Aldo DeMeo

Born in Washington Square, Manhattan, NY, Aldo moved to Brooklyn as a preschooler with his mom, dad, and three brothers. After getting married, and having a daughter, WWII broke out, and Aldo joined the Navy, and patrolled the Pacific on a munitions boat carrying ammo to other ships at great risk. He was a decorated Sailor, and saw much action. After the war ended he became the Ralph Cramden of his neighborhood, by becoming a Bus Driver with the NTA. (New York Transit Authority). He drove a city bus for 25 years, until he reached retirement age at 55. He took his entire family with him to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Wife: Amelia, son: Robert, and granddaughter: Susan, all arrived in Florida on May 15th, 1969. He joined the Broward County Sheriff's Dept. a year later, and was the President of the Bailiff's Association within 5 years. He was written up in the local news paper as a hero on 13 occasions. Once, he ran after an escaping prisoner all the way out of the courthouse, and down Broward Blvd., until he finally tackled him, and dragged him back into his cell. That got Aldo a front page story and photo in Broward County's biggest newspaper: The Sun Sentinel. In early 1974, Bob Fosse was looking for an actor to play the bailiff in his new movie filming in Broward county (doubling as Miami, Dade County). The Broward County Courthouse was being used as a location, and when Fosse saw the good looking bailiff watching from the sidelines in charge of security, (Aldo), he approached him and asked him if he wanted to play the role as "the bailiff". Aldo agreed, and he ended up being the main bailiff in the movie Lenny (1974). He actually got to drag Dustin Hoffman out of the courtroom, which by the way, was the clip shown world wide at the 1975 Oscars to represent the movie for being nominated for "Best Picture". It was his only 15 minutes, but it's a 15 minutes that will be replayed for generations.