LOS ANGELES — Tony Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in “The Sopranos” and brought his challenging-dude swagger to movies which includes “Goodfellas,” died Friday. He was 79.
Sirico died at an assisted residing facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, stated his manager, Bob McGowen. There was no immediate information on the cause of loss of life.
A statement from Sirico’s household verified the demise of Gennaro Anthony “Tony” Sirico “with terrific disappointment, but with outstanding satisfaction, love and a entire ton of fond memories.”
McGowan, who represented Sirico for much more than two decades, recalled him as “loyal and offering,” with a solid philanthropic streak. That integrated encouraging ex-soldiers’ triggers, which hit property for the Military veteran, his supervisor said.
Steven Van Zandt, who played opposite Sirico as fellow mobster Silvio Dante on “The Sopranos,” saluted him on Twitter as “legendary.”
“A much larger than life character on and off display screen. Gonna miss you a lot my mate,” the actor and musician mentioned.
Michael Imperioli, who portrayed Christopher Moltisanti on “The Sopranos,” referred to as Sirico his “dear close friend, colleague and partner in criminal offense.”
“Tony was like no a person else: he was as challenging, as loyal and as massive hearted as anyone i’ve at any time identified,” Imperioli explained on Instagram.
Sirico was unconcerned about remaining cast in a string of lousy person roles, McGowan stated, most prominently that of Peter Paul “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri in the 1999-2007 run of the acclaimed HBO drama starring James Gandolfini as mob boss Tony Soprano. (Gandolfini died in 2013 at age 51).
“He failed to mind participating in a mob man, but he wouldn’t participate in an informant,” or as Sirico put it, a “snitch,” McGowan mentioned.
Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York Town, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods the place he said “every guy was hoping to show himself. You either experienced to have a tattoo or a bullet gap.”
“I had equally,” he explained to the Los Angeles Occasions in a 1990 job interview, calling himself ”unstable” through that time period of his lifetime. He was arrested consistently for prison offenses, he stated, and was in jail two times. In his very last stint driving bars, in the 1970s, he observed a functionality by a team of ex-convicts and caught the acting bug.
“I watched ’em and I thought, ‘I can do that.’ I knew I was not lousy seeking. And I understood I had the (guts) to stand up and (bull) persons,” he advised the Periods. “You get a whole lot of practice in jail. I utilized to stand up in front of these cold-blooded murderers and kidnapers — and make ’em laugh.”
Sirico also was solid outdoors the gangster mould, playing law enforcement officers in the films “Dead Presidents” and “Deconstructing Harry.” Among the his other credits had been Woody Allen films together with “Bullets over Broadway” and “Mighty Aphrodite,” and appearances on Television collection like “Miami Vice” and voice roles on “Family Guy” and “American Father!”
Sirico is survived by daughter Joanne Sirico Bello son Richard Sirico his brother, Robert Sirico, a priest and other relations.
