Boxing Danza was a
professional boxer with a record of 8 wins and 3 losses (8 knockouts, 6 in the first round). He competed from 1976 until 1979 in the
middleweight division. He then earned a spot on the television show
Taxi (1978-1983), playing a cab driver and part-time boxer Tony Banta, and later starred on ''
Who's the Boss?'' (1984–1992), in which he portrayed Tony Micelli, a former baseball player, housekeeper, and single father. For his contribution to the television industry, in 1988, Danza was honored with a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7000
Hollywood Boulevard. Danza's movie debut was in the comedy
The Hollywood Knights (1980), which was followed by
Going Ape! (1981),
Cannonball Run II (1984), and ''
She's Out of Control (1989). Later films included the role of Mel Clark, a baseball player, in Angels in the Outfield (1994), Juror No. 7 in the TV-movie 12 Angry Men (1997), and Fred in Crash'' (2004). Danza also starred in the short-lived sitcoms
Hudson Street (1995) and
The Tony Danza Show (1997), not to be confused with his 2004–2006 talk show,
The Tony Danza Show. He had a role in the TV drama
Family Law from 2000 until 2002. He was nominated for an
Emmy Award for a guest-starring 1998 role in the TV series
The Practice. He received critical acclaim for his performance in the 1999
Broadway revival of the
Eugene O'Neill play
The Iceman Cometh. In 2002, Danza released his debut album
The House I Live In as a 1950s-style
crooner. Danza hosted his own TV talk show,
The Tony Danza Show (2004-2006), that was produced each weekday morning in his hometown of New York and was
syndicated across the US. On May 9, 2005, during a
go-kart race with
NASCAR star
Rusty Wallace, who was a guest on the show, Danza's kart flipped after Wallace accidentally bumped him. Neither he nor Wallace was wearing a helmet at the time, and both were uninjured. Danza returned to go-kart racing on October 20, 2005, to challenge
IndyCar driver
Danica Patrick, but his brakes malfunctioned and he skidded into a wall, unharmed. His daytime talk show ended in May 2006; the last live episode aired on May 26, 2006. He starred on
Broadway as
Max Bialystock in
The Producers, from December 19, 2006, to March 11, 2007, and reprised his role at the
Paris Las Vegas from August 13, 2007, to February 9, 2008. Danza hosted the 4th season of
The Contender in 2008. A Broadway adaptation of the 1992 film
Honeymoon in Vegas opened on a pre-Broadway run at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse on September 26, 2013, co-starring Danza and Tony nominee
Rob McClure, with
Gary Griffin directing. Danza was inducted into the
Ride of Fame in December 2014, and the double-decker sightseeing bus commemorated his role in the Broadway musical. Danza portrayed Jon Martello Sr. in
Don Jon (2013). He also starred as Tony Caruso Sr. in the 2018 Netflix series
The Good Cop as "a disgraced, former NYPD officer who never followed the rules." It was canceled after one season.
Teaching During the 2009–2010 school year Danza filmed
A&E reality show
Teach: Tony Danza, in which he co-instructed a 10th grade English class at
Northeast High School in
Philadelphia. It premiered on October 1, 2010. The book ''I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had: My Year as a Rookie Teacher at Northeast High'' (), which was released in 2012, was based on his year of teaching.
Community Service Danza created an organization called
The Stars of Tomorrow Project. The organization introduces young adults to the borough of Manhattan in New York and a possible career in the arts. ==Personal life==