Paroled Brancato Seeks Big-Screen Comeback
“I would say, ‘I warned you about drugs years ago’ — and told him something would happen and something did happen. I would see him and say, ‘I hear you’re doing drugs and you should stay away from that stuff.’ And he’d say, ‘Oh, sure, right.’ “You were there. You caused it. “Here’s a guy who was in the quintessential movie about not wasting your life and that’s exactly what he did,” — Chazz Palminteri when asked what he'd say to Lillo Brancato, an actor he has no plans to get in touch with. Lillo Branchato was led astray by drugs. It should have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity -- what is known in common parlance as "the big break." But for Lillo Brancato, Jr. (born March 30, 1976), the success of playing the lead role (Calogero Anello) in the film "A Bronx Tale" (1993), which marked the directorial debut of Robert De Niro, was so very fleeting in the end.