Rossi began his career with small roles in films including the Rick Rosenthal-directed – John Carpenter-scripted – Halloween II (1981) with Jamie Lee Curtis and Donald Pleasence, in which he falls victim to the suburban maniac Michael Myers.

[1] Subsequent roles in Jonathan Kaplan's Heart Like a Wheel (1983) opposite Bonnie Bedelia and Beau Bridges, Tim Hunter's River's Edge (1986) with Dennis Hopper and Keanu Reeves, and Bob Rafelson's Black Widow (1987) – also with Hopper, Theresa Russell and Debra Winger – paved the way for a starring role opposite Jodie Foster and Kelly McGillis in Kaplan's The Accused (1988) as the film's central antagonist, Cliff "Scorpion" Albrect.

Rossi had a supporting role in the Harold Ramis comedy Analyze This (1999), in which he plays the evil cousin to Robert De Niro's character; other co-stars include Billy Crystal, Chazz Palminteri, and Lisa Kudrow.

He portrayed a special agent in Kaplan's adaptation of Truman Capote's psychological drama In Cold Blood (1996); the latter – a miniseries set in 1950s America – co-stars Sam Neill and Eric Roberts.

Rossi then both produced and starred in the thriller 10th & Wolf (2006), in which he plays an FBI Agent partnered with Brian Dennehy who attempt to infiltrate a Sicilian Mafia family business.