A Bronx Tale

**min0 lee** · 12-12-2005, 07:35 PM

Cop shooting suspect was once a rising star

By LARRY McSHANE
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Just a dozen years ago, Lillo Brancato Jr. was going to be a star.

The unknown actor earned critical acclaim opposite his idol, Robert De Niro, in the 1993 movie "A Bronx Tale." He played the Oscar winner's son in the story of a teen torn between two role models - a local mobster and his dad - in a heavily Italian Bronx neighborhood.

From there, Brancato went on to appear in more than a dozen films, including "Renaissance Man," "Crimson Tide," "Enemy of the State" and "The Adventures of Pluto Nash." Brancato later enjoyed a recurring role on "The Sopranos," eventually getting executed by fictional mob boss Tony Soprano in one of the series' more memorable departures.

But on Saturday, the actor was far from the bright lights and red carpets of Hollywood fame. Instead, police said, he was breaking into the basement of a vacant Bronx house when a gunfight erupted and an off-duty city police officer was killed.

Brancato was just 16 when De Niro launched a search for non-professionals to appear in his 1993 directorial debut, the film version of Chazz Palminteri's play "A Bronx Tale." Brancato was discovered by a casting director strolling along the sands at Jones Beach; he came out of the water and wowed him with impressions of De Niro and Joe Pesci.

In a New York Times profile, he was described as "friendly, earnest, sweet-tempered, a fast talker, a salesman, the kind of goofy tough guy who once upon a time used to hang out on a city street corner." Brancato, 29, was raised in Yonkers by adoptive parents, and he still resided in the city just north of the Bronx.

Brancato, born in Bogota, Colombia, was adopted when he was 4 months old. "I consider myself Italian," he once said. "I was raised to eat pasta."

In 1999-2000, he appeared in a half-dozen episodes of "The Sopranos" as a dim-witted aspiring mobster. In one episode, his character worked a high-stakes card game where the players included Frank Sinatra Jr.

Brancato also starred in the short-live TV mob show "Falcone," and guest-starred in a 2002 episode of "NYPD Blue."

His most recent appearance in the headlines came in June, when Brancato was arrested by Yonkers police after they discovered four glassine bags of heroin during a routine traffic stop.
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**min0 lee** · 12-12-2005, 07:39 PM

What stupid waste of a career.

**min0 lee** · 12-12-2005, 07:41 PM

Protege's downward spiral stuns De Niro

BY JESS WISLOSKI and DEREK ROSE
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Actor Robert De Niro expressed shock yesterday that the one-time protege he plucked from obscurity and gave a starring movie role is suspected in the murder of a cop.
Lillo Brancato made his movie debut 12 years ago opposite De Niro, went on to a role in "The Sopranos" and once performed with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

"This is deeply disturbing news, a tragedy beyond comprehension," De Niro said yesterday. "I join others in extending my deepest sympathy to Officer \[Daniel\] Enchautegui's family.

"The sense of loss is one we all feel."

De Niro, who directed and starred in the 1993 film "A Bronx Tale," cast a previously unknown 17-year-old Brancato to play his son.

Brancato used his role in the movie to woo Yonkers beauty Stefanie Armento - the daughter of his .accused murder accomplice Steven Armento, her mother told the Daily News.

"He would tell her, 'I was in "A Bronx Tale." I can show you what life is like,' " said Donna Nelson, Stefanie's mother and Steven Armento's ex-wife.

"She can't help but be in love with him."

But the Fordham University premed student soon realized Brancato was slipping into a life of drugs and broke up with him after six months, Nelson said.

Brancato, however, apparently wouldn't take "no" for an answer. Stefanie Armento, 20, changed her cell phone three times amid his persistence, the mom said.

Last week, he threw a lighted cigarette in Stephanie's face, the mother added. Despite the turmoil, Steven Armento, 48, remained buddies with the actor. "Steven and Lillo were two of a kind with partying and drugs," Nelson said.

Brancato, born in Colombia but adopted and raised by Italian-American parents in Yonkers, had been in a heroin spiral for the past four years, to the dismay of his family, sources said.

In one of his last acting gigs, Brancato played former U.S. Senate candidate Rick Lazio in a 2001 "Inner Circle" City Hall press spoof with Giuliani.

"At the time, obviously we had no idea he would be accused of such a horrendous crime," said Giuliani spokesman Sunny Mindel. "The mayor extends his sympathy to Officer Enchautegui's entire family. The city has lost a fine officer."

Friends said Brancato had been planning to enter a drug treatment program this week - and then move to Los .Angeles to focus on his acting career.

Family members said cops wouldn't let them see the actor at the hospital. "They should at least let my parents in there," Brancato's brother Vincent said. "God forbid he dies."

With William Sherman and Jess Wisloski

**Yanick** · 12-12-2005, 07:42 PM

Put Em In The Bachroom!

**Mudge** · 12-12-2005, 07:58 PM

Lame ass.

**MyK** · 12-12-2005, 08:39 PM

thats why heroin is soooo good!

**cappo5150** · 12-12-2005, 09:53 PM

what a tool.

**TJ Cline** · 12-13-2005, 09:36 AM

heroin is that good

**Tough Old Man** · 12-13-2005, 12:41 PM

I'll stick with Test

**silencer** · 12-13-2005, 01:10 PM

People like him just piss me off, Given Everything on a Silver platter, I mean FFS, adopted from a country where it's most likely his life wouldn't have been too great, then he's Picked outta nowhere with no acting skills to play a LEAD ROLE in a Robert Dinero Film and therefore given the opportunity of a life time to be a high Paid Actor and make millions from then on...and this is what the prick does...fucking loser.

**Burner02** · 12-13-2005, 02:27 PM

Originally Posted by silencer

fucking loser.

pretty much sums it up....

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