Early life
Tomei, an Italian American, was born in Brooklyn, New York to Patricia, an English teacher, and Gary A. Tomei, a trial lawyer. She has a brother, Adam, and was partially raised by her paternal grandparents, Rita and Romeo Tomei. Tomei grew up in Midwood, a Jewish neighborhood. While there she became captivated by the Broadway shows that her theater-loving parents took her to, and became drawn to acting as a career. After graduating from Edward R. Murrow High School she attended Boston University for a year, then transferred to New York University in 1983 after landing a role in the soap opera As The World Turns. Soon after, she dropped out of school altogether as her career began to take off. She stated in a 2005 interview that she had aspirations to return to NYU in the near future to study civics.
Career
Tomei followed up As the World Turns in 1987 with a role on the sitcom A Different World. Her breakthrough performance came in My Cousin Vinny (1992), for which she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. After her Oscar win, she received a Screen Actor's Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Female Supporting Actor for Unhook the Stars. Next, got an American Comedy Award nomination for Funniest Supporting Actress for Slums of Beverly Hills. She was nominated for a Satellite Award as Best Supporting Actress for What Women Want.
She received a second Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress for In The Bedroom (2001). Tomei has also done substantial work in the theater, including taking lead roles on Broadway in Wait Until Dark (1998) and Salome (2003), and many Off-Broadway plays.
In 1996, Tomei made a guest appearance on the sitcom Seinfeld, playing herself in "The Cadillac, Part 1" and "2." She has also made an appearance on The Simpsons, as a movie star who falls in love with Ned Flanders. In 2005, Tomei featured in an ad campaign for Hanes with the slogan "Look who we've got our Hanes on now", featuring various other celebrities including Michael Jordan, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Damon Wayans, Matthew Perry and, on Spanish-language advertising, Aracely Arambula and Pablo Montero. In 2006, the campaign added Kevin Bacon and Christina Applegate to its lineup.
In 2006, Tomei had a recurring role on the TV series Rescue Me, playing Johnny's ex-wife Angie.
Personal life
In the early 1990s, Tomei dated Robert Downey, Jr. In 1999, she dated Dana Ashbrook and had a relationship with Frank Pugliese. She usually likes to keep her personal life away from the media. In 2005, she stated that she would like to return to NYU to study civics.
Oscar "mistake" myth
There is an urban legend that Tomei's Best Supporting Actress Oscar for My Cousin Vinny should have gone to one of the four other nominees in 1993 (Miranda Richardson, Joan Plowright, Judy Davis or Vanessa Redgrave) but that:
During the 'Oscar' ceremony, Jack Palance announced Tomei as best supporting actress winner, although actually there was another name on his note. The mistake was considered too embarrassing to correct.
This rumor was debunked by Snopes.[6] As the Academy has explained many times, two officials from the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse (now PricewaterhouseCoopers), the official tabulators of the Academy Award ballots, have been stationed in the wings at every Academy Awards ceremony since 1953 just in case such a situation should arise. If a wrong name were ever read, one of the officials would immediately step up to the podium and announce the correct winner.
