Scott Baio Biography - Teen Idols 4 You

Date of Birth

22 December 1960, Brooklyn, New York, USA

Birth Name

Scott Vincent James Baio

Height

5' 10½" (1.79 m)

Mini Biography

Scott Vincent James Baio was born on September 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York. He was the third child of Mario and Rose Baio, who had emigrated from Italy. At the young age of nine, Scott decided that he wanted to be an actor. Soon after, his parents took him on interviews and he was able to land in small roles in commercials. His first real taste of success occurred in 1976 when he beat out 2,000 other child actors for the starring role in the child gangster film Bugsy Malone (1976). The following year, Scott's popularity soared after he was chosen for the role of Chachi Arcola, The Fonz's cousin, on the ABC sitcom Happy Days (1974). Soon after, Scott's parents moved him to Hollywood to help him keep up with the demands of his acting career. Throughout his stint on Happy Days (1974) from 1977 to 1984, Scott still managed to appear in several films, including Skatetown U.S.A. (1979), Foxes (1980) and Zapped! (1982) and even starred in three other short-lived sitcoms (Blansky's Beauties (1977), Who's Watching the Kids (1978), and the "Happy Days" spin-off Joanie Loves Chachi (1982)). This exposure helped him become a major teen idol in the early 1980s.

After Happy Days (1974) went off the air in 1984, Scott moved to CBS where he was given the starring role on the sitcom Charles in Charge (1984). He played a college student who was hired to watch over three children. After one season on CBS, the series was retooled and moved to first-run syndication where it ran successfully from 1987 to 1990. Since Charles in Charge (1984) ended, Scott has been able to stay busy, albeit with a relatively lower profile. He has had starring roles on Baby Talk (1991) and Diagnosis Murder (1993) and guest starring roles on Veronica's Closet (1997) and Arrested Development (2003). He has even tried his hand behind the camera, directing episodes of The Wayans Bros. (1995) and Unhappily Ever After (1995).

Offscreen, Scott has made a few headlines as well. In 1997, he was rumored to have died in a car accident, but this was quickly declared as false. He has gained a reputation for dating several high-profile (mostly blonde) actresses, most notably Pamela Anderson, Heather Locklear and former co-star Nicole Eggert. In 2007, VH1 played this reputation into a reality series called Scott Baio Is 45... And Single (2007). On the show, he meets with a life coach to try and find reasons why he is still single. In order to accomplish this, he must revisit his ex-girlfriends (including Erin Moran and Julie McCullough) to find out what went right and what went wrong in the relationships. Follwing the completion of the first season, he announced that his girlfriend, Renee Baio, was pregnant with his first child. On November 2, 2007, she gave birth to a baby girl, Bailey Deluca.

