Brian Tarantina

A beloved cult presence on both the stage and screen, Brian Tarantina was born in New York in 1959. Taking an interest in performing at a young age, Tarantina enrolled at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in Manhattan. Intent on pursuing a career as a professional actor, he made his Broadway debut in 1983 in the original cast of "Angels Fall" at the Longacre Theatre. His screen debut came the following year with a role in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Cotton Club" (1984). He returned to Broadway the next year to take on the role of Roy Selfridge in Neil Simon's "Biloxi Blues," shortly before moving on to a different Broadway production, portraying Prick in "The Boys of Winter." Tarantina landed more film roles in the years to come, memorably appearing in the comedy "Uncle Buck" (1989), the psychological thriller "Jacob's Ladder" (1990), and the crime drama "Carlito's Way" (1993). He made his final Broadway appearance in 1995, co-starring in "Sacrilege." Tarantina went on to work with Spike Lee on the film "Summer of Sam" (1999) before taking on the recurring role of newsstand owner Bootsy on the series "Gilmore Girls" (WB, 2000-07). He later co-starred on the cult favorite series "The Black Donnellys" (NBC, 2007) and appeared in the big-budget action movie "Knight and Day" (2010). He reprised the role of Bootsy for the follow-up series "Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life" (Netflix, 2016) before working with the show's creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, once again, this time playing nightclub owner Jackie on the award-winning series "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (Amazon, 2017- ). Tarantina also re-teamed with Spike Lee when he took on a role in the director's acclaimed film "BlacKkKlansman" (2018). Tarintina's last film role was in the period crime drama "The Kitchen" (2019). He died in 2019 at the age of 60