Growing up in an Italian-American neighborhood in the Corona section of Queens, Peter Gaudio lionized the actors who brought to the silver screen the wiseguys he knew in real life — the De Niros, Pacinos and Stallones who instilled in him a sense of pride for his heritage.
“You see them and you say to yourself, I have something inside of me that I need to get out and put on the big screen like they did,” said Gaudio, now of Douglaston, Queens, a longtime personal trainer and security professional who has steadily built his own Hollywood resume.
Gaudio, who trains clients out of the Engineers Country Club in Roslyn Harbor and Lift on Lumber Road, was in the opening scene of the 1993 film, “A Bronx Tale,” having been “personally selected by Mr. Robert De Niro himself,” he said, who made his directorial debut on the feature.
He is presently awaiting the May 28 release of the mobster flick, “Snitches,” playing a character named Benny Barone, stars in the off-Broadway play “Murdered By The Mob” and has filmed television pilots for the series “Take It Back” as well as the animated “Wiseguys and Whackjobs,” alongside Aerosmith guitar player Joe Perry and Vincent Curatola, from “The Sopranos.”
Gaudio is also at work on the upcoming boxing film “Back in the Day,” playing the “right-hand man,” he said, to Alec Baldwin’s character, Gino Fratelli.
Though Gaudio said he hopes the film might launch his film career, “Back in the Day” has been the cause of controversy for one of its other stars, Lillo Brancato, who also starred in “A Bronx Tale.”
Patrick Lynch, head of the New York City Police Department’s Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, has called for a boycott of the film because it stars Brancato, who starred as De Niro’s son Calogero in “A Bronx Tale” and served eight years in prison for his involvement in the 2005 shooting of NYPD officer Daniel Enchautegui.
“Danny’s loving sister cannot lay her head on a pillow or wake in the morning without the constant pain of her brother’s loss,” Lynch told the New York Daily News in late March.
“Back in the Day” was directed by Paul Borghese, written by William DeMeo and also stars Danny Glover, Michael Madsen and Shannen Doherty.
With a hulking physique, dark hair and tanned skin tone, Gaudio has taken on the appearance of the Mafioso he plays onscreen.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gaudio was part of Donald Trump’s private security team, and he’s worked as a fitness and bodybuilding professional to high-end clientele on the North Shore and elsewhere, having trained celebrities including CNBC analyst Gary Kaminsky and various adult film stars.
Those roles have served as the foundation for providing any and all acting opportunities, he said, to extend his life dreams and be a better father to his 10-year-old daughter, Petrina.
His ultimate acting goal is to someday have his own television show and inspire the Italian-American youth who watch him perform, just as he was once inspired by the Don Corleones and John Rambos of his boyhood.
“You go on an audition and you take what you learn from school and what you learn from the street and you bring it to life and always be in the moment,” he said. “Acting is reacting. It’s the moment.”
