Growing up on the streets of blue-collar Yonkers, New York, Erik Palladino’s life might have taken a different path if not for the indelible impression made on him by the Oscar-winning film “Raging Bull” and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”

Palladino returns to “ER” for his third season as a gregarious and up-front fourth-year resident in the emergency room. “Once, I was on the lowest-rated series (‘DiResta’) in the history of prime-time network TV,” he says. “Now, I’m on the highest-rated. It’s almost surreal.”

The youngest of three brothers, Palladino’s father owns a heating contractor business in the Bronx that involves most of the family (his mother is a schoolteacher). At 14, he began performing with the Children’s Repertory Company from nearby New Rochelle, and even appeared with the troupe off-Broadway. He attended the same all-boys high school as did Alan Alda (a recurring guest star on “ER” in the 1999-2000 season) but remained aloof from acting, ever mindful of his wisecracking friends’ disdain for it. However, he became a full-time theater arts student when he auditioned for and was accepted at Marymount Manhattan College – an all-women’s campus except for its theater program – where he later received his bachelor of arts degree.

While Palladino credits acting for “turning my life around in college,” he later opted to play in No Happy Faces, an alternative rock band, for four years. Eventually, he worked his way back to his studied craft when he became a series regular in Comedy Central’s “Short-Attention Span Theatre.” In 1996, he even became a veejay on MTV while still performing in his band.

Perhaps Palladino’s big career break came when he simply decided to cut his long hair. The next week, he was cast as a series regular in the comedy “Love and Marriage,” followed quickly by gigs as a recurring regular on “Murphy Brown” and “DiResta.” His request to exit the latter series was honored, and he was cast on the last day of his series commitment in the hit feature film “U-571” as an American sailor in World War II opposite Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton and Harvey Keitel. His other features include “Can’t Hardly Wait” and the independents “This Space Between Us,” “The Week That Girl Died” and “Roadkill.” Palladino recently completed production of the film “Finder’s Fee,” opposite James Earl Jones. He also guest-starred on “Party of Five.”

Palladino enjoys his offbeat character who’s not above bending the rules to save a patient. “He’s really an adrenaline junkie,” he says. “He enjoys people’s quirks and likes to mess with them to get a reaction. He’s tough, strong-willed and a straight-shooter.”

In his leisure time, Palladino prefers to box (while also participating in other sports), write and hang out with his mixed-breed mutt. In addition, he remains a loyal New York Yankees fan. His birthday is May 10.