Before Her Oscar, the Star of ‘My Cousin Vinny’ Spent 2 Years in Oakdale

Years before she won her Oscar for playing Mona Lisa Vito in the 1992 movie My Cousin Vinny, Marisa Tomei starred on a beloved soap opera. At the beginning of her career, Tomei portrayed Marcy Thompson on As the World Turns.

According to Tomei’s IMDb page, she began her role on As the World Turns in 1984. As the Emmy Awards shared, Tomei was attending college at Boston University when she landed her role on As the World Turns.

Tomei didn’t stick around in Oakdale long, though, appearing in just 18 episodes before moving on. After a few small parts, Tomei landed a role on A Different World, briefly playing the roommate of Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) in the Cosby spinoff set at Hillman College.

Ultimately, however, it was My Cousin Vinny that became Tomei’s breakthrough role.

Tomei played the tough, Brooklyn-born and bred fiancee to the inexperienced, rough-around-the-edges attorney Vinny Gambini, played by Joe Pesci.

In 2017, for the movie’s 25th anniversary, Tomei talked with The Guardian about her filming experience. “I was fresh to the business and didn’t know how movies worked.” Luckily, she continued, “Joe chose me for the part, then took me by the hand and guided me immensely, so I got very lucky.”

Tomei was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her work as Mona Lisa. To the surprise of nearly everyone, she won, beating out established stars such as Judy Davis and Vanessa Redgrave.

After Tomei was announced the winner, rumors quickly spread suggesting that presenter Jack Palance read the wrong name and Tomei wasn’t really the winner. Not only was she considered a newcomer in the business, but comedies didn’t often win those categories.

As Snopes noted, part of the conspiracy was that critics thought the Academy was too embarrassed by the supposed mistake to correct it.

However, the Academy has always had procedures in place to ensure that very thing doesn’t happen. In fact, in 2017, officials had to step in to correct that Moonlight won the Award for Best Picture, not La La Land, as was erroneously announced.

The Academy has always insisted that Tomei truly earned that Oscar, but the rumors have never fully evaporated.

Tomei has come a long way since her brief time playing Marcy Thompson on As the World Turns. She has portrayed May Parker in recent Spider-Man movies and has five separate projects that are currently in various stages of completion.