Chick Vennera

One of the last alumni of the late, lamented Pasadena Playhouse, actor Chick Vennera made his first off-Broadway appearance in Jockeys, for which he won the Theatre World Award. Nearly always cast in ethnic parts in films, Vennera's most notable movie assignment was director Robert Redford's The Milagro Beanfield War (1988). He was cast as poverty-stricken Joe Mondragon, whose reluctance to sell his small patch of land to avaricious developers served as launching pad for the film's storyline. A few years earlier, Vennera was seen as Raoul the butler in the satirical TV sitcom Hail to the Chief. A busy cartoon voice-over artist, Chick Vennera can be heard as the Joe Pesci -like Pesty Pigeon in the "Goodfeathers" segments on the daily TVer Animaniacs.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide