Background
Tony comes from a wealthy Italian American family from Long Island, New York. He is an only child, but has been cut off from his family's fortune. His mother, maiden name Paddington, died when he was eight years old. According to Tony, she died in the hospital while they were watching a movie. She went through a "Louis XV phase" when Tony was five that inspired the decor of his childhood bedroom and gave him vampire nightmares. She also drank Tony's Sea Monkeys, confusing their sea castles with her mint julep.
Tony's father, Anthony DiNozzo Sr., is an American Civil War reenactor and as a child, Tony would carry the "poop bucket" during reenactments. This has resulted in a dislike of anything relating to the Civil War. It has also been suggested that his father was emotionally neglectful, and at one point Tony was left in a hotel room for two days when his father left for a supposed business meeting. In "Flesh and Blood", Tony's father is in DC and the two share similar personality traits—they both flirt with women and quote movies. It is also stated in "Flesh and Blood" that his father is a con artist pretending to be rich when he is really bankrupt. It is also revealed that after his mother's death, Tony and his father spent very little time together and rarely kept in touch. Tony also spent much of his childhood in a number of boarding schools and summer camps. In "Broken Arrow" DiNozzo Sr. helps Gibbs with a case by using his contacts and going undercover with Ziva at a hotel party. Tony and his father also reconcile their differences.
In the season finale of Season 1, entitled "Reveille" Ducky noted that in Italy, Tony's ancestors' home country, most boys his age were still living with their mother, while Tony lives in his own apartment.
Other family members mentioned in NCIS episodes include a button-collecting grandfather who bequeathed Tony one thousand shares in a dot-com, and a number of uncles. His uncle Vincenzo is a butcher on Long Island. A second uncle was a successful businessman, but was found at a golf course looking for mole people. A third uncle is named as Clive Paddington, wealthy and deceased.
Read more about this topic: Anthony Di Nozzo
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)