Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - This Famous Hollywood Actor is in Big Trouble // The Lillo Brancato Comeback Story

Episode Date: April 4, 2026

Lillo Brancato Jr. is an American actor whose rapid rise to fame was followed by a public descent into addiction and a high-profile criminal case. After being discovered at age 15 for his striking resemblance to Robert De Niro, he gained stardom as Calogero in the 1993 film A Bronx Tale and later appeared in several episodes of The Sopranos. However, Brancato’s promising career was derailed by a severe addiction to drugs, leading to a tragic incident on December 10, 2005, when he and an accomplice, Steven Armento, were involved in a botched burglary in the Bronx.

After 19 years, they're back. Frankie Munes, Brian Cranston, and the rest of the family reunite in Malcolm in the middle, life's still unfair. After 10 years avoiding them, Hal and lowest demand Malcolm be at their anniversary party, pulling him straight back into their chaos. Malcolm in the middle, life's still unfair. A special four-part event, streaming April 10th on Hulu on Disney Plus. So this Sopranos actor got into some big trouble. So the guy's name is Lilo.

And Lilo's about 15 when this story starts, and he's living in New York, and one day, in 1992, his whole life changes. Because he's hanging out at the local beach, and a talent scout approaches him. And this talent scout is trying to find someone who could possibly act and play Robert De Niro's son in an upcoming movie. Now, Lilo loves getting attention. Like, it makes him feel real good. And throughout his life, he realized that he can get it by being funny, by making people laugh. and like doing funny impersonations of people and stuff. And so Lilo is approached at the beach by this Talent Scout about this De Niro movie.

And Lilo, who kind of looks like a young De Niro, he starts doing an impersonation of De Niro. And this impersonation is pretty good. And the talent scout is impressed by this, and boom, he wants to put him in the movie. And so two months later, Lilo is in the movie, acting alongside Robert De Niro. And the movie's called The Bronx Tale. Well, you may have seen it. It's actually a great movie. Now, while on set, Lilo is having a really good time. Like, he's working with the director, he's performing in front of the camera and whatnot.

But this is also when one of his fellow castmates introduces him to a little Zaza. So he starts smoking and getting high for the first time. And Lilo really likes this. Like, he starts doing it a lot. Sometimes he gets high while he's on set working. The next year, in 1993, a Bronx tale finally comes out, and it's actually a success. So basically, overnight, he goes from a regular kid who just like hangs out at the beach to a well-known lead actor in a successful Hollywood movie.

And honestly, this is a lot for a teenager to handle. But he keeps going, he keeps acting, and he keeps doing more movies. Like in 1994, he's in Renaissance Man, in 1995 he's in Crimson Town. And so not only is he continuing to act, but he also continues to do drugs and drink. And over time, his partying and drug use keeps getting more frequent. And now he's moved on to taking painkillers and like doing cocaine and stuff. And soon he starts trying out even more drugs like smoking crack. And pretty quickly, he becomes addicted.

And in order to keep himself functioning, he starts doing even more drugs. like he starts snorting heroin to balance out the high that he gets from doing crack. But I guess he hides all this well enough and it doesn't affect his ability to get cast because he continues to get work. And in 1999, he gets the role of a minor mobster and a little show you might have heard of called The Sopranos. So career-wise, things seem to be going well for him. But eventually, all this drug use and experimentation start.

to catch up with him. Like at this point, he's often high at work on set, not just on Smok and Zaza, but on heroin. And like people in the crew start to notice. And at one point, James Gandalfini, the star of the Sopranos, notices that he's on drugs and he like pulls him aside and he tells him to be careful and don't waste this opportunity. But unfortunately, Lilo just doesn't listen. In fact, around this time, he's at his most addicted, and he's spending around $700 a day on his drug habit. Now, eventually, in the year 2000, Lilo's character on The Sopranos gets killed off, and he leaves the show. And he goes on to get some more roles in TV shows and movies, but his drug problem isn't getting any better. Sometimes he snorts like 20 bags of crack and heroin a day.

And like after an audition, if he gets apart, Lilo will celebrate. by drinking and disappearing into a three-day crack bench. But if he doesn't get the part, he does the exact same thing. So by this point in the story, this guy is high all the time. So it starts affecting his career. Like he starts blowing off meetings and talk show appearances. He starts missing a lot of auditions. One time he has an audition with Steven Spielberg for a role in the movie Saving Private Ryan.

Well, he oversleaps. Because he was out partying hard the night. before. So of course, he doesn't get the role. That role eventually goes to Vend Diesel. So years go by, and it's now 2005, and Lilo is still crashing out, he's still addicted to all these drugs. And around this time, he meets this guy, Stephen. And Stephen, you know, he's kind of a turd, he's a low-level member of a crime family in New York, and like Lilo, Stephen is also addicted to all kinds of drugs. So they start hanging out. And of course, Stephen is a bad influence on him, and eventually Lilo starts getting in trouble with the law.

And at one point that same year, bam, police arrest Lilo for heroin possession. And he gets out on bail, but now Lilo's family knows how bad his drug problems are. And so his mother wants to help him out, and she puts $14,000 into his checking account so that he can afford to start going to rehab. And he does. He goes to rehab for about two days. Then he's like, fuck all this, and he leaves and quits, and he uses the rest of the money his mom gave him to buy drugs. And then, as if things couldn't get any worse, here is where things start to really get out of control. One night, Lilo is out with his friend Stephen, and they're partying at a local strip club. And they're there all night until about 4 a.m. when suddenly they start craving more drugs. And Lilo's like, hey, I know a guy who lives nearby, and he's got a medicine cabinet full of drugs, and we can just go there and take them. The guy's a pushover. So they drive over to the guy's house, and once they get there, Lilo knocks on the guy's door, but no one answers. Now, I guess Lilo hadn't seen the guy in a while, because he doesn't know this, but his friend actually passed away earlier in the year.

So he doesn't even live at this house anymore. Regardless, when no one answers, Lilo's like, whatever, let's just climb through the window. I guess Lilo thinks his friend won't mind. And so, boom, Lilo breaks the glass on a window to get into the house. Meanwhile, there's a neighbor next door. This guy, Daniel. And Daniel is an off-duty police officer.

Daniel also just finished a late-night shift and he's asleep. Until Until he hears the shattering glass next door and that wakes him up. So he gets up and he calls 911. But he also grabs his gun and he goes outside to see what all this noise is. And that is when Daniel sees two shady looking drug addicts in the alley, Lilo and Stephen, trying to break into this house. And he yells at both of them to stop.

And Lilo, he doesn't have a gun or anything, but Stephen actually does. And he pulls it out and he starts shooting, blam, blam, blam! And Daniel starts shooting back, blam, blam, blam. And boom, Lilo gets shot. twice and boom Stephen gets shot six times. And during all this chaos, Stephen actually shoots Daniel and this unfortunately kills him. And Daniel had already called 911, so pretty quickly police show up and they find Lilo and Steven both staggering down the driveway with gunshot wounds. And so bam, Lilo gets arrested. Here's his mugshot. Also, bam, Steven gets arrested. Here's his mugshot.

And so, Lilo goes to trial and he's found guilty of attempted burglary, not murder, and he gets 10 years in prison. While Stephen goes to trial and he's found guilty of murder and he gets life in prison. And by the way, Lilo is out of prison now, so he served his time and he's clean now. And he actually still acts and he does motivational speaking and talks about his life and stuff. It's actually really cool. So, good for him.