Charles Alfred Zito Jr. (born March 1, 1953) is an American actor, stuntman, celebrity bodyguard, and former outlaw biker. Zito was a member of the Hells Angels for 25 years and served as vice president of the New York City charter and president of the New York Nomads chapter. After entering Hollywood as a celebrity bodyguard, Zito was a film stuntman before finding a breakout acting role as mobster Chucky "the Enforcer" Pancamo on the HBO television series Oz (1997–2003), which he played for five seasons. He followed this up with numerous other "tough guy" roles, such as in Sons of Anarchy (2012). Zito has also been a ringside boxing reporter, professional wrestling manager, and radio personality.
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Early life
Zito was born in the Bronx, New York City, the second of three children of Charles Zito Sr. and Gloria Frangione. His grandparents were Italian immigrants to the United States. Zito was raised in the Bronx and New Rochelle. The son of a professional welterweight boxer, Zito was taught at an early age how to fight and defend himself. His father boxed under the ring name Al LaBarba and fought in 228 professional matches. At the age of seventeen, Zito dropped out of New Rochelle High School and married his high school sweetheart, Kathy. He later received his high school equivalency diploma while imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution, Petersburg. His involvement with the Hells Angels motorcycle club eventually led to their divorce. Zito became a refrigerator mechanic. He also worked as a bouncer at Café Central on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Boxing and martial arts
Zito was an amateur boxer for several years. He trained out of the Southside Boys Club in New Rochelle and Cage Recreation in White Plains, and held an amateur boxing record of 36–5. Zito had his first boxing match aged 12. At 17, he fought his first of four career Golden Gloves bouts when he knocked out Joe Pratt at 1:50 of round two of a preliminary bout in the 147 pounds (67 kg) sub-novice division of the 47th annual New York Golden Gloves, held at the Felt Forum on January 30, 1973. Zito then defeated Michael Nesbitt in the tournament's third round at the Audubon Ballroom on February 19, 1973, before losing to Orlando Nieves in the fourth round of the competition at the Felt Forum on February 23, 1973. He returned to the Golden Gloves on February 2, 1978, losing to Gaylord Bryant at the Felt Forum in the 160 pounds (73 kg) open division. Zito was later the boxing coach of Mickey Rourke.
Reflecting on his boxing career in 2003, Zito said: "I tried to follow in my father's footsteps... but didn't have the desire and willpower to train 100 percent for the fight game. I didn't take it serious enough... When I found out I was fighting I'd go to the gym like two days before the fight. I never trained. I never got out and did my roadwork. I had so many distractions in my life, growing up at the same time. I think I could have been champion if I stuck with boxing." He further stated in a 2006 interview: "I got married young, at 17, and I had other things on my mind, but I wish I had gone pro, I would have been a good fighter". Zito began studying martial arts at the age of 18 and earned black belts in six different disciplines, including jujutsu. He claims to have broken his nose nine times and his hands eight times.
The combat sports reporter Thomas Gerbasi wrote that Zito "has achieved celebrity status in the fight game" as "a fixture at fights in and around the New York Tri-State area", remarking that "to the fighters, he's one of the guys". He developed friendships with Arturo Gatti, Vinny Pazienza and Mike Tyson. Zito first met Gatti in 1996 and accompanied the boxer to the ring for several high-profile fights. He was seen with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Dwayne Johnson at the Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson pre-fight party on June 8, 2002, at the Memphis Pyramid.
In 2003, Zito began his career as a broadcaster with a role as a ringside reporter on Monday Night Fights broadcasts on HBO. He was also a correspondent at the Affliction: Day of Reckoning mixed martial arts event on January 24, 2009.
Hells Angels
A motorcycle enthusiast, Zito established the New Rochelle Motorcycle Club in 1974, which later merged with the Bronx-based Ching-a-Ling Nomads. As vice president of the Ching-a-Ling Nomads, Zito was arrested on June 14, 1975, along with club president Pedro Lamboy, on charges of harassment and possession of dangerous weapons relating to the alleged harassment of James Hunter, a tenant of a storefront near the Ching-a-Ling Nomads' clubhouse. On October 7, 1976, an apartment in New Rochelle which had been rented to Zito by landlord Arthur Jacobs was targeted in an arson attack two days after the lease was broken due to a dispute between Jacobs and Zito caused by Zito's membership in the biker club. Zito was also charged with assault after allegedly attacking a police officer with a bar stool during a bar brawl on June 12, 1977.
