His work in the second film was seen by Robert De Niro, who convinced director Martin Scorsese to cast him as Joey LaMotta in the epic boxing film Raging Bull (1980), which really got him noticed in Hollywood. Pesci's first film role was as an uncredited dancer in Hey, Let's Twist! (1961) and then he had to wait another 15 years for a minor role in The Death Collector (1976).
He even joined with his friend Frank Vincent to start a vaudeville-style comedy act, but met with limited success (interestingly, Pesci and Vincent would later go on to co-star in several gangster films together, including Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995). In the mid-1960s, he released a record under the stage name Joe Ritchie titled 'Little Joe Sure Can Sing', and was also playing guitar with several bands, including Joey Dee and The Starliters. Pesci first broke into entertainment as a child actor, and by the mid-1950s, was starring on the series 'Star Time Kids'.
Compact Italian-American actor Joe Pesci was born Februin Newark, New Jersey, to Mary (Mesce), a part-time barber, and Angelo Pesci, a bartender and forklift driver.
