Actors - Vincent Gallo

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	Actors - Vincent Gallo

Vincent Gallo (born in Buffalo, New York on April 11, 1962) is an Italian American movie actor and director starring in a number of independent movies. Gallo is also a recognized painter, model, alternative musician, motorcycle racer and breakdancer.

Gallo is known for his outspoken and highly-quotable views and claims, once saying "I stopped painting in 1990 at the peak of my success just to deny people my beautiful paintings, and I did it out of spite". In 2003, he aggressively defended his conservative Republican politics to French journalists during the US invasion of Iraq.

On his personal website, as well as in several interviews, specifically a March 2002 interview with USA Today, Gallo claimed that certain races are "inferior" and defended such racist views on the basis that the darker the color of a person's skin, the less intelligent that person is. Many of his supporters state that such assertions are merely publicity stunts.

Modelling, Music and Film

Vincent Gallo has modelled for Calvin Klein, been photographed by Richard Avedon, and was in a rock band with Lukas Haas.

He has directed two films, Buffalo 66 and The Brown Bunny. The latter was controversial as it contained a scene in which actress Chloë Sevigny performs real fellatio on Gallo.

Music

Gallo formed his first musical group in 1971. This band was called The Blue Mood. He played bass guitar in this band and sang. From that time forward he has been involved with numerous music group that have embraced a number of musical styles. To date, he has released four albums, plus several singles.

Feud with Roger Ebert

A war of words erupted between Gallo and popular critic Roger Ebert in 2003 regarding the latter's negative criticism of The Brown Bunny at the Cannes Film Festival. Ebert wrote that The Brown Bunny was the worst film in the history of Cannes, and Gallo retorted by calling Ebert a "fat pig with the physique of a slave trader." Ebert then responded, paraphrasing a statement once made by Winston Churchill that "although I am fat, one day I will be thin, but Mr. Gallo will still have been the director of The Brown Bunny." Gallo then put a hex on Ebert's colon, cursing the critic with cancer. Roger Ebert then replied that he would rather watch the film of his colonoscopy than The Brown Bunny. Later on, Gallo told Ebert that he had been misquoted, and he had actually wished him cancer of the prostate and not the colon.

A shorter, re-edited version of the film played later in 2004 at the Toronto International Film Festival (although it still retained the controversial sex scene). While not receiving the highest praise, neither did it garner the same level of derision as the Cannes version, and on the August 28, 2004 episode of Ebert & Roeper, Roger Ebert gave the new version of the film a thumbs-up. In a column published at about the same time, Ebert reported that he and Gallo had made peace.

Ironically, the outrage and hysteria surrounding The Brown Bunny meant it ended up being the most talked-about film of the festival—even more so than the eventual Palme d'Or winner, Gus van Sant's Elephant, and Lars von Trier's highly anticipated Dogville—creating a mystique that some thought might enhance its likelihood of securing major U.S. distribution. This did not happen, however, and the $10 million film was a box office turkey, grossing less than $400,000 U.S. The film was not given wide release in North America, and was issued on DVD there in August 2005.

Website merchandise

Sperm

In early 2005, Gallo made a posting on his merchandise website offering his "disease-free" sperm for $1 million. Gallo, however, refused to sell it to anyone of "extremely dark complexion" and said "though a fan of Franco Harris, Derek Jeter, Lenny Kravitz and Lena Horne, Mr. Gallo does not want to be part of that type of integration." However, he offered discounts to blonde-haired, blue-eyed women or women with genealogical ties to "German soldiers of the mid-century." He was also open to Jewish women because he thought if his offspring became an actor, "this connection to the Jewish faith would guarantee his offspring a better chance at good reviews and maybe even a prize at the Sundance Film Festival or an Oscar." If fertilization was unsuccessful, Gallo said the purchaser had to pay for any additional attempts, but said he would "supply sperm for as many attempts as it takes to complete a successful fertilization and successful delivery." In addition, Gallo said he would impregnate through intercourse for an additional $500,000, but would waive the fee for anyone that he found attractive. Purchasers were not allowed to use his surname for their child.

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