Tony Danza Won His Taxi Role Thanks To A Black Eye And A Broken Hand
The classic sitcom "Taxi" has its fair share of interesting characters that work in New York City's Sunshine Cab Company, but arguably the tender heart at its center is boxer Tony Banta, played by Tony Danza. He's not always the brightest crayon in the box, but he's full of courage and love and would do just about anything for his friends. Despite being a bit of a womanizer early on, he's never cruel or lecherous like his boss Louie (Danny DeVito), and he is a fantastic friend to his co-worker Elaine (Marilu Henner). He's also surprisingly sweet despite his punchy side gig, serving as the template for later sitcom characters like Joey from "Friends." It's truly hard to imagine "Taxi" without him.
What's even harder to imagine is the character of Tony being played by anybody else. He's warm and earnest and bounces off great against some of the more cynical comedians on the cast. "Taxi" had a fairly unique sitcom cast in that it brought in some non-sitcom stars like Judd Hirsch, but Danza had never even acted before! Thankfully, he knocked out his audition thanks to the help of some rather in-character injuries.
A black eye, a broken hand, and a long shot
In a 40th anniversary retrospective for The Hollywood Reporter, Danza recalled that even though the pilot for "Taxi" was set to feature an Irish heavyweight named Phil Ryan, he was cast instead because he showed up to the audition really looking the part of a boxer:
"I'd broken my third metacarpal on my right hand and had a black eye from knocking out a guy in the ring in Brooklyn. You couldn't have made me up better for an audition. I was so ignorantly blissful. I'd never acted before. I didn't know what I was doing, that's for sure."
Danza actually was a boxer, having fought as a middleweight around the time he auditioned for "Taxi." He ended up getting cast as Banta and the rest, as they say, is history. Tony wasn't the only "Taxi" cast member to have an interesting audition, however, as DeVito decided to start his audition by insulting the writers as a joke in an effort to seem like his rude, crude character. Thanks to both of them really understanding their characters, they helped make "Taxi" into one of the greatest sitcoms of all time. (That's not just my opinion, either! The series won 18 Emmy awards!)
In the end, Danza ended up being much more famous for being an actor than a boxer, going on to star in his own sitcom, "Who's the Boss?" (which ran for eight seasons). Sometimes life doesn't go the way we expect, and apparently, a black eye can be lucky in the right situation!