His birthday is June 8.

As with all the best guys, he's married. Sorry, ladies.


Personal:

The WriterGroupie first met this charming actor a few years ago at the San Diego Comic-Con, where he and fellow Witchblade co-star Eric Etebari were signing posters and photos to promote the show. The WriterGroupie remembers at the time being impressed by his charm and good natured personality, but it was a relatively brief encounter.

At the 2003 Comic-Con, the WriterGroupie once again had the pleasure of meeting Anthony and this time has a longer story to tell:

A friend and I were wandering through the dealers' room when we passed the Inkworks trading cards booth. Someone was signing, but I couldn't see clearly who it was. But I insisted we stop at the booth anyway and pick up the free trading cards they always give out. At which point I noticed the sign listing who was signing at the booth that day and currently signing was: Anthony Cistaro!

Now, I loved and adored Witchblade, and was devastated when it was cancelled. At a previous Comic-Con, I'd won a Witchblade t-shirt for knowing the answers to Witchblade trivia questions and I happened to be wearing that shirt! Now bear in mind, I had no idea Anthony would be there -- I just missed the show and wanted to wear the shirt to the con to show my support for it (I'm hoping they'll release the show on DVD).

While waiting in line, I jokingly said to my friend, 'should I ask him to sign my shirt?' But I didn't really mean it. It was towards the end of Anthony's signing (I'd luckily made it barely in time!) and he just had a few Witchblade trading cards left to sign and I expected to get one of those. But when I got up to the booth, with me, as he had with every other person in line, he stopped, extended his hand and introduced himself and asked what my name was (how sexy is a guy with good manners?!). I grinned like an idiot and told him my name. I then pointed at my shirt and said "I guess I wore the right t-shirt today, didn't I?" He looked at it and saw that it was a Witchblade shirt and a big smile lit up his face -- he was delighted to see the support for the show. He asked, "Would you like me to sign it?" I told him I'd love it! Okay, here's where silly little ActorGroupie kicks in -- I was literally trembling as he signed my shirt. Oh my, does that man have presence! After he signed my shirt, I told him I'd won it at a previous Comic-Con for knowing the answers to trivia questions about the show and he said thought he'd remembered me from the earlier signing. And I didn't think he was just being nice, he seemed like he meant it! So I told him how sad I was that the show had been cancelled and how I felt the fan support to try to save the show had gotten lost when Farscape was cancelled right after and got all the attention/support.

I told him about my favorite scene of his in Witchblade and he said he had a great story about that scene, so I waited while he finished signing for the last few people. He was just amazing with the fans, stopping to talk and listen to each and every one of them. After that he told me the story of how the scene was originally supposed to go vs. how it changed and I told him that it was my favorite scene in the series and that I'd watched it multiple times. He was extremely appreciative that I'd responded so well to the scene as when they were filming it, he wasn't sure of what the audience reaction would be.

I asked him about the likelihood of Witchblade DVDs -- that despite the fact that I'd taped every episode, I still wanted the series on DVD. He again, seemed pleased by my enthusiasm and agreed that there was enough material to do it and that it would make sense to release the series on DVD. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

After our conversation, I realized that my friend had his camera, so I went back and asked Anthony if I could get a photo op with him. He was very gracious and posed for a picture (which gave me an opportunity to hug him -- yay!) and then a second one just in case the first one didn't come out well. I look forward to seeing how the pictures turned out -- was I really floating that high off the ground? It sure felt like it! What a super nice guy!

I also told him about this site and that I had plans to put a page up for him and Witchblade. He was very flattered and promised to go check out the site! So in case he's reading this:

Hello, Anthony! You made my entire day this year at Comic-Con! I spent the rest of the day happily floating on a cloud and annoying my friends by constantly pointing to where you signed my shirt! You rock!