Trivia

In the fall of 1998, he starred in a sitcom called "Rewind" which had been picked up by FOX. However, the network canceled the series before a single episode made it to air.
A rumor circulated that he had been killed in a car crash. It was never determined how the rumor started, but it turned out that Baio hadn't even been in an accident, much less gotten killed in one. [December 1997]
Cousin of actors Jimmy Baio and Joey Baio. Brother of actor Steven Baio.
Inducted into The Man Show Hall of Fame for his reputation of dating women such as Brooke Shields and Pamela Anderson.
Attended and graduated from Xaverian High School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York.
Ranked #16 in TV Guide's list of "TV's 25 Greatest Teen Idols" (23 January 2005 issue).
Is a first-generation American. His parents, Mario and Rose Baio, both emigrated to the United States from Italy.
Attended Saint Bernadette Elementary School in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, New York.
Was engaged to graduate student Janette Jonasson as of July 18, 2001, but has since broken off the engagement.
Daughter Bailey Deluca born November 2, 2007, weighing 5 pounds, 10 ounces. She arrived five weeks early. Mother is Renee Baio.
Is a registered Republican. In 2004, he attended former President Ronald Reagan's funeral at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.
Ranked #18 on VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Stars.
Made his directorial debut on his sitcom Charles in Charge (1984), where he directed many episodes, credited under his full name Scott Vincent Baio.
Has co-starred with Jodie Foster in the films Bugsy Malone (1976) and Foxes (1980).
Stepfather of Kalyn LaNae' Sloan (born 1989).
The 26 May 1982 issue of Variety magazine, in the "Film Production Chart" section, lists an independent movie called Hi-Jinx that started filming 24 May 1982 starring Scott Baio, Leif Garrett. Producer was David Gil, director James Komak, script Barry Roberts and Allen Stone. The movie was evidently never released.
Left his role on Diagnosis Murder (1993) at the end of the second season, to look for other projects, he was replaced by Charlie Schlatter, who stayed with his role until the series' cancellation.
Best known by the public for his role as Chachi Arcola on Happy Days (1974), and starring roles as the title character in Charles in Charge (1984) and as David Hobbs in See Dad Run (2012).
Endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney during Romney's 2012 presidential campaign.
Endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, and spoke at the opening night of the 2016 Republican National Convention in support of Trump.
Dated Pamela Anderson, Beverly D'Angelo, Nicole Eggert, Erika Eleniak, Donya Fiorentino, Melissa Gilbert, Sheila Kennedy, Kay Lenz, Heather Locklear, Julie McCullough, Liza Minnelli, Erin Moran, Natalie Raitano, Denise Richards, Nicollette Sheridan, Brooke Shields and Lesley Ann Warren.
His acting mentor is Marion Ross, whom he credits as his favorite mentor/best friend.
Actress Marion Ross took him under her wing, when he was age 17.
As an actor, he was highly influenced by Marion Ross.
Has highly praised Marion Ross for his stardom in acting.
Since he had dated three of the girls from the golden age of Baywatch (Nicole Eggert, Pamela Anderson, Erica Eleniak), his friends would kid him, and call it Baiowatch. (as told to Howard Stern on the radio, 1994).

