Born to Elizabeth di Giovanni and Aniello Armand on August 5, 1922 in Rye, NY, Armand was raised in Washington Heights, NY with his large Italian family. He was, in his youth, a prodigious artist who excelled masterfully in drawing, painting and draftsmanship. By his teens he had caught the attention of artists such as Norman Rockwell and the German post-impressionist painter, Hubert Landau, a noted German born painter, (a friend of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke), who came here as a refugee to escape the Nazis in l937. Landau was a profound influence on the young painter’s development. 

During the World War II Armand served with the U.S. Marine Corp in the South Asia, Pacific and China operations, (with his sketching materials always handy in his knapsack).

He made many drawings of Japanese and Chinese peasants.During the post war Armand entered the advertising field, and despite holding various creative and managerial posts and later his own advertising service he managed to paint on weekends. He has exhibited in New York, including two one man shows at West Point’s Eisenhower Hall and the Benedetti Gallery. Armand lives on the side of a mountain in Cornwall. N.Y. and devotes his mornings to painting. His wife Katharine, a pianist and poet, taught music in the Monroe -Woodbury and Highland Falls School Districts. 

After the war he married Katharine Healy, a pianist and music teacher, on June 28, 1947. The young couple lived in Washington Heights with their first two children, Denise (singer and actress)  and Armand (stage and screen actor) until 1957, when Ralph Ogden, Sr. of Star Expansion Industries in Mountainville, NY, invited Armand to become the Senior Advertising Executive for his company. The Assantes moved to Mountainville that year, and their third child Andrea, (physical therapist) was born in 1959.

Armand was an often celebrated artist both in New York and in the Hudson Valley, exhibiting most recently at the Karpeles Gallery in Newburgh. His work has been shown at the Benedetti Gallery in SOHO in Manhattan, Eisenhower Hall at West Point and the Lyceum Theater in Sugar Loaf, among others. His work has been represented by SPQR Fine Art. Armand Assante passed away in August 25, 2017.