Maspeth Resident Lands a Small Role in Big Film!
In August 2024 when my friend Donato Daddario, aka Danny, called me to say, “You’re never gonna believe what just happened to me!” I assumed he was going to tell me something about finding someone who was related to a major historical figure. Danny worked in The Cemetery of the Evergreens on the Brooklyn/Queens border for 37 years, from the time he was 17 years old, and over the years he became its historian, giving tours, contributing to the official book about Evergreen Cemetery, and finding graves of some amazing historical figures, from Bill “Bojangles” Robinson to a Titanic survivor.
I met Danny in 2011 when I was doing research for the upcoming 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911. There was a monument to the victims of the fire at the Evergreens Cemetery. When I got to the cemetery, I found Danny who took me to the monument, and that started a friendship that has lasted all these years.
So when Danny said he had something to tell me I wouldn’t believe, of course I was all ears. He told me he was just walking near his house on Flushing Avenue in Maspeth, doing some shopping with his brother, when he saw a woman walking around holding an I-pad up to random people’s faces.
She saw Danny and said, can I get video of you? So, he agreed and basically just said his name and where he lived and worked. The talent scout was taken by his ‘accent’ and commented on it, to which
Danny replied, it’s not an accent it’s just how I talk! Well, she heard and saw something that just might be what her boss was looking for so she took Danny’s number and said someone would call him, either way.
Well, a few days later Danny got a call from someone in casting and was told to go down to Prince Street to read for the part! There were about 3 lines, and maybe 5 other people there, but when it was his turn, they decided to film him in action, being confronted by a couple of thugs! The screen test went just how they’d hoped and a few weeks later Danny got the call.
Congratulations Mr. Daddario, you got the part of Cop #1 in the movie Marty Supreme!
The movie is set in the 1950s so Danny’s wardrobe is that of a beat cop from that period. He said most of his scenes were shot on Broome Street and are of he and his partner, Cop #2, looking for and chasing this Marty Supreme.
When Danny told me he got the part, I immediately thought of the title of the 1994 movie, It Could Happen to You. Danny has since joined the Screen Actors Union, a.k.a. SAG and hopes to find more work acting. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!
The movie features Timothee Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow among some other well-known actors, and comes out in theaters on Christmas Day, 2025.
