Remembering Anthony Martignetti ‘Prince Spaghetti’s Anthony’

The Shark Morning Show sends our condolences to the family of Anthony Martignetti. For those of you too young to remember the iconic Prince Spaghetti commercial, Anthony was the star of that ad and kindly reached out to us just last year.

Sarah had written an article on National Spaghetti Day and a short while later, Anthony got in touch with us!

How he was cast in the ad was really a one in a billion type story.

As I remember it, some advertising executives pulled up in a nice car alongside Anthony and a group of his buddies on a neighborhood street in Boston's North End.

They were in need of directions and Anthony was the only one in the group that wasn't giving them a hard time and goofing around.

They appreciated his help so much that a phone number was written down (I think that's how info was exchanged back in the 1960's) and the rest is history!

The original ad came out in 1969 and I (Born in 1973) remember it as clear as crystal because Prince Spaghetti brought the extremely successful campaign back in 1984. And they brought it back AGAIN in 2013.

He was such a lovely and genuine person. We only talked to him the one time and the plans we made to have him visit The Shark Tank for a spaghetti feed was always at the top of our list of great ideas, but as with many great ideas, never quite worked out.

As John Lennon said 'Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans'.

Just from the few minutes we talked to him, his humor, energy and enthusiasm made us feel like we were long lost friends.

We were emailed from a family member that Anthony passed away peacefully in his sleep over the weekend. He was 63.