Rocco Olivo

Rocco Olivo was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 18, 1928. His parents Vita Maria Cimmarusti and Biagio Olivo were from a small town in Italy called Valenzano which is in the province of Bari. The son of Vita Maria and Biagio was the second of five children. Their first child who was named Rocco passed away at 1 year old after receiving an immunization shot which killed 13 other children from the same town. Later that year Vita Maria and Biagio suffering the loss of their first child decided to move to The United States and settle in Chicago where Rocco who was named after his brother was born. They did not settle for very long. Due to the depression and increased violence in the streets of Chicago, Vita Maria and Biagio did not feel it was a good place to raise a child so they moved back to Valenzano, Italy. Because the economy in Italy was not very stable Biagio would be forced to find work in The United States while his family remained in Italy. For many years Biagio traveled back and forth from the United States to work and back to Italy to reunite with his family. At times Biagio would be gone for two or more years at a time. Consequently the reunions with his wife Vita Maria always produced a new sibling for Rocco. For the next several years Rocco would welcome his sisters Giacomina, Maria and his baby brother Vito into the world. In 1939 soon after Vito was born, Italy entered the war. His father got aboard the last ship leaving for the United States and headed back to find work. Rocco remembers the war bulletins describing the action of the Italian army in Albania, Greece, Yugoslavia, North Africa, Russia, the air raids, the German occupation after the Italian surrender and the liberation by the British and American troops. As a young boy while all that was occurring Rocco became acquainted with a teacher of languages by the name of Professore Leopoldo while attending school at the Church of San Rocco. The professor who played the church organ and organized staged acting and religious dramas for the local community saw that the young boy was thrilled and excited about the theater and encouraged young Rocco to participate in local performances. Rocco knew he found something of great interest that he could pursue the rest of his life. A year after the war ended in 1945, Rocco's father Biagio who was still living in America and Vita Maria decided to move the family to Torino, Italy where some of her relatives lived. In Torino Vita Maria was able to buy a new house and opened a grocery store with the money she had saved. During this time Rocco was drafted into the Italian army. He served 11 months in the city of Montorio Veronese (a small town near Verona). In a short time Rocco went from being a soldier to a trainer and drill instructor were he instructed soldiers on how to operate military equipment and weapons. On his days off Rocco would go to watch the opera at The Arena of Verona and on occasion being a history aficionado, would tour Verona. He even visited the graves of the real Romeo and Juliet that William Shakespeare wrote about hundreds of years before. After his stint in the army, then aged 18, he decided to go to college. Rocco's talent was immediately recognized at the University of Torino and with the help of his fellow students organized a theater group and performed several plays by Carlo Goldoni, Giovanni Verga, Peppino and Eduardo De Fillippo, Anton Checkhov and many other novelist and dramatists. The group gained enough attention to catch the eye of a city official in the cultural department of Torino who wanted Rocco's troop to be the first to reopen the prestigious "Teatro Gobetti". The theater was reduced to rubble and in need of much repair as a result of the war. The theater reopened with Rocco's group performing to flocks of people eager to enjoy the theater after years of oppression. Rocco's performance was said to bring tears to the eye of his father who was back from the United States. The success of Rocco and his theatrical group allowed them to travel and extend their shows to neighboring towns. One of the group's highlights was being able to perform and be directed by Silvio D'Amico of the Academy of Roma, who was one of the premier acting teachers and directors in all of Rome. In 1965 Rocco and his family lost their beloved husband and father, Biagio Olivo who suffered a stroke. In an effort to help support his family after his father's death Rocco took a job with the FIAT auto industry during the day while continuing to perform with his theatrical troop at night. A couple years later in 1967 his mother decided to move to Chicago where all the Olivo children had moved. Rocco remained in Italy for a short time but then decided to go and be with his family in The United States. Over the course of a couple years Rocco and the entire family who had started families of their own all migrated to California. Now at the age of 39 he found himself in Los Angeles. He continued his dream of performing Italian plays by founding the "Teatro D'Arte Italiano". Rocco met professor Anna Seldis who was teaching Italian at Northridge University. Prof. Seldis believed that the best results in teaching the Italian language would be obtained combining the use of the didactical system with assistance of the theater performing Italian plays. Rocco who became enthusiastic about Prof. Seldis' concept teamed up with her and performed "La Giara" by Luigi Pirandello that was performed at Cal State University Northridge. The success of that production led to a tour of performances at local schools like Santa Monica High School, Chatsworth High School, El