(AP) Blue-collar character actor Danny Aiello has died at age 86.

His long career of playing tough guys included roles in “Fort Apache, the Bronx,” “The Godfather, Part II” and “Once Upon a Time in America.” But perhaps his most famous role was as a pizzeria operator in a black neighborhood of Brooklyn in Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing," which earned him an Oscar nod.

 

Aiello became a favorite of several directors, among them Woody Allen, who used him in the Broadway play "The Floating Light Globe" and the movies "Broadway Danny Rose," "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and “Radio Days.”