Anthony LaPaglia was born on January 31^st 1959 in Adelaide, Australia to Italian/Dutch parents, one of three sons, Michael, Jonathon and Anthony, two of which would become Hollywood actors. Anthony’s educational years were spent at Rostrevor College, an all boys’ day and boarding school in Adelaide and is regarded as one of the strongest Australian Rules Football Colleges in South Australia. 

It was while at college that Anthony developed his skills as a goalkeeper in the National Soccer League playing for Adelaide City and West Adelaide. He later became part owner of Sydney Football Club. Since their inception in 2005 Anthony has been an avid fan and regularly commutes between Australia and America to watch them play. 

Anthony married another Australian actor, Gia Carides whom he met in 1994 and together they have one daughter, Bridget. 

Arriving in America with an Australian accent was to prove limiting in Anthony’s desire to make it big in the film business so he quickly went to work on developing an American accent to such a point that he no longer has a trace of his Aussie roots in his accent. 

Anthony is not the only member of the LaPaglia family to have made a mark in Hollywood. His younger brother, Jonathan is also an actor and has starred in the television series ‘The District’ where he played the role of Kevin Debreno along side Craig T Nelson. In Australia he qualified as a doctor but found the career frustrating and followed his brother Anthony to America to find his way in the field of acting. 

Anthony’s acting is not confined to the small screen. He landed a role in the 2002 blockbuster ‘Road to Perdition’ which starred Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Daniel Craig and Jude Law. 

Before his career really took off, in 1994 Anthony played a smaller role in the film of the book by John Grisham, ‘The Client’ with William H Macy, Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon. There have also been moments of humour in Anthony’s career when he appeared in eight episodes of Fraiser as Daphne Moon’s brother Simon, along with  David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Grammer. The role won him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. 

During the casting of ‘The Sopranos’ in 1999 Anthony was strongly considered for the role of Tony Soprano in the hit television series based around the family of  a New Jersey mafia boss, Tony. The part eventually went to James Gandolfini.

 Anthony’s best known character to date is probably FBI agent, Jack Malone in the television series ‘Without a Trace’ a role which won him a Golden Globe Award. His character in the series is a cool headed FBI agent working in the missing persons unit. He is riddled with guilt over his mother’s suicide when he was a child and deals with a contentious divorce and the loss of his two daughters in a custody battle followed by the death of his father from Alzheimer’s Disease. His fellow actors in the series include Australian born Poppy Montgomery and British import, Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste. 

In 2004 Anthony underwent a hip replacement operation after his years of playing soccer but it has no way impaired his love of, or the ability to participate in the game when he plays for the amateur team, Hollywood United where he is joined by French footballer, Frank Leboeuf, Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols and ex English footballer turned actor, Vinnie Jones. 

In 2006 Anthony loaned his voice to the Boss Skua in the movie ‘Happy Feet’ along with Nicole Kidman’s Norma Jean, Robin Williams’ Ramone/Lovelace and Elijah Wood’s Mumble. 

Anthony now lives in Santa Monica, California with his wife and daughter.