He’s one of cinema’s biggest acting talents, but how tall is Joe Pesci? The New Jersey-born Joe Pesci nabbed his first credited movie role in low-budget crime flick The Death Collector. Released in 1976, the film co-starred Frank Vincent and gave Pesci a starring role as Jerry Bolanti – a small-time crook and ex-con who starts working for the Mafia as a debt collector. His performance caught the eye of fellow actor Robert DeNiro and director Martin Scorsese, which led to his casting in Raging Bull and a fruitful partnership between the three that continues to this day.
Since Raging Bull came out in 1980, Joe Pesci has starred alongside Robert De Niro in a further three Scorsese movies – Goodfellas, Casino and The Irishman – and played real-life mobsters in all three. He's collaborated with De Niro in a handful of other, non-Scorsese projects too including the crime dramas Once Upon A Time In America, A Bronx Tale and spy film The Good Shephard, with the latter two also directed by De Niro.
Onscreen, Joe Pesci is often noticeably shorter than his co-stars but that doesn’t stop him from giving an intimidating performance as his Oscar-winning turn in Goodfellas as unhinged mafioso Tommy proved. Imposing presence or not, Pesci stands at just 5 foot 3 inches tall. For reference, that’s slightly taller than Kevin Hart’s height - who measures in at a little over 5 foot 2 inches - and a good 7 inches shorter than Pesci’s ex-girlfriend and model Angie Everhart, who is 5 foot 10 inches tall.
Pesci might be best known for his mobster movies, but he’s dabbled in other genres too. He showed off his comedic chops in My Cousin Vinny as cocky Brooklyn lawyer Vincent “Vinny” LaGuardia Gambini and in the Home Alone movies as Wet Bandit burglar Marv, alongside providing comic relief as Leo Getz in the Lethal Weapon franchise. He’s also impressed with non-gangster dramatic roles in the likes of JFK and With Honors.
Whether or not Pesci appears in any more movies remains to be seen. He largely retired from acting back in the late 1990s and has only filmed a handful of movies since, the most recent being Scorsese’s The Irishman. However, some MCU fans are gunning for him to join the cast of forthcoming Spider-Man movies as Peter Parker’s uncle and father figure Ben Parker. The fantasy casting would reunite Pesci with his My Cousin Vinny co-star Marisa Tomei, although that might require him to wear some Cuban heels as Spider-Man actor Tom Holland’s height is 5 foot 7 inches. Of course, it’s all just wishful thinking at the moment but perhaps a Joe Pesci-MCU mash-up isn’t totally beyond the realms of possibility.