Joe Spano went to Bishop Riordan High School and graduated from University of California-Berkeley. His original intention was to be a pre-med major but this dissipated with his growing interest in acting. While he was in San Francisco, Spano worked with the improv group, The Wing. He made his acting debut at college in 1967 as Paris in a production of "Romeo and Juliet". In 1968 he helped found the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and appeared in its very first first production of "Woyzek." For 10 years he stayed with the company, appearing in many of its plays including "Hamlet" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Spano decided to give Hollywood a try in the late 1970s and, in between guest shots on TV, he earned roles as hoodlums and other assorted urban troublemakers in the films American Graffiti (1973) and The Enforcer (1976). He also played a vampire in the musical "Dracula: A Musical Nightmare" in a small LA theatre. Spano is married to Joan, who is a therapist. They have two adopted daughters, Liana Clare Xiaohe Zerrien Spano and Meili Qing Zerrien Spano.
In 1980, Joe Spano had his TV-movie debut playing in Fighting Back: The Rocky Bleir Story.
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Joe Spano played Bucky in the 2008 Rubicon Theatre Company production of R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe.
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In the early 1970's, Joe appeared nude in Oh, Calcutta.
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Joe is a founding and past board member of the Half the Sky Foundation.
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Joe married his wife, Joan Zerrien, on November 26, 1980.
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Joe is a member of the Antaeus Theater Company.
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Joe is a past Director and current email coordinator of the Southern California chapter of Families with Children from China.
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Joe is a member of Pacific Stages.
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Joe was awarded an LA Drama Critics Circle Award for his work in American Buffalo.
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In 1992, Joe made his debut in Arthur Miller's The Price.
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Joe's father is Vincent Dante, a physician, and his mother is Virginia Jean, a carpenter.
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Joe won the Best Guest Actor in a Drama Series Emmy award in 1988 for his performance in an episode of Midnight Caller.
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Joe had a small role in the 2007 movie Fracture.
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Joe has starred in 20 made for television movies.
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To date (February 07) Joe has appeared in 27 feature films.
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Joe Spano's credits are often confused with the those of Joseph Spano's. Joseph Spano is an Australian actor and the two are not related.
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Joe attended Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco.
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He was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Hill Street Blues (1981)
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He appeared in a TV commercial for Advil (1999)
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Joe: The real hopeful thing about theater and the arts in general is you take these painful experiences and you shape them, give them form - and people can experience them together. You come out of an experience like this not devastated, not demolished by it, but hopefully healed or having experienced a catharsis.
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Score: 9.1 Superb 23 votes
Score: 9.1 Superb 23 votes
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