Antonio 'Tony' Rosato (born December 26, 1954 - January 10, 2017) was an Italian-Canadian actor and comedian. He was born in Naples, but his family moved to Canada when he was 4.
An alumnus of the renowned Second City comedy troupe in Toronto, Tony Rosato is best known appearing as a cast member on both SCTV and Saturday Night Live. He joined the former show during its third and final season in 1980, where his most iconic character was the notoriously drunk TV chef Marcello Sebastiani. He joined the latter series for its 1981-1982 season, but only stayed on for a single season due to differences with executive producer Dick Ebersol and an expired contract. He has gone down as the only SNL and SCTV actor not to be born in either Canada or the United States, as well as one of only three SCTV actors to appear on SNL, alongside Robin Duke and Martin Short. And despite his short tenures on those shows, he proved memorable with such iconic characters as Captain Kangaroo, as well as excellent impressions of celebrities like Ed Asner and Lou Costello.
Outside of SCTV and SNL, Tony Rosato made quite a number of appearances on scripted film and television. In particular, he had a decent career in voice acting, most notably succeeding Danny Wells as the voice of Luigi in the Super Mario Bros. (DiC) cartoons, as well as voicing Dario Rosso and the titular creature of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.
Tony Rosato was married to Leah Murray and they had one child. Sadly, their relationship was marred with all kinds of troubles caused by Rosato suffering from deteriorating mental health that threatened the safety of his wife and daughter. He was arrested on May 5, 2005, and spent some time in prison after refusing to plead insanity. The couple divorced in 2010. Despite the legal troubles, he did manage to find work afterwards.
Tony Rosato died in 2017 at the age of 62 from a heart attack. Saturday Night Live paid tribute to him at the end of its January 14, 2017 episode. Additionally, a reanimated collaboration video of the now-memetic Super Mario World episode "Mama Luigi" uploaded onto YouTube on August 29, 2017 was dedicated to him, as well as King Koopa's voice actor Harvey Atkin (who died July 17, 2017).
Filmography
Anime Roles
- Bakugan as Dharak and Dreadeon
Film Roles
- The Silent Partner as Person Standing Outside Bank Door (Uncredited Role)
- Running as Italian Athlete
- Nothing Personal as Pickup Truck Driver
- Hog Wild as Bull
- Improper Channels as Dr. Arpenthaler
- Utilities as Wendell
- Shellgame as Chuck (TV Movie)
- Separate Vacations as Harry Blender
- Busted Up as Irving Drayton
- Popeye Doyle as Wise-Ass Reporter
- Courage as Jellybean Pastori
- Perry Mason The Case Of The Shooting Star as Joe DeVito (TV Movie, uncredited)
- One Police Plaza as Sol (TV Movie)
- Hands Of A Stranger as Anthony Ligouri (TV Movie)
- Nightstick as Tony (TV Movie)
- Sadie And Son as Morris (TV Movie)
- Hearts Of Fire as Woody
- City Of Shadows as Rosie
- Switching Channels as Joker
- Brown Bread Sandwiches as Older Michaelangelo Buonanotte (voice)
- Friends Lovers And Lunatics as Mat's Boss
- In Defense Of A Married Man as Frank Ticelli
- Mystery Date (1991) as Sharpie
- The Diamond Fleece as Cliff Vahrenhorst
- The Good Fight 1992 as Philip Brown
- Rent A Kid as Cliff Haber
- Family Plan as Cliff Haber
- The Conspiracy Of Fear as Raintree
- Sugartime as Frank Ferraro
- Kissinger And Nixon as Charles Colson
- The Haunting Of Lisa as Dr. Perry Azzaro
- Seeds Of Doubt as Nick Brand
- In The Doghouse as Tom Cheehak
- Coming Unglued as Marty
- You Belong To Me as Ernie
- Mafia Doctor as Det. Ralph Disanti
- Real Gangsters as Mario
- It Was You Charlie as Gus
- The Christmas Switch as Salesman
- The Big Fat Stone as Morrie Goldstein
- The Deposit as Det. Tony Charkoff
- Sicilian Vampire as Maitre D' at Don Giovanni's
- The Red Maple Leaf as Vincent Marcela
- Born Dead as Satana
Live-Action TV Roles
- SCTV as various characters
- The Littlest Hobo as Cab Driver and Samuels (2 episodes)
- King of Kensington as Joe Cartino (1 episode)
- Saturday Night Live as various characters
- Amandas as Aldo
- Night Heat as Arthur 'Whitey' Morelli
- Seeing Things as Terry (1 episode)
- Hangin In as Frank/Berry (2 episodes)
- Diamonds as Lt. Lou Gianetti (3 episodes)
- Maniac Mansion as Tony (1 episode)
- Wiseguy as Carlos Verduga (1 episode)
- Tropical Heat as Malto (1 episode)
- Street Legal as Phil Jacobs (3 episodes)
- L.A. Law as Richard Cruz (1 episode)
- Secret Service as Blake (1 episode)
- RoboCop: The Series as Kevin Frosh (1 episode)
- Lonesome Dove The Series as Prisoner (1 episode)
- Highlander as Benny Carbassa (1 episode)
- The Great Defender 1995 as Murray (1 episode)
- Due South as Clifford (1 episode)
- F/X: The Series as Sammy Valenzuela (1 episode)
- Eerie, Indiana as Armand Tempus (1 episode)
- Relic Hunter as Stewie Harper (3 episodes)
- Hollywood Off Ramp as Ben Harvey (1 episode)
- Mentors as Casanova (1 episode)
- Doc as Don and Jake (2 episodes)
- Lucky as Tony (1 episode)
- Odd Squad as Sabatino Confalone (2 episodes)
Video Game Roles
- Resident Evil 3: Nemesis as Dario Rosso and Nemesis
Western Animation Roles
- The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 as Luigi
- Super Mario World as Luigi
- Mythic Warriors: Guardians of the Legend as Orpheus
- George and Martha as Duke
- Pelswick as Quentin Eggert
- The Ripping Friends as Minister of War (1 episode)
- Odd Job Jack as Sheriff Ironsides (1 episode)
- Monster By Mistake as Tom Patterson
- Da Boom Crew as Namdra
- 6teen as Zane (1 episode)
- Get Ed as Crouch
- Detentionaire as Alfred Ping
Writer
- SCTV (26 episodes)
- Saturday Night Live (21 episodes)
- The Under Achievers
