E-mail a friendAugust 19, 2008
Olympic gold medalist and Team Darfur co-founder Joey Cheek describes the role of the U.S. in the Darfur genocide. Actor Chazz Palminteri explains how he came to write A Bronx Tale and why he turned down multimillion-dollar offers for the rights to the play when he was flat broke.
Joey Cheek
Joey Cheek
Olympian discusses the role of athletes in political and social affairs and how those who have wanted to speak about Darfur have been muzzled. (2:16)
Full Interview. (10:02)
Named by Time magazine as one of "100 people who shape our world," Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek downplays his athletic accomplishments. He won speed skating medals in the '02 and '06 Winter Olympics and donated his bonus winnings from the '06 Games ($40,000) to the effort to bring peace to Darfur. The North Carolina native also co-founded the coalition of athletes, known as Team Darfur, committed to raising awareness about the war-torn region. Cheek is studying economics and Chinese at Princeton.
Chazz Palminteri
Chazz Palminteri
Actor describes the horrifying event that he survived when he was nine years old. (2:26)
Full Interview. (11:59)
Chazz Palminteri's Bronx upbringing has had considerable influence on his work as a writer-actor. His film credits include The Usual Suspects and Bullets Over Broadway, for which he earned an Oscar nod. Palminteri got his acting start on the stage, while paying his dues as a nightclub bouncer, among other jobs. He's currently starring in A Bronx Tale—a one-man play he wrote and first performed in '89—portraying 18 characters that lead audiences through a depiction of his rough childhood in the Bronx.