Julius R. Nasso

Julius R. Nasso (born October 19, 1952) is an Italian-American film producer, pharmacologist, and businessman.

Julius R. Nasso was born in a small village called Terranova, Calabria, Italy. In 1976, Nasso graduated from St. John's University with a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy. He then earned an advanced Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Connecticut.

On March 14, 2017, Nasso made headlines when two ponies belonging to him escaped from their barn during a snowstorm on Staten Island. The ponies, Blondie and Jewels, were quickly captured and returned to Nasso with the help of an off-duty police officer. Nasso has also been former four-year chairman of The Harbour Lights Theater Group.

Nasso established Universal Marine Medical Supply Company (UMMSC) in 1974 while attending college. UMMSC provides medical supplies, equipment, and services globally.

In 1977, Nasso co-created the private label vitamin and health supplement manufacturing company Tishcon Corporation with his college pharmacy professor Dr. Satish Patel. In 1985, the company was sold to Cosmo Laboratories.

Nasso opened the Cabbage Patch Babyland General Hospital Store in 1978 to cash in on the global Cabbage Patch mania.

Nasso's film career started in 1980 when he joined Sergio Leone as his personal assistant. He worked for Leone during the 1980 filming of Once Upon a Time in America in New York.

Nasso co-founded Manhattan Pictures Intl., a Gotham-based motion picture distribution and production company, in his home city of New York, where he produced and released the films Enigma (2001) and In Praise of Love (2001).

He founded Julius R. Nasso Productions[date missing ] and made movies including Prince of Central Park (2000) and One-Eyed King (2001).

Nasso acquired the rights to the book Gambino: The Rise in 2020. After acquiring the rights, he has teamed up with the Academy Award–winning artists Nick Vallelonga (Green Book) and George Gallo (Midnight Run).

Since 2006, Nasso has been Harry Belafonte's producer and contributed to a variety of works, including Sing Your Song (2011). He has been involved with Harry Bellefonte's final documentary, Following Harry along with Frankie Nasso, Susanne Rostock as producers. While in Manhattan, Nasso co-founded and served as CO-CEO of Belafonte Arts and Media.[10][11][12]

Nasso's most recent protégé, Tony Schiena, who he met in London in 1998, costarred in Nasso's directorial debut Darc (2018).

Nasso was involved in a six-year legal battle with his former longtime collaborator Steven Seagal after their business relationship ended in 2000. The two had been "best friends", according to Seagal, and formed Seagal/Nasso Productions together, but their relationship eventually became strained. Believing that Seagal owed him $3 million in compensation for backing out of a four-film deal, Nasso enlisted members of the Gambino crime family to threaten Seagal in an attempt to recoup money Nasso allegedly lost. Gambino family captain Anthony Ciccone first visited Seagal in Toronto during the filming of Exit Wounds in October 2000.[13] In January 2001, Primo Cassarino and other gangsters picked up Seagal by car to bring him to a meeting with Ciccone at a Brooklyn restaurant. At the meeting, Ciccone bluntly told Seagal that he had a choice of making four promised movies with Nasso or paying Nasso a penalty of $150,000 per movie. If Seagal refused, Ciccone would kill him.[14] Seagal, who later claimed that he brought a handgun to the meeting, was able to stall Ciccone and escape the meeting unharmed.[15] Ciccone and Cassarino again visited Seagal at his home in Los Angeles the following month.[16] In the spring of 2001, Seagal sought out another mobster, Genovese crime family captain Angelo Prisco, to act a "peacemaker". He visited Prisco in prison at Rahway, New Jersey, and paid Prisco's lawyer $10,000.[17]

On March 17, 2003, Cassarino, Ciccone and others were convicted of labor racketeering, extortion, and 63 other counts under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.[18] Seagal testified for the prosecution about the mobsters' extortion attempt.[19] Nasso pleaded guilty to the charge of extortion conspiracy in August 2003 and, in February 2004, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, fined $75,000 and ordered to take mental health counselling on release from jail.[20] He had been described by prosecutors as a mob associate.[17]

Nasso agreed to drop a $60 million lawsuit against Seagal for an alleged breach of contract when the two settled out of court in January 2008.[21]

For his contributions to culture in our borough, which include the creation of The Staten Island Film Festival, Nasso received Harbor Lights "Culture Award." He was also rewarded the term Board President for over five years of service to Harbor Lights. He also received 2012 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary.