‘Sopranos’ actor Tony Sirico, ‘Paulie Walnuts,’ dies at 79

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tony Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in “The Sopranos” and brought his tough-dude swagger to movies which includes “Goodfellas,” died Friday. He was 79.

Sirico died at an assisted residing facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, explained his manager, Bob McGowen. There was no speedy data on the result in of loss of life.

A assertion from Sirico’s household confirmed the loss of life of Gennaro Anthony “Tony” Sirico “with wonderful sadness, but with outstanding pleasure, enjoy and a entire good deal of fond reminiscences.”

McGowan, who represented Sirico for extra than two decades, recalled him as “loyal and providing,” with a solid philanthropic streak. That provided assisting ex-soldiers’ causes, which hit property for the Army veteran, his manager claimed.

Steven Van Zandt, who played opposite Sirico as fellow mobster Silvio Dante on “The Sopranos,” saluted him on Twitter as “legendary.”

“A greater than life character on and off display. Gonna miss you a whole lot my buddy,” the actor and musician stated.

Michael Imperioli, who portrayed Christopher Moltisanti on “The Sopranos,” identified as Sirico his “dear mate, colleague and companion in crime.”

“Tony was like no a single else: he was as challenging, as faithful and as big hearted as any one i’ve ever known,” Imperioli stated on Instagram.

Sirico was unconcerned about being forged in a string of poor guy roles, McGowan explained, most prominently that of Peter Paul “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri in the 1999-2007 operate of the acclaimed HBO drama starring James Gandolfini as mob manager Tony Soprano. (Gandolfini died in 2013 at age 51).

“He didn’t thoughts enjoying a mob guy, but he would not engage in an informant,” or as Sirico set it, a “snitch,” McGowan reported.

Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York Town, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods in which he reported “every person was hoping to establish himself. You either experienced to have a tattoo or a bullet hole.”

“I had both,” he told the Los Angeles Moments in a 1990 interview, calling himself ”unstable“ through that time period of his lifestyle. He was arrested continuously for felony offenses, he mentioned, and was in jail two times. In his previous stint at the rear of bars, in the 1970s, he observed a effectiveness by a team of ex-convicts and caught the performing bug.

“I watched ’em and I assumed, ‘I can do that.’ I knew I wasn’t terrible searching. And I knew I had the (guts) to stand up and (bull) men and women,“ he advised the Moments. ”You get a lot of practice in jail. I applied to stand up in entrance of these chilly-blooded murderers and kidnapers — and make ’em laugh.”

Sirico also was forged outside the house the gangster mold, playing law enforcement officers in the movies “Dead Presidents” and “Deconstructing Harry.“ Amid his other credits were Woody Allen films such as “Bullets more than Broadway” and “Mighty Aphrodite,” and appearances on Television set series which includes “Miami Vice” and voice roles on “Family Guy” and “American Dad!”

Sirico is survived by daughter Joanne Sirico Bello son Richard Sirico his brother, Robert Sirico, a priest and other family members.

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