Quotes

When I have a girlfriend, I feel caged in, I don't know why.
Don't ever take a shower with a woman, because you'll probably end up proposing to her.
One of my favorite things to do is play golf at Braemar Country Club. It's quiet and not overly crowded. The people are nice, and there's wildlife all around the course. As far as my game itself, I can go from a 10 handicap to a 30, depending on the day.
Life is too short no matter what party you are with.
I very rarely came across rude or disrespectful people. I don't know how I slipped by all of them, but I honestly can't think of one experience off the top of my head that was like that. I'm sure they're there, but I'd have to think really hard to recall them.
I cannot believe how much I love my kid. It's a beautiful thing.
I am not a spiritual guy, but all of a sudden I felt the need to really feel things.
Every day I think, 'Can I commit?' I think I can and that I will.
Family, work, familiarity. Listen, if I had a magic wand and I could make myself really be happy, I'd zap me onto a farm. And I know nothing about farming.
I love driving cars, looking at them, cleaning and washing and shining them. I clean 'em inside and outside. I'm very touchy about cars. I don't want anybody leaning on them or closing the door too hard, know what I mean?
If I lived alone, Mom'd never sleep because she wouldn't know I was okay.
I've been very fortunate and I am grateful.
I regret losing certain women, but it was always my fault.
I never did drugs and I can't really drink because I have zero tolerance for alcohol, so my vice became women. I was never faithful to most of them.
I don't know, 53 years with the same human being? I can't be around myself for more than three or four hours before I want to kill everybody.
You can tell five minutes into it what a girl is after, when she starts asking how much money I make or tells me, 'I wanna be an actress.'
When I was a baby, my mother tells me I never slept because I never wanted to miss anything.
Tom Bosley may have passed, but through that part and that character, a part of him will live on forever.
Somebody asked me what do you regret. I said, well I was offered the role of Maverick in 'Top Gun' and I turned it down.
My parents were married 53 years, good and bad. Can I do that? Probably not. But I really hope I can.
One thing I won't be doing on a weekend is shopping. I just don't like it, and I haven't bought an article of clothing for a very long time. I usually just take wardrobe from shows I'm on. It's much easier.
It's a werewolf movie with Christina Ricci, and it was a chance to work with some good people. But playing yourself is always fairly risky because you gotta watch how you goof on yourself.
If I'm racist, don't think I would have directed shows like 'The Parkers' and 'The Wayans Brothers' or worked 41 episodes with Victoria Rowell on 'Diagnosis: Murder.'
I don't have an iPod. I don't get the whole iPod thing. Who has time to listen to that much music? If I had one, it would probably have Sinatra, Beatles, some '70s music, some '80s music, and that's it.
I can work every day of the year. TV is easy. My call's at 8:30 a.m. I'd like to break out of the comedy thing and take a shot at something serious like theater. The off-season allows me to do movies, but I'm not tired of TV yet. There's nothing like it. I've got the best of both worlds.
[2014, on making Detonator] What happened was, I got a call to do a Roger Corman film, so I thought it was going to be an actual film by Roger Corman. You know, something along the lines of, like, Little Shop Of Horrors or something like that. A cheesy horror film. But then I read it, and I was like, "Uh, well, okay, this isn't what I was expecting, but I guess they're gonna turn it into something." So I agreed to it, because I still thought it'd be cool to do a Roger Corman movie. Then I got to the set, and that's when I realized that they weren't trying to make a Roger Corman movie. The director was trying to make a serious movie! And I just went, "Oh, God... I'm stuck!" And that was it. Sometimes I should read stuff a little bit closer than I do. I don't like reading very much, and sometimes I get burned. But you know what? Nobody saw it. And even if they did see it, who cares anymore?
[2014, on Charles in Charge] That was given to me the year Happy Days was ending, and I thought it was a very good script. We shot the pilot, and it was one of those nights in front of the audience where every single thing worked. Every joke. Everything. The audience just got it. And I remember that night pretty much knowing that that show was going to be picked up for a series by the network that was there. But the series was on CBS, and I think the writing was just too soft. Not to knock Michael Jacobs. I think he was trying to write something that should've been a little edgier... I hate that word: "edgier." But I played such a perfect human being that it was just insane. I should've screwed up a lot more. Which is what the second version did, when it was in first-run syndication... That was a good time. That was really my first time with my own show -- because Joanie Loves Chachi doesn't really count as being my own show, it was such a fiasco. People weren't all there, and, well, whatever. But with Charles in Charge, I was 23 or 24 years old, kind of knowing what the game was by then, starring in my own show, understanding the power that that entails in terms of work and the thing that it affords you outside of work and being able to understand all that. It was a great experience. I learned how to direct on that show. Al Burton was such a dear man, a good guy who taught me a lot. It was fun. Big fun. Giant fun.
