Ray Romano

Ray Romano (full name Raymond Albert Romano) is a beloved comedian and actor perhaps best known for his everyman humor and his iconic role as Ray Barone in Everybody Loves Raymond. But a lot happened to Ray Romano before then, and getting to sitcom stardom didn’t come without challenges and dedication.

A Queens-Born Boy

Ray Romano was born in Queens, New York, on December 21, 1957. He grew up in a close-knit Italian-American family that had a big influence on shaping his comedic work. His father, Albert Romano, was an engineer and real estate agent, and his mother, Luciana Fortini, a former piano teacher. She graduated from Forest Hills High School at 16 and dreamed of attending the Juilliard School of Music. Ray was the second of three boys. His older brother, Richard, was an NYPD police officer for 20 years before coming a teacher and a screenwriter. Ray’s younger brother, Robert, is a schoolteacher.

The Romanos owned a modest house on Nansen Street in Queens, and Ray attended Archbishop Molloy High School before transferring to Hillcrest High School. Romano graduated in the same class as Fran Drescher (1975), who would also go on to comedic fame, perhaps best known for her star role as Fran Fine in the sitcom The Nanny.

Romano didn’t run straight into showbiz, although he did perform in a comedy troupe at his church while he was still a student at Hillcrest High. He tried his luck studying accounting at Queens College and held a variety of jobs, including pumping gas as a gas jockey and working as a bank teller. Twice he was robbed at gunpoint—not as a bank teller but as a gas jockey.

“I like you guys. Don’t make me do anything,” Romano recalls the first robber saying as he pulled out a gun and pointed it at Romano and his coworkers. The young man was clean looking, and Romano didn’t see it coming.

“We like you too!” was the response from Romano and his coworkers. The man had the employees lie down on the garage floor, took their cash, and ran off.

The second robbery took place at night. Romano recalled a vehicle pulling up with someone sitting in the back, which seemed strange. The man said he wanted $3 of gas and asked Romano if he could give him change for a $10 bill. The gas jockeys weren’t supposed to give change past 10 p.m., but Romano agreed.

As he was pumping the gas, Romano heard the man yell “Yo!” and immediately thought, “Oh, what have I done?” Romano turned to see the man pointing a gun right at his stomach. “Empty our pockets,” the man commanded. Romano pulled out a large wad of cash, which the man told him to throw into the car.

“They thought they hit the jackpot,” he said, “but it was really $40 in singles.” After the second robbery, Romano’s parents told him that he couldn’t work at the gas station any longer.

How Ray Romano Met His Wife

Being a bank teller is a far cry from performing stand-up comedy, but without that odd job, Ray Romano would have never met his wife in 1983, fellow bank teller Anna Scarpulla. She later said that Ray “kept the job funny and fun.” Romano started to hone his craft in small comedy clubs around New York City.

Four years later in 1987, Ray Romano and Anna were married. Around this time, Romano decided to finally pursue stand-up comedy full time. His career had a good launch in 1989 when Romao competed in the Johnnie Walker Comedy Search, run by a Saturday Night Live producer. He soon found himself doing a bit on Johnny Carson’s The Tonight Show and then later on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Ray and Anna didn’t wait to start a family. Their first child, Alexandra Romano, was born in 1990, and after another three years, Anna announced that she was pregnant again, this time with twins (Gregory Romano and Matthew Romano).

“Anna called me after a sonogram,” Romano recalled, “and said, ‘Well, we’re having twins.’ I was like, ‘Come on!’ She said, ‘Yes. Twin girls.’ I tried to sound happy, going, ‘Oh. Good. Good.’ Finally she told me, ‘They’re boys, you jerk!’ That’s when I knew I loved her.”

The couple eventually had a fourth child, Joseph Romano.

Getting Fired into Success

Most people don’t know that Romano almost landed a main role on the 90s sitcom NewsRadio. But he was fired, and his part was eventually filled by Joe Rogan. Romano could’ve allowed that to become an emotional setback, but he barely skipped a beat. He found his footing in his “everyday” humor—family life, parenting, the struggles of being a regular guy in the world.

In fact, not getting the role on NewsRadio was ultimately a blessing in disguise. If he had retained that role, Everybody Loves Raymond probably would have been lost in the ether.

“I deserved to be fired,” Romano later said of the experience. “Even then I kind of knew I was out of my league. I wasn’t ready.”

David Letterman was impressed with Romano when the stand-up comedian appeared on The Late Show in 1995. In fact, Letterman was so enthralled with Romano’s comedy routine that he offered him a development deal with his production company, Worldwide Pants. This auspicious encounter eventually led to the creation of Everybody Loves Raymond, the sitcom that catapulted Romano to national comedic fame and made him the Godfather of sitcom.

“There are many things that got me to where I am,” Romano recalled, “but none more so than the five minutes I did on Letterman that night. … It changed my life. It changed my children’s life.”

Scissors, Pants, and David Letterman

That night on Letterman, the host was doing a bit about “summer-izing” pants—cutting pants into shorts. First he cut the pants of an audience member, then Paul Schaefer’s pants. Mel Gibson was the first guest of the night, and Letterman cut his pants. And then Letterman cut his own pants.

Backstage, Ray Romano was watching the strange scene and wondering if he should cut his own pants into shorts before walking onto the stage. “One of the producers came over with, like, scissors and says, “Well, you’ve got to go out—when they introduce you, you’ve got to go out with your pants cut.’

