CAREER

Assante entered the American Academy of Dramatic Arts at the age of seventeen where he won the Jehlinger Award for Best Actor in 1969, making his professional theatre debut that same year opposite Imogene Coca in ‘Why I Went Crazy’ under the direction of Joshua Logan.

He spent ten years in the theater before his film debut in 1977, remaining a devoted student of Mira Rostova in New York for twenty five years. He mentored with Cliff Osmond with whom he developed roles and scripts for twenty years subsequently. He played the main stage of almost every regional theatre on the East Coast since he was nineteen years of age for the first ten years of his career.

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During the 1970s, Assante was a regular on two NBC soap operas, How to Survive a Marriage as Johnny McGee and The Doctors as Dr. Mike Powers. His first film was The Lords of Flatbush (1974), although his work did not appear in the final cut of the film and the end credits misspelled his last name as Assanti. His first on-screen role was playing Sylvester Stallone's brother in Paradise Alley and a role that brought him greater attention came in 1980's Private Benjamin as a handsome Frenchman who becomes the love interest of a U.S. soldier played by Goldie Hawn.

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Assante's somewhat sinister look has made him a popular choice for tough-guy heroes, as in his acclaimed starring role as private eye Mike Hammer in the film I, the Jury (1982) or as Mafia gangsters such as Michael Moretti in Sidney Sheldon's Rage of Angels. In 1990 his role as Roberto Texador in Sidney Lumet's film Q&A garnered him a Golden Globe nomination, and the following year he portrayed the notorious Bugsy Siegel in Neil Simon's The Marrying Man (1991). The following year he was seen as mafia boss Carol D'Allesandro in Hoffa (1992) starring Jack Nicholson. 

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In addition to mafia and "tough-guy" roles, Assante has distinguished himself in historical dramas, such as Napoleon Bonaparte in 1987's Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story opposite Jacqueline Bisset, Nietzsche in the film adaptation of Irving Yalom's novel When Nietzsche Wept, and as Sanchez, Queen Isabella's Minister of State, in 1492: Conquest of Paradise.

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Earning consistent international recognition for work in many diverse feature films in 2007 Ridley Scott’ Directed him again “American Gangster” in New York, opposite Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. He starred as musician Cesar Castillo in Arne Glimcher’s ‘The Mambo Kings’ the American debut of Antonio Banderas, was suspected in the death of Jimmy Hoffa in Danny DeVito’s ‘Hoffa’ with Jack Nicholson, and he received a Golden Globe Nomination for his work in Sidney Lumet’s ‘Q & A’ In 1986 he received the Special Jury Prize at the USA Film Festival for the title role in ‘Belizaire, The Cajun’ one of the very first Independent Films under the banner of Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival. Additional feature film credits include, ‘Paradise Alley’, ‘Little Darlings’, ‘Private Benjamin’, ‘I, The Jury’, ‘Unfaithfully Yours', ‘The Penitent’, ‘Fatal Instinct’, ‘Trial By Jury’, ‘Judge Dredd’ and many independents internationally.
His recurring guest star role in several episodes of NCIS, playing the international arms dealer René Benoit reminded International Audiences of  his range.

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Internationally he has received no less than twelve Lifetime Achievement Awards in the past ten years retaining an enormous global following and has worked and travelled throughout the entire Russian Federation over the span of twenty five years.

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He is the Writer, Producer Director of an Award winning 20 minute documentary ‘Dialogue from the Steppes’ which was honored in Belarus at the Listapad Film Festival, it’s story of Kazakhstan enduring 469 Nuclear detonations by the former Soviet Union from 1949-1989 and in that same Year of 1989, President Nazarbaev giving up the fourth largest nuclear Arsenal in the world.

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In 2017 he received the Kineo Diamanti Award at the Venice Film festival for his active participation for a documentary on the pre renaissance astronomer from Uzbekistan ‘Ulu Begh’.

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He was recruited to head the Jury of Ukraine’s Moldoist Film Festival in 2009 and as well the Actor two years ago was honored by Moscow Roskino’s ‘Cinema Without Borders’ by Film Critic Katya Mtsituridze who invited him to helm a ‘Master Class’ which drew great appreciation in Moscow in December of 2019.

He is currently Filming in Europe tales of ‘Mister Mayfair,’ the Safe Cracker Extraordinaire who flees New York to helm the hottest Club in London and finds himself surrounded by the elite, the beautiful, his favorite songs and dance, and the notorious past that crashes all hope for equilibrium. 

His leading participation in the Film "The Wanderers, Quest of the Demon Hunter", in 2018 with Romanian Comedy Director Dragos Buliga's first film has received "Best Dramatic Feature" at The Philip K. Dick Film Festival in New York. 

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It has earned him Best Actor as well as Best Film at the Unreal Festival in Memphis, Tennessee, The Dracula Festival In Brasov, Romania and opening the Garden State Film Festival in March of 2018, he was awarded Most Valuable Player and the film, Best Feature Film in the Horror Genre.

PERSONAL LIFE - HUMANITARIAN ACTIONS

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Beginning in 1990 Armand Assante became a landmine removal activist which he has always credited to landmine survivors Jerry White and Ken Rutherford who founded Landmine Survivors Network in Washington D.C. as well as his Mother, paralyzed from the neck down with Polio the night the Actor was born. Along with his Father and Sisters, he had a palpable introduction to the meaning of physical rehabilitation, further sensitized by New York rehabilitation centers during the fifties.

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On his second trip to Croatia after before and post 9/11 Assante contributed personally and raised financing for Doking Engineering, a firm specializing in the removal and detonation of landmines. He has actually been on landmine sites in Croatia with Slavko Majetic, the head of Doking Engineering, twice in 2000 and

2001. By raising a small fund he created immediate international assistance that addressed the landmine sweep in Croatia dramatically. He has been a guest of Croatia no less than twenty times in the past twenty years.

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He had also been an active promotional member of Landmine Survivors Network, which is a data based communications group that specializes in the immediate rehabilitation and medical assistance for landmine victims globally. LSN is based in Washington, D.C. and was founded by landmine survivors Jerry White and Ken Rutherford. Armand’s website www.armandassante.net includes information on how contributions can be made to these two outstanding organizations. ( see Reel )

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During the production of ‘Blind Dragon’, a documentary he has written and directed on the global landmine crisis, Armand in the winter of 2003 in Africa, was forced to stop filming, before entering Angola, the budget threatened by embezzlement in that country.

The Actor in 1988 worked alongside legendary Homelessness Activist Mitch Snyder ( 1943 - 1990 ) in both New York and Washington D.C..

The Actor has demonstrated that his personal strength in the few issues and institutions he has contested legally and publicly was revealed only through direct action.

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Though he has traversed the globe many times he still resides on a 223 Acre ranch one hour North of Manhattan for thirty eight years where he has raised Horses, Dogs, Bulls, as well as Trees. He attributes his happiness to his Family and to a personal philosophy of silence.

Received in April of 2018 from Michel Adams' Fashion TV Global, Career Achievement Award at House of Parliament Bucharest, Romania

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