Camino College and UCLA. The buzz of this educational experiment caught the attention of Fr. Luigi Donazan (a priest at St Peters Italian Church) who requested that Rocco and his group perform at the Casa Italiana in Downtown Los Angeles where the theatrical group would find a home to perform its plays for the next several years. It was at the Casa Italiana were Rocco met his soon to be wife Maria A. Ferrari who joined the group in 1974. They were married in Los Angeles that same year and on March 5th, 1975 Daniel Joseph Olivo was born. A few years later in November 21st 1978, Rocco Biagio Donato Olivo Jr. was born. Both Daniel and Rocco Jr. have followed in there fathers footsteps. Daniel now 31, starting working as an actor from the time he was born and even did several plays with his father, mother and brother and today is pursuing an acting and singing career while taken classes with the renowned Milton Katselas at The Beverly Hills Playhouse. He has appeared and worked in film, television, theater and has sung on radio stations all over Los Angeles and is continuing to work in the industry. Rocco Jr. now 27 also worked as a child actor in film, television, and theater and began singing lessons with Maestro Giovanni Zavatti. Rocco Jr. recently graduated with a business degree from the University of Pepperdine in Malibu, California. and now has started his own successful business in the real estate and mortgages industry and has two offices in Pasadena. Rocco and Maria's efforts with "Teatro D' Arte Italiano" have produced years of wonderful plays, benefits and cultural events for the Italian community in Los Angeles. Having performed such countless plays at The Casa Italiana such as Luigi Pirandello's: "La Giara", "L'Uomo dal Fiore in Bocca", "La Licenza", Giovanni Vergas's: "Caccia al Lupo", "La Lupa", Eduardo de Filippo's: "Filumena Marturano", "Pericolosamente" and Peppino De Filippo's: "Don Raffaele" "Il Trombone". The attention from the Italian community about Rocco's theater group caught the eyes of Gene Dynarski and Robert Burgos, a producer and director who were going to do a production of "The Girl on the Via Flaminia" and wanted Rocco to desperately star as Ugo. Rocco gladly accepted and starred opposite Sean Penn and Meg Tilly in 1980. Rocco and Sean became close friends and Rocco even befriended Sean's father Leo, a famous actor and television director in his own right who asked Rocco to play a role in the television series "Mike Hammer" where he performed a very funny opposite the shows star Stacy Keach. In the early 1980s the region of Italy surrounding Naples suffered an earthquake. Rocco gathered his troop of actors to perform a series of shows with all the proceeds going towards the Earthquake relief efforts. Then in 1984, in an order to promote culture in the Los Angeles community during The Olympic Games, Rocco was asked to direct and star in a production of Luigi Pirandello's "La Giara" where he won an award for the 'Best Foreign Language Play from the City of Los Angeles'. In 1987 he received rave reviews from various Los Angeles Theatre Critics for his performance as Tomaso in Preston' Sturges's "Strictly Dishonorable". In a pursuit of promoting Italian culture all over Los Angeles Rocco and Maria for two years had a radio program in Italian for KFOX FM called "Italia-Italia" between 1987 and 1988. In 1997 he had an opportunity to help a friend Rino Piccolo from Naples to produce an evening to honor the works of Franco Zeffirelli at UCLA where a selection of his movies were shown and a question and answer session was held regarding the famous directors works. Rocco and Rino were both honored that evening with an award presented by the famous singer Tony Renis for their efforts. Rocco has been busy working in the entertainment industry since coming over from Italy in 1967. Most recently he co-stared with Paul Sorvino and Ellen Bernstein in an episode of a television series called "That's Life". A year later he starred opposite Talia Shire, Burt Young and Alyssa Milano in a movie called "Kiss the Bride". Rocco also co-starred in a production of "Idiot's Delight" directed by Anthony Caldarella who also wrote and directed a film in which Rocco appeared earlier called "My Brother Jack". Over the course of his career he has worked with many of Hollywood's most famous actors, directors, singers and producers including Francis Ford Coppola, Kevin Kline, Dolly Parton, Sylvester Stallone, Paul Riser, Billy Crystal, Tony Shaloub, Joseph Campanella, Anthony La Paglia, Joe Mantegna, Al Ruscio, Bruce Willis, Danny Aiello, Cybil Shepard, Tim Daily, Susan Lucci, Robert Loggia, Marco Leonardi, Freddy Rodriquez, Kevin Dillion, and producer Donald Bellisario. Most recently he began a mission to teach children about Italian literature and theater by producing and staring as Geppetto in a production of Pinocchio were children of the Los Angeles community were given a chance to act and learn about Italian literature. Rocco is also the co-founder of the Pugliese Association of Southern California and member of the Abruzzesi and Molisani Club and a former member of such organizations as UNICO of Los Angeles, the performing arts branch of The Sons of Italy, the Italian Catholic Federation of South Pasadena, the Federated Italo-Americano, and was the President of The Sons of Italy Los Angeles Lodge. Rocco and his wife Maria have been members of St. Peters Italian Church since 1974. Today Rocco, now 78 enjoys spending time with his friends, family and people of the Italian community and continues to work in the entertainment industry carrying forth his dream to promote Italian culture and history.