Ask American Profile

Christiane Amapour, Danny Aiello and Bert Kaempfert

What’s the nationality and educational and employment background of Christiane Amanpour, the CNN correspondent. She seems to be emerging as the top foreign correspondent.

—Betsey B., Tennessee

The highly regarded reporter has been at the top of her profession for the last decade. Amanpour’s work has included reports on the breakup of the Soviet Union, the upheaval in the former Yugoslavia, and the crisis in Rwanda. She’s won numerous awards for her reporting, including the prestigious Peabody Award. Amanpour, 43, was born in London to an Iranian father and British mother. She lived in Tehran, Iran, for a number of years before the revolution, leaving at age 20 to attend the University of Rhode Island. The journalism student graduated summa cum laude. In 1998, Amanpour married James Rubin. They live in London with their son, Darius John.

I have been trying to think of the title of the short-lived television series that starred Danny Aiello. Am I crazy and did he not have a series?

—Jacque G., Minnesota

You’re not crazy. Danny Aiello starred as tough-talking Italian private eye Anthony Dellaventura in the series Dellaventura, which lasted only one season on CBS in 1997-98. He was nearly 40 years old when he broke into acting in the 1970s, initially playing tough guys in feature films including The Godfather: Part II and Fort Apache, The Bronx. Aiello also acted on and off-Broadway in plays such as Lamppost Reunion and Gemini. Aiello’s most visible roles to date have been in the feature film Moonstruck and as the pizzeria owner in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, a role for which he received an Oscar nomination. He lives in New York with his wife, Sandy. They have four children, two of whom have followed in Dad’s show business footsteps as actor (son Ricky) and as director, actor, and stuntman (son Danny III).

When did bandleader and composer Bert Kaempfert last record and for whom?

—Tom T., Connecticut

Kaempfert released more than 30 albums on Decca from 1959 to 1973. After leaving that label, he recorded for Polydor and MCA. He described his big band sound as “music that doesn’t disturb you.” The legendary big band leader who wrote such hits as Strangers in the Night, Danke Schoen, and Spanish Eyes died of a stroke while on vacation in Spain at the age of 56 in 1980. He was survived by his wife, Hanne, who died in 1988, and two daughters, Doris and Marion. Born in Hamburg, Germany, Kaempfert studied piano as a child and attended the Hamburg Conservatory of Music. In 1961, he produced a session for singer Tony Sheridan that featured the then-unknown Beatles as backup singers. After that session, he recorded two Beatles’ songs, Ain’t She Sweet and Cry for a Shadow.

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