Robert John Davi (born June 26, 1953) is an American actor, singer and filmmaker. Over the course of his acting career, Davi has performed in more than 130 films. Among his most known roles are opera-singing Jake Fratelli in The Goonies (1985), Vietnam veteran and FBI Special Agent Johnson in Die Hard (1988), James Bond villain Franz Sanchez in Licence to Kill (1989), police deputy chief Phil Heinemann in Predator 2 (1990) and strip club manager Al Torres in Showgirls (1995). On television, he portrayed FBI Special Agent Bailey Malone in the NBC television series Profiler (1996–2000).
Classically trained as a singer, Davi launched his professional singing career in 2011. His first album, Davi Sings Sinatra – On The Road To Romance, hit No. 6 on the Billboard jazz charts. Praised for his voice and vocal interpretations, Davi debuted as a headliner at The Venetian Las Vegas, six months after the record was released.
In 2016, Davi replaced Jerry Doyle as radio host for a nationally syndicated radio program on Talk Radio Network.
Early life
Davi was born in 1953, in Astoria, Queens, New York, the son of Maria () and Sal Davi. His mother was an Italian American whose family came from Nusco, Avellino, Campania and his father was from Torretta, Palermo, Sicily.
Davi spoke Italian during his childhood. He attended Seton Hall, a Roman Catholic high school in Patchogue, New York. He has two sisters, Yvonne Davi (deceased), and Michelle Queal. He graduated from Hofstra University, which he attended because of that university's strong drama department as well as its reproduction of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Davi studied with acting coach Stella Adler when he moved to Manhattan.
Film career
Acting career
Davi made his motion picture debut in Contract On Cherry Street, in which he shared the screen with Frank Sinatra. He has appeared in films including The Goonies, Die Hard, Showgirls, Son of the Pink Panther, and in the Bond film Licence to Kill (1989) as the villain Franz Sanchez, a South American drug lord and murderer. In 2014, Davi appeared as Goran Vata in The Expendables 3.
In 2015, Davi appeared in a music video for Bob Dylan's recording of "The Night They Called It A Day", from Dylan's album Shadows In The Night, a selection of songs which had been recorded by Frank Sinatra. Rolling Stone suggested that Davi's role in the video may be a nod towards Davi's having made his acting debut alongside Sinatra in the crime film Contract on Cherry Street, and Davi's release of his own album of Sinatra covers.
In 2015, he interpreted Gabriele Tinti's poetry giving voice to the Boxer at Rest at the Getty Museum.
Directing career
In 2007, Davi made his directorial debut with The Dukes, a parable regarding the mid-2000 economic crisis and its impact. The film starred himself, Chazz Palminteri, and Peter Bogdanovich. The Dukes was selected for the premiere section at the Rome Film Festival, along with films by Francis Ford Coppola, Sean Penn, Robert Redford, and Sidney Lumet. Davi was the only first-time director in the premiere section. The film was screened internationally and won awards at Queens International Film Festival, , Monte-Carlo Comedy Film Festiva and the Festival international du film de comédie de l'Alpe d'Huez.
Davi directed his third film, My Son Hunter, it was released on September 7, 2022.
Recording career
In high school, Davi was praised for his singing, and auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera after being awarded first place at the prestigious New York State School Music Association's Solo Competition, where he sang Vincent Youman's "Without A Song". He subsequently received classical training with top vocal teachers, Samuel Margolis and Danial Ferro of Juilliard and Tito Gobbi. Davi damaged his voice, and later explained that he was a baritone with the "heart of a tenor and had pushed too hard, too early."
Davi began to focus again on singing in 2011, and worked with "Voice Builder" Gary Catona as he prepared to record his first children's album.
With a thirty-piece orchestra, he recorded the album at the Capitol Records Building in Hollywood, where Frank Sinatra recorded on many occasions.