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IMDbPro

Rico Simonini

  • Actor
  • Producer
  • Writer
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As Francis Albert
Before he was chairman of the board. He was just a man, desperate for a woman, clinging to a dream. The story of Sinatra as never told before and Ava Gardner, the woman who saved him, by breaking him. Based on true stories.
Play trailer1:35
Frank and Ava (2020)
5 Videos
26 Photos
After recovering from a prep school Jesuit education, Rico Simonini graduated New York University with a bachelor's degree and the John Parkes History Award. As an actor he has enjoyed the opportunity to play leading roles in dozens of plays on stages in New York, Los Angeles and a few places in between. However, Rico's journey in the dramatic arts has shadowed his primary vocational pursuit which propelled him from tree-lined Brooklyn roots, to New York's Bellevue Hospital, then to San Francisco, Boston, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Chicago and eventually Los Angeles; cardiovascular medicine. Like Anton Chekhov, Somerset Maugham, and Arthur Conan Doyle before him, Rico remained married to medicine while pursuing his paramour, the theatre, wherever his career would take him. Eventually after being recruited by one of Los Angeles' most prestigious medical centers, it was an inevitability that his artistic pursuits would blossom as often times his clients would recruit him and indulge his fancy for film and theater. This would lead him to study the "craft" with various mentors including the Baron-Brown Meisner Studios as well as the Actors Studio, where many playwrights invited him to workshop and perform their scripts. Rico enjoyed working "on the boards" in leading roles in well known plays such as Ricky Roma (Glengarry Glenn Ross), RP McMurphy (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), Daniel Kaffee (A Few Good Men), and Joe Pendleton (Heaven Can Wait) in addition to originating over a dozen roles in dramas by local playwrights-all while maintaining a cardiology practice that can be described as star studded as some of the productions he has been fortunate to work on. In 2014 playwright Willard Manus chose Rico to originate the role of Frank Sinatra in "Frank and Ava" a two-hander developed at the Actors' Studio, that portrayed the iconic romance between "extraordinary individuals" facing obstacles relatable to all: impossible love and lofty dreams, the yearnings for which push us to the brink. This story, based on true events, of Sinatra's redemption and resurrection despite improbable odds in an unfriendly world (the scrutiny of the 1950's) inspired Rico to undertake a screenplay adaptation and his first feature film production premiere in 2018, with global release in early 2019.
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  • Awards

Photos26

Rico Simonini
Rico Simonini
McMurphy honors McMurphy
Rico Simonini
Rico Simonini
Rico Simonini
Rico Simonini
Suave
Delivering a "Sicilian message" on DAYS OF OUR LIVES
Three vampires
Omerta!
Rico Simonini

Known for

Jessica Alba, Luke Wilson, Josh Lucas, Joel Courtney, Liana Liberato, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Isabelle Fuhrman in Dear Eleanor (2016)
Dear Eleanor
5.9
  • Producer
  • 2016
Bruce Willis and Jai Courtney in A Good Day to Die Hard (2013)
A Good Day to Die Hard
5.2
  • Colonel
  • 2013
Mark Wahlberg in Max Payne (2008)
Max Payne
5.3
  • Detective Sergeant Amerini
  • 2008
Cameron Diaz, Sofia Vassilieva, and Abigail Breslin in My Sister's Keeper (2009)
My Sister's Keeper
7.3
  • Process Server
  • 2009

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Secret Society of Lies
    • Completed
  • Wildfire: The Legend of the Cherokee Ghost Horse
    • Post-production
  • Dante's Hell
    • Post-production
  • Money Run
    • In Production
  • Dante's Purgatory
    • Post-production
  • Dante's Paradise
    • Post-production
  • Dark Feathers
    • Post-production
  • Camp Joy
    • Post-production
  • Game of Deceit
    • In Production
  • Deadly Ex-Wife
    • Post-production
  • Eric Roberts, Carol Alt, and Rico Simonini in My Last Best Friend (2022)
    My Last Best Friend
  • Emily Mei, Ritesh Rajan, Noah Fleder, and Rayna Vallandingham in Pawns (2021)
    Pawns
  • Blue Moon Ball (2021)
    Blue Moon Ball
  • Ashley Newbrough and Jamie Roy in Flowers and Honey (2021)
    Flowers and Honey
  • Obsessed with the Babysitter (2021)
    Obsessed with the Babysitter
  • Dying to be a Cheerleader (2020)
    Dying to be a Cheerleader
  • Frank and Ava (2020)
    Frank and Ava
  • David Harewood, Chyler Leigh, Jesse Rath, Azie Tesfai, Melissa Benoist, Katie McGrath, and Nicole Maines in Supergirl (2015)
    Supergirl
  • Vic Steele (2020)
    Vic Steele
  • Sarah Aldrich, Gina Holden, and Jason Gerhardt in Stressed to Death (2019)
    Stressed to Death
  • Darryl Marshak in Accidental Diplomats (2018)
    Accidental Diplomats
  • Mark Famiglietti, Chelsea Hobbs, Jeremy Kent Jackson, and Ashley Silverman in Left for Dead (2018)
    Left for Dead
  • Stalked by My Doctor: Patient's Revenge (2018)
    Stalked by My Doctor: Patient's Revenge
  • Like Family (2017)
    Like Family
  • Eric Roberts, Amanda Barton, and April Eden in Dark Image (2017)
    Dark Image

Producer

  • Mort in Sherman Oaks
    • Post-production
  • Eric Roberts, Carol Alt, and Rico Simonini in My Last Best Friend (2022)
    My Last Best Friend
  • Frank and Ava (2020)
    Frank and Ava
  • Darryl Marshak in Accidental Diplomats (2018)
    Accidental Diplomats
  • Eric Roberts, Amanda Barton, and April Eden in Dark Image (2017)
    Dark Image
  • Ray Liotta and Dominic Purcell in Suddenly (2013)
    Suddenly
  • Clancy Brown, Clifton Collins Jr., and Robyn Rikoon in Hellbenders (2012)
    Hellbenders
  • Boiler Maker (2008)
    Boiler Maker

Writer

  • Frank and Ava (2020)
    Frank and Ava
  • The Rita Guida Show (2014)
    The Rita Guida Show
  • Rita Guida (2013)
    Rita Guida
  • The Catch (2013)
    The Catch
  • In-development projects at IMDbPro

Videos5

Trailer
Trailer 1:35
Trailer
I.T.
Trailer 2:11
I.T.
God's Club
Trailer 1:42
God's Club
The Ganzfeld Haunting
Trailer 1:25
The Ganzfeld Haunting
The Haunted Casino
Trailer 1:58
The Haunted Casino

Personal details

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  • Publicity listings
    • 2 Articles

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