Romano was given the scissors, but holding them in his hand, he had second thoughts. “At the last second, I thought, ‘I’m not going to do it. I don’t want to assume I’m part of the clique.’ … It’s too presumptuous; it’s too whatever. So I decided not to.”

He went out with his pants intact and had “probably one of [his] best TV sets.” Despite others, including David Leterman, telling him that everything would’ve been fine if he had cut his pants, Romano wonders if doing so would have changed the way Letterman and the audience received him that night.

“When the last episode [of Everybody Loves Raymond] was airing, I appeared on Letterman that night,” he said. “And so to bring it full circle, I cut my pants into shorts on that episode.”

Everybody Loves Raymond: A Slice of Suburban New York Pie

Everybody Loves Raymond premiered as a CBS sitcom in 1996. The overarching storyline was built around an exaggerated version of Romano’s persona and his own family experiences with his parents, children, and siblings. Romano and Letterman were among the five executive producers for the show and worked with creator Phil Rosenthal to mold the characters inspired by Romano’s real-life family.

The show struck a chord with audiences, to say the least. It was praised for its outlandish yet authentic portrayal of family dynamics, such as intrusive parents/in-laws, jealous siblings, and everyday scenarios and conflicts that spark a disproportionate amount of anxiety.

In the show, Romano played Ray Barone, a sportswriter for Newsday who loves golf (just like Ray Romano). Many of the show’s episodes feature Ray dealing with his loving but exasperating parents and brother while also tending to his duties as a father and husband, all while managing neurotic tendencies.

Fellow co-stars Patricia Heaton, Brad Garrett, Peter Boyle, and Doris Roberts helped sell the concept and were every bit as important to the show’s dynamic as Romano. The entire cast was well balanced, with each main actor playing a vital role to the ebbs and flows of the Barone family.

Everybody Loves Raymond became one of the highest-rated shows on American television, and Ray Romano was praised not only for his performance, which got better and better as the television show progressed, but also for the relatability and honesty he brought to his role as a writer just trying to survive the chaos of family life. His portrayal of Ray Barone won him numerous accolades, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2002 and for Outstanding Comedy Series (as Producer) in 2003.

Life After Everybody Loves Raymond

Everybody Loves Raymond ran for nine seasons from September 1996 to May 2005. After the show ended, Ray Romano explored other creative avenues. He played a main role in Men of a Certain Age, a dramedy about middle-aged men facing the struggles of life. The show won a Peabody Award but was ultimately canceled after two seasons.

Ray Romano also took on more-dramatic roles, including a notable appearance as a corrupt lawyer in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and a recurring role in the acclaimed series Parenthood. These roles showcased Romano’s versatility as an actor, which surprised many who couldn’t see him as anyone other than Ray Barone.

Ray Romano Loves Golf?

The short answer is yes. Yes, very much.

As we said before, Ray Romano took a lot of inspiration from his own life to develop the character of Ray Barone. And Ray Barone’s love of golf is no different. Ray Romano is an avid golfer, and like the fictionalized version of himself, he loves to squeeze in a round whenever he can.

Romano began playing golf as a teenager at a pitch-and-putt course in Flushing Meadows, Queens. There he developed a deep love for the sport that has remained burning within him to this day. He’s now a member of the Lakeside Country Club in Los Angeles and can often be seen spending his downtime on the course.

But has he ever snuck out to play golf before or after filming? Of course! “Whenever I have an opportunity where my wife thinks I’m working, and I can sneak in a round of golf, I do it.”

After filming a quick scene in Sebastian Maniscalco’s The Bookie, it was 11 a.m. and Romano headed off to Lakeside.

“I do my little ritual where I put a number on the scorecard and I have to beat that number. It’s what I call a ‘mind bet,’ which is the absolute worst thing a golfer can do. … If I don’t beat that mind bet there are consequences, and they’re for real. Like, if I don’t beat the number, I can’t watch TV for two days. Or I can’t play golf for two days. … My mind bet [that day] was 87, and I shot a 92. Lost the bet.”

For Ray Romano, an ideal day starts with golf: “You go out, you play golf.” He even has a personal putting green in his house, because why not? When asked once in an interview about the strangest thing he has seen on a golf course, he said that one of his golfing buddies accidentally killed a seagull on a drive. “That was pretty crazy,” he recalled, “but it wasn’t the happiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

Romano never took formal golf lessons until he was older and admits that he developed some bad golfing habits because of that. But he’s known for being a dedicated golfer with a competitive spirit.

In 2010, Ray Romano took part in the second season of the Golf Channel’s The Haney Project, in which Hank Haney (former coach of Tiger Woods) helps celebrities and athletes improve their golf game.

Ray Romano: The Everyday Guy

Romano was just another Italian kid in Queens, but he pursued his dream and has been a household name for many years now. Romano has consistently drawn inspiration from his real-life experiences—experiences that are not unlike those of most of us. He achieved his humble success not by abandoning his roots or his normal life but by embracing these elements of his identity. Ray Romano’s work resonates with his fans because he has never elevated himself above others but has instead acknowledged that he is just a regular guy, a dad who just wants to get out of the house sometimes and play a round of golf.

Whether he’s cracking jokes about family life, acting in new dramatic roles, or hitting the golf course and saying “Come on!” after a few swings, Ray Romano remains grounded in the values and humor that first set him on his path.

Maybe not everybody loves Raymond, but we certainly do.