Zito met Sandy Alexander, a professional boxer who was the president of the New York City chapter of the Hells Angels, while they both trained at the Gramercy Gym on East 14th Street in Manhattan. Zito convinced the membership of the Ching-a-Ling Nomads to become prospective members of the Hells Angels, but only he and one other Ching-a-Ling biker were ultimately recruited by the Angels. Explaining what inspired him to join the club, Zito said: "I used to watch their movies like Hells Angels on Wheels and Hell's Angels '69 as a kid. They were the elite of the elite, the No. 1". His nickname in the Hells Angels was "Charming Chuck".
According to prosecutors, one membership requirement of the Hells Angels' New York City chapter was that prospective members must kill or attempt to kill a target selected by the club as part of an initiation process. Zito allegedly earned his membership in the Hells Angels by attempting to murder Robert Giangarra, a Queens pizzeria owner and low-level mobster who had previously shot and injured Hells Angels member Cortland "Chip" Candow in a Manhattan bar. According to testimony from John Joseph "Pirate" Miller, a Hells Angel-turned-government witness, Zito and another biker, Philip "Lightfoot" Kramer, used a remote-controlled device from a model airplane to detonate C-4 explosives attached to a vehicle belonging to Giangarra. On May 9, 1979, Giangarra survived without serious injury when a bomb attached to the undercarriage of a Cadillac Eldorado he was sitting in exploded in the driveway of his home in Elmhurst, Queens. Zito, along with Kramer, was voted in as a full member of the New York City Hells Angels on May 10, 1979. The police were unable to locate Giangarra afterwards, and Zito was never charged with the bombing.
Hollywood
Following in his father's footsteps, Zito became an amateur boxer and fought in New York Golden Gloves while working manual labor. In 1979, after assisting the bodyguards of actor Robert Conrad at a motorcycle convention at the New York Coliseum, Zito began his own bodyguard agency, Charlie's Angels Bodyguard Service. Zito initially provided protection for actress Lorna Luft and later was hired by her half-sister Liza Minnelli. The actress recommended Zito's service to her plethora of celebrity acquaintances, allowing Zito to quickly develop contacts throughout Hollywood. His other clients included Muhammad Ali, Charles Bronson, Michael Jackson, Sean Penn, Chita Rivera, Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Charlie Sheen, and Sylvester Stallone. Zito's brother-in-law was a policeman, which allowed him to hire moonlighting police officers to bodyguard celebrities at public events which required additional manpower, such as award shows.
In 1979, Zito and 18 other members of the New York City Hells Angels chapter were hired to appear in the film Dead Ringer, starring Meat Loaf and Cher. The film was never released due to litigation. Parlaying his connection with Mickey Rourke, Zito began a career as a stuntman in 1983 when he acted as Rourke's stunt double in the film Year of the Dragon. He later worked on over 50 films such as Nowhere to Run, The Specialist, True Lies, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Heat, Eraser, The Juror and The Rock. Zito acted as stunt coordinator for the first time on Santa with Muscles. He then also began landing small acting roles in films, including Heaven's Prisoners, No Code of Conduct and Gia. In 1996, after a meeting with producer Tom Fontana, Zito joined the HBO prison drama Oz as mobster Chucky Pancamo. He was a cast member until the show ended in 2003, after six seasons.
In 1997, Zito allegedly knocked gossip columnist A. J. Benza unconscious at the Scores strip club in New York after Benza attributed a false rumor to him in his column in the Daily News. Zito is then purported to have punched Jean-Claude Van Damme, who had previously been a bodyguarding client of his, in another incident at Scores on February 5, 1998. Recounting the incident in his autobiography, Zito claims that he suffered a broken hand as a result of striking Van Damme numerous times after Van Damme had told a bouncer at the club that Zito had "no heart" and the bouncer relayed Van Damme's comments to Zito. He reportedly stood over a prone Van Damme shouting: "This ain't the movies! This is the street, and I own the street!". He later added: "If I knew it would have gotten me so much positive publicity, I would have knocked him out 10 years earlier." Zito is also reputed to have delivered two open-handed slaps to the face of actor Gary Busey in a similar incident.
Personal life
Zito has a daughter, Lisa, (who is an entertainment lawyer for Condé Nast in Manhattan) with his ex-wife Kathy. He is a supporter of Donald Trump.