9, 1953) is a three-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe-winning American television and film actor. He is currently the star and executive producer of the USA Network television show Monk in which he plays an obsessive-compulsive detective who is often called on by the San Francisco Police Department to solve crimes no one else can. Before he played Adrian Monk, he was also well known for his role as the Italian cabdriver, Antonio Scarpacci, on the NBC television series, Wings, on which he played the role from 1991 to 1997. Tony Shalhoub’s brothers and sisters introduced him to the theater. When Tony was just six years old, one of his elder sisters volunteered her little brother to play an extra in a high school production of The King and I. Even though the young Tony was left standing on the wrong side of the curtain during the final dress rehearsal, he became addicted to the theater.



Tony graduated from Green Bay East High School, with his senior peers finding him the best dressed and most likely to succeed. He then graduated with a bachelor’s degree in drama from the University of Southern Maine in Portland, Maine, and earned a master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama in 1980. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he spent four seasons with the American Repertory Theatre before heading to New York City, where he found work waiting tables while honing his craft and auditioning. He made his Broadway debut in the 1985 Rita Moreno/Sally Struthers production of The Odd Couple and was nominated for a 1992 Tony Award for his featured role in Conversations with My Father. Shalhoub met his wife, actress Brooke Adams, when they co-starred on Broadway in The Heidi Chronicles. His Off-Broadway credits include Waiting for Godot, For Dear Life, Rameau's Nephew, Zero Positive and two productions of Shakespeare in Central Park, Henry IV, part I and Richard II. By 1991, one of his first television roles was as the Italian cabdriver Antonio Scarpacci in the long-running sitcom, Wings, which also starred Tim Daly, Steven Weber, Crystal Bernard, Thomas Haden Church, and Rebecca Schull. Shalhoub was pleasantly surprised to land the role, after having a recurring role in the second season. Shalhoub affected an Italian accent for the role. In the same time period, Shalhoub played the lead victim in the X-Files second-season episode "Soft Light." In 1997, Shalhoub's days of driving in a taxicab came to a bitter end when Wings was cancelled by NBC, and he found himself looking for other roles that would match that character's popularity. Among his film roles, after Wings, include a fast-talking lawyer in The Man Who Wasn't There, a sleazy alien pawn shop owner in the Men in Black films, a sympathetic attorney in A Civil Action, a widowed father in Thir13en Ghosts, and a has-been television star in Galaxy Quest. One of his more unusual roles was in Big Night where he plays an Italian-speaking chef, complete with accent.



Shalhoub demonstrated his dramatic range in the 1998 big budget thriller, The Siege starring Denzel Washington, Annette Benning and Bruce Willis. His character, FBI Special Agent Frank Haddad, was of Middle Eastern descent and suffered discrimination after Arab terrorists attack sites in New York City. He later returned to series television in 1999, this time, in a lead role on Stark Raving Mad, opposite Neil Patrick Harris (who would later star in How I Met Your Mother). Unlike Wings, the show didn't attract much of an audience during the first season, and NBC pulled the plug on the series in July of 2000. Shalhoub did voice acting for the cult classic computer game Fallout. He was one of the celebrity judges for the "Bush In 30 Seconds" advertisement competition. After a two-year-absence on the small screen, Shalhoub finally found another TV series that is already matching the popularity of Wings, starring on Monk, on which he currently plays a San Francisco detective who was diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, for USA Network. He even beat out Michael Richards for the role, who was originally cast when the show was being considered for broadcast on ABC, a network which later reran the first season in 2003.



Shalhoub was nominated for Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series five times consecutively from 2003-2007. He took home the trophy three times, in 2003, 2005, and 2006. In addition, he won the Golden Globe in 2003 and a SAG Award in 2004 and 2005. Shalhoub’s Monk was already renewed for its sixth season, as of 2006. Shalhoub married actress Brooke Adams in 1992. The two have worked together in several films, and Adams has also made guest appearances on Monk. At the time of their marriage, Adams had an adopted daughter, Josie Lynn (born 1988). In 1993, they had another daughter, Sophie. The family resides in Los Angeles and Green Bay. Shalhoub’s brother, Michael, has appeared on two episodes of Monk, and in 2006, another brother, Dan, appeared on the reality show, American Inventor. Shalhoub is the cousin of Chicago radio personality Jonathon Brandmeier. He is the brother-in-law of former Guiding Light actress Lynne Adams. Nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for "The Cricket in Times Square".

Forcaste

Well-known to television audiences for his extended stint as a self-deprecating cabbie on the long-running series Wings, Shalhoub made the often-painful transition from television to film with a grace seldom seen.