John Turturro once played a legendary Yankee coach. Now he’s about to direct a film about another pinstripe icon.
The Emmy-winning actor and filmmaker has revealed to Gold Derby that he is developing a documentary on Joe Torre, whose ball-playing career began with the Milwaukee Braves, took him to the Bronx, where he had had World Series success as the Yankees manager, and ultimately led to Cooperstown.
“He asked me to do,” says Turturro, who has been friends with Torre for decades. “I used to watch him play. And he played with and against all these players that I loved. He was teammates with Hank Aaron. He played against Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Willie McCovey, all these greats.
“I’ll follow Joe’s story, when he was on the Braves. He went to the Cardinals, was the MVP. But he never won anything,” Turturro continues. “His brother Frank was in the World Series. He played on Milwaukee and won the World Series [over the Yankees in 1957]. But Joe never won anything as a player. He was never in the World Series until ’96.”
Like Turturro, Torre is a Brooklyn native. He followed his brother Frank to the Milwaukee (later Atlanta) Braves, breaking through to the big leagues in 1960. He spent eight years there, growing into an All-Star, before being traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1969, where he would win the National League MVP in 1971. He finished up on the New York Mets, including a stint as player-manager. He eventually would manage both the Braves and Cardinals and then move to the broadcast booth as a commentator.
Joe TorreEzra Shaw/Allsport
But his legend was made when he was hired by the Yankees in 1996. He found immediate success with the Bronx Bombers, winning the World Series in 1996 and racking up three more in subsequent years. He later took charge of the Los Angeles Dodgers and led them to the playoffs before retiring from managing and joining Major League Baseball as an executive. In 2014, he was enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
“It’s unusual to see someone who was that good and never was considered a winner. And then he became a winner. He’s been through so many different incarnations, different phases,” Turturro says. “It will be about his whole life, his whole trajectory, as a person growing up and the things he went through personally [Torre has said that his father was abusive; more recently he has battled prostate cancer]. His foundation that helps victims of domestic violence. He’s a very interesting man.”
Turturro expects his Torre documentary to be about four hours long when finished. “I’m going through all the research now. It’s fascinating to go into the archives. We haven’t shot anything yet,” he says. “I’m interested in talking to some of the players he played with and coached. It’s complicated because there are a lot of people who aren’t alive. So there’s a lot of archival footage that we have to get into. But I would like to do something that’s original.”
John Turturro as Billy Martin in ‘The Bronx Is Burning’David Giesbrecht/ESPN/Courtesy: Everett Collection
The Severance star has directed a handful of films, including the semi-autobiographical rock opera Romance & Cigarettes, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, and The Big Lebowski follow-up, The Jesus Rolls. He’s also no stranger to baseball projects. He played former Yankee skipper Billy Martin in the ESPN miniseries The Bronx Is Burning
Torre, meanwhile, was the subject of the 1997 Showtime docudrama Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way, about his first year coaching the Yankees, which led to the World Series title, while also dealing with brother Frank’s health issues. Paul Sorvino played Torre.