Tony Danza, was born Anthony Salvatore Iadanza on April 21, 1951, in Brooklyn, New York. His father Matty was a sanitation worker, while his mother, Anne, worked as a bookkeeper to help provide for the family’s five children (per tribute.ca). Danza has long made a point of discussing how important family is to him, with his relationship with his parents and memories of the older generations of the Iadanza family providing material for his stage shows.

And it seems that Danza was especially close to his mother, who died on June 16, 1993, at the age of 67. The death affected Danza deeply. In fact, Danza’s pain over the loss of his mother was still evident in 2015, when he broke down in tears on “The Dr. Oz Show,” prompting an outpouring of sympathy from the studio audience. “And every Christmas, you go through this thing, where you miss the people that aren’t there anymore,” Danza said in the interview, before chastizing himself for being a “crybaby” (per ABC).