Tony Amendola was born (August 24th, 1951) in New Haven, Connecticut. His mother originates from the town of Amalfi in Italy. He was the first in his family to attend college and was set to become a lawyer, but his life went into a different direction and he ended up taking both pre-law courses and theatre classes. After graduating from Southern Connecticut State University in 1974, he studied and earned a Master of Fine Arts Degree in 1977 at Philadelphia's Temple University. In 1978, he moved to Los Angeles to find work in film and television.
Amendola is known for widely diverse roles such as the murderous drug dealer Santos Jimenez on Showtime's grisly drama Dexter, the long running role of Jaffa master Bra'tac in the science fiction series Stargate SG-1, Liber8 leader Kagame on the Syfy show Continuum, Geppetto/Marco in ABC's fantasy drama series Once Upon a Time and the Catholic priest Father Perez in the 2014 horror film Annabelle, a role he reprised for the 2019 film The Curse of La Llorona.
Amendola plays a Spanish magistrate in the 1998 swashbuckler film The Mask of Zorro and appeared as a distinct character in its 2005 sequel. He portrayed a Mexican marijuana farmer in the 2001 crime drama film Blow. His television appearances of note include roles on The X-Files, Seinfeld, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Angel, Alias, The Practice, Star Trek: Voyager and She-Wolf of London.
He also has a long history of stage performances and spent his first twelve years as an actor almost exclusively in the theatre. His theatre credits include Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, American Buffalo, Tupolski in The Pillowman, and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.
Amendola is also the voice actor for Khadgar, one of the central characters of the video-game World of Warcraft. In 2019, he voiced Jedi researcher Eno Cordova in the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Amendola currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Judith Marx. He is also fluent in Italian and Spanish.
Film Career:
- 1985 Maxie
- 1988 Wildfire
- 1989 The Revenge of Al Capone
- 1990 Dark Avenger
- 1991 The Borrower
- 1991 False Arrest
- 1992 Wishman
- 1993 The Hit List
- 1993 Three of Hearts
- 1994 The Cisco Kid
- 1995 Chameleon
- 1995 Follow the River
- 1996 Lone Star
- 1998 The Mask of Zorro
- 1999 Cradle Will Rock
- 1999 Crazy in Alabama
- 2001 Blow
- 2001 Megiddo: The Omega Code 2
- 2003 Shade
- 2004 Dragon Storm
- 2005 One More Round
- 2005 Crimson Force
- 2005 Pizza My Heart
- 2005 Forbidden Warrior
- 2005 The Legend of Zorro
- 2007 Read You Like a Book
- 2007 El Muerto
- 2008 The Warehouse Job
- 2009 The Obolus
- 2009 The Perfect Sleep
- 2011 Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
- 2011 Borderline Murder
- 2011 The Healer
- 2012 The Son of an Afghan Farmer
- 2014 Annabelle
- 2015 When Duty Calls
- 2015 Pizza with Bullets
- 2015 The Devil's Candy
- 2016 The Land Before Time: Journey of the Brave
- 2019 The Curse of La Llorona
- 2019 Santa Fake
Television Career:
- 1984 Partners in Crime
- 1988 L.A. Law
- 1989 Columbo
- 1991 She-Wolf of London
- 1993 Seinfeld
- 1995 Space: Above and Beyond
- 1996 Chicago Hope
- 1996 Kindred: The Embraced
- 1997 Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
- 1997–1999 Todd McFarlane's Spawn
- 1997–2003 The Practice
- 1997–2007 Stargate SG-1
- 1999 Babylon 5: Crusade
- 1999 Judging Amy
- 2000 Star Trek: Voyager
- 2000 The X-Files
- 2000 Angel
- 2000 Family Law
- 2001–2006 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
- 2002 Charmed
- 2002 Alias
- 2002 The West Wing
- 2006 General Hospital
- 2007 Dexter
- 2008 Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- 2008 Numb3rs
- 2009 CSI: NY
- 2009 Dollhouse
- 2011 NCIS: Los Angeles
- 2011–2018 Once Upon a Time
- 2012–2015 Continuum
- 2014 The Mentalist
- 2015 CSI: Cyber
- 2017 Castlevania
- 2017 Scandal
- 2017 Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
- 2017 Blacklist: Redemption
- 2018 Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure
