Pete D'Angelo

PFC Pete D'Angelo is Able Company's resident ladies' man, musician and gambler. He is portrayed by Eddie Fontaine.

D'Angelo joined the Army early in 1941 ("Advance and Be Recognized"). His service began before the Pearl Harbor attacks, but it is never stated whether D'Angelo volunteered or was drafted.

A charismatic New Jersey native, D'Angelo is never without a deck of cards and a pair of dice. He frequently cajoles the other enlisted men to play craps or blackjack, and almost always wins. Whether he achieves his remarkable victory streak honestly or through deceit is never explicitly stated in the show. His squadmates rarely question his honesty, though they are often irritated by his prowess. At one point two fellow soldiers owe D'Angelo more than six months' worth of their pay ("And Cain Cried Out"). He is technically the owner of reporter Conley Wright's typewriter after winning it in a blackjack game ("The Gallant Men [Pilot]"). He charges Wright a dollar a day to use it.

About the only person with better gambling skills than D'Angelo is his friend from basic training, "Goldbrick" Gilmartin. During a brief stay with Able Company Gilmartin manages to clean D'Angelo out, but D'Angelo wriggles out of it by producing a three-year-old I.O.U. Gilmartin wrote that neutralizes the debt ("Advance and Be Recognized").

D'Angelo's first appearance, in the cold open of the pilot, shows him singing softly aboard the troop transport bound for Salerno. His musical talents are referred to frequently thereafter. He is often called upon by the other men to sing and play guitar. He usually performs popular standards and blues tunes. In real life, actor Eddie Fontaine sung the lyrics to The Gallant Men 's theme song, "My Heart Belongs to You" (snippets of which can be heard in the pilot episode, as well as "Lesson for a Lover" and "Robertino").

D'Angelo's encounters with women are frequent but uneven in success. His weakness for women almost gets him into major trouble in "Advance and Be Recognized," in which he becomes infatuated with a local woman named Nina and decides to make her the beneficiary of his G.I. life insurance. Both Gilmartin and Capt. Benedict are wary of the plan and warn Pete about his clouded judgment. The revelation that Nina is a prostitute ultimately spares D'Angelo's money, though he feels angry and ashamed by what happened.

D'Angelo comes from a close-knit Italian family. Through dialogue and depiction, viewers get a better view of his family than that of any other character of the series. His mother Lucia hosts a family dinner every Sunday. All that is said of Pete's father is that he is from near Milan. The family resides in Jersey City, New Jersey, where Pete's brother is described as an influential man.

In "Next of Kin," Pete is thrilled to encounter his uncle Nicolo Borrelli when Able Company enters the village of San Marco, somewhere in the southern half of Italy. It is his mother’s hometown, and his parents were married in San Marco before they emigrated to the United States. He is later angered and crestfallen to learn Borelli amassed his wealth in part by cooperating with Germans when the town was occupied. Borelli and his daughter Teresa are killed when San Marco is shelled, leaving D’Angelo to bury both.

Pete tends to have a sibling-like relationship with his comrades in arms, picking on them in an affectionate manner. He often makes sarcastic observations about Able's various dangerous situations. He takes obvious delight in Sgt. McKenna's frustration with a group of boisterous Japanese-American soldiers in "One Puka Puka." He occasionally makes homophobic cracks to and about Pvt. Gibson ("Some Tears Fall Dry" and "Tommy"), though it is not clear if he really believes Gibson is gay or is using homophobia as a casual insult. Still, Gibson says he and D’Angelo are “pretty good friends” (“Next of Kin”).

On the flipside of his amiable, fun-loving personality, D'Angelo is capable of flipping a switch and becoming a creditable soldier in serious situations. He is intolerant of incompetence or mistakes in the field ("The Dogs of War" and "To Hold Up a Mirror") and has no qualms about busting someone's chops if he feels they did not meet his expectations. He is trusted to lead patrols, and his judgment, intelligence and abilities are respected by Benedict and McKenna.

D'Angelo also has a flair for radio engineering. In "A Place to Die" he uses the metal plumbing of a convent to effectively serve as a large communications antenna. After the war, D'Angelo plans to parlay his technical skills into opening a radio repair shop in Jersey City ("Advance and Be Recognized").