Ken Wahl
| Ken Wahl | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Anthony Calzaretta February 14, 1957 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Years active | 1979–1996 |
| Spouse(s) |
Corinne Alphen (1984–1991) Lorrie Vidal (1993–1997) Shane Barbi (1997–present) |
Ken Wahl (born February 14, 1957) is an American film and television actor, popular in the 1980s and 1990s, best known for the CBS television crime drama Wiseguy. A severe injury in 1992 effectively ended his acting career. He is divorced from Corinne Alphen, and after a brief second marriage, he married Shane Barbi, in 1997. The two later became advocates against animal abuse and for veteran's rights.
All Movie Guide says Wahl was born Anthony Calzaretta on October 31, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois. However, a Newspaper Enterprise Association syndicated article in 1988, citing records checked by the CBS publicist for Wahl's television series Wiseguy, gave February 14, 1957, a date that corresponded with that of his high school graduation: "A call to Bremen High School in the Chicago suburb of Midlothian reveals Wahl graduated from there in June 1975, presumably at age 18."
Wahl himself is elusive about his personal life. Entertainment Weekly wrote in 2004,
The mystery surrounding Wahl goes all the way back to the beginning. Ken Wahl was born in Chicago on... well, no one quite knows when Wahl was born. Some reports say Halloween 1954, others say Valentine's Day 1956, but these reports seem to be attempts by the actor to stymie curiosity seekers. "There's a reason for that," Wahl states cryptically, "but I'm not gonna get into why." Oh, one other thing: Ken Wahl is not actually Ken Wahl. At least he wasn't when he was born. While he declines to disclose his birth name, he does say that the moniker he's gone by for the past 25 years is the name of the person who saved his father's life in the Korean War.
According to his official biography, he was born "in a tiny apartment on the south side of Chicago, in the late fifties, when a young couple welcomed ... their third child, Kenny." In the late 1960s, it continues, his "family of 8" moved to the New York City borough of The Bronx, where he attended junior high and, for a time, high school. The NEA article, however, says Wahl was the ninth of 11 children from a blue-collar German/Italian family and "attended different high schools as the family moved to the [Chicago] suburbs of Midlothian and Worth." According to Entertainment Weekly, Wahl played baseball, as a shortstop, in unspecified venues that might have included youth leagues and high school teams, before crashing a motorcycle and hurting his knee at age 16. His official biography says he then worked as a janitor while in high school and as a gas-station attendant at his family's service station. After graduating from Midlothian's Bremen High in 1975 or dropping out of high school, he left home, his bio says, "at the age of 18 ... in his ‘69 Dodge Dart" and crossed the United States working odd jobs. Eventually living in Los Angeles, he worked as an extra on movies including The Buddy Holly Story (1978). By 1981, Wahl's father had remarried, and in-between acting jobs Wahl stayed in Chicago with his father and stepmother or with his sister.
...
Wikipedia