[2014, on Cursed] I don't know what that was. I got sent a script called Cursed where it was a story about...well, whatever it was, I was the werewolf in the movie. I shot one scene. I think they shot a good chunk of the movie, shut it all down, and then rewrote it... and then I wasn't the werewolf. So they shot more of the movie, shut it all down again, and rewrote it again. At that point, I asked to be fired. I said, "Why am I in this movie anymore?" So I have not seen it, I don't know what the problem was or why they were doing all that. It was one of those cases where they took a $30 million movie, shot it three times for $90 million or whatever the budget was, and the movie made $4.00. That's one of those decisions where you're just left wondering, "Who knows where, when, or how this thing even happened?" I don't know any of those answers. That was one of those things where I was just a hired gun. I met Christina Ricci, who couldn't have been nicer, and that was it.
[2014, on Foxes] Okay, Bugsy Malone was with a real director, Alan Parker, but I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I was 13 and just sort of goofing off and doing what he told me. Foxes, though, that was a heavy-duty movie and a little ahead of its time. Working with Adrian Lyne... I'm sure Alan was the same way, but I didn't get it or didn't understand it, but Adrian was a director. He directed. He got mad, and he did all the things you think directors should be doing from having seen directors in movies. It felt like real movie-making. I was 19 and I was finally starting to understand what was going on. But it was a great movie to be on, great fun to make. We shot all over the San Fernando Valley, and it was just a damn good movie.
[2014, on Skatetown, U.S.A.] I have blocked that movie from my memory, it was so bad. I remember shooting it at the Hollywood Palladium. I remember taking a picture with Patrick Swayze. He was in it. A lot of people were in it. I think the idea was, "If a lot of people are in it, maybe people will go see it." That was that whole time where Xanadu and Roller Boogie and all that crap was coming out. That was one of those things where they sent me the script and I said "no," but they just kept calling and offering more money! I mean, they offered me a lot of money. And finally I said, "Well, hell. What is it? Two weeks' work? Whatever, okay, fine." And it was... You know, sometimes money isn't everything. It was just bad. I mean, it was bad shooting it. I'm trying to think of any real stories that I have, but it was just insanity. When was that? '79? It was just a guy making a film who didn't know how to make a film, and I don't even know what the story was! But Greg Bradford was in it, who I worked with later in Zapped! But Skatetown, U.S.A., that was crapola... I do have a great story about Skatetown. We were working nights, and we were on the Santa Monica pier. We were at the top of the pier-it must've been about 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, so it was completely dead, except maybe for a couple of junkies walking around-and the camera dolly was on top of the hill. I was sitting there, talking to somebody, and out of the corner of my eye, I can see the camera dolly starting to move very slowly by itself. And I didn't really do anything, because it didn't register. All of a sudden, it starts going... and going. And nobody can get in the way of this thing, because this was a big dolly. It got all the way to the bottom of the pier, hit the railing, the camera came off the head, and went flying into the ocean. It was awesome.
[2014, on The Boy Who Drank Too Much] Wow, really good movie. A serious movie. I think that was, like, the first really serious thing I'd done. That was the big time. That was Jerrold Freedman, who was a big director. And Mimi Leder, who became a big director, was the script supervisor on it. That was a good experience. I learned a lot, I worked hard, and it was a lot of work. We went to Madison, Wisconsin for a couple of weeks. There was a lot of rehearsal and really working into characters, which I'd never really done before. A little bit with Adrian Lyne, but not to this extent, because Foxes wasn't my movie. This was my movie, and it was a lot of character, a lot of business, and a lot of getting in and finding stuff. We had fun playing hockey with the state champions of Wisconsin, who were great guys. No funny stories, really. It was just a very good time and a very good experience for me.
[2014, on Zapped!] Great movie. Loved it then, love it today. I get more people asking about that movie than anything, no lie. And I had a ball making that. A cute, fun teen movie, and it made money. And it had Scatman Crothers! He was a good guy, and supposedly he smoked pot every day. That's what I was told, but I don't actually know. But I got to work with Willie [Aames], and it was a great experience. I really enjoyed doing that movie. There were some great stories on that set. People were fun. We shot it all over L.A., which is always fun to do, and it was just great. What was most fun for me was all the effects. There was no CGI or anything, so all of the bottles flying around was a guy up above us, like a puppet master, moving stuff with wires. That's how the effects were done. We had to walk in and out of it. It was kind of cool. Dick Albain was his name. He had one finger missing from an explosion years before. As for other stories... I don't think I have anything crazy that happened. It was just a fun movie to do. Good people, good crew, good director.
[defending Donald Trump's lewd comments about women in the leaked 2005 video] I like Trump because Trump is not a politician, he talks like a guy. And ladies out there, this is what guys talk about when you're not around. So if you're offended by it, grow up, ok? And, by the way, this is what you guys talk about over white wine when you have your brunches. So take it easy with the phony outrage, this is the way the world works. It's not a big thing.
[on Barack Obama] I can't tell whether he's dumb, he's a Muslim, or he's a Muslim sympathizer. And I don't think he's dumb.
I'm a conservative independent.
Donald Trump is the only guy who wants to handle it and tackle it head-on.
They say they're going to kill us, and then they kill us. And it's still not enough for this president and Hillary Clinton to get serious about it and do something about it.