GOOD FELLA (REMEMBERING TONY SIRICO)

 

Few actors have made the transition from convicted criminal to cherished star of the small screen.

But few actors were like Tony Sirico.

Known to most audiences as Tony Soprano's edgy henchman Paulie Walnuts, he worked with directors like Francis Coppola, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and Hames Toback during his career and his CV included appearances in 'The Godfather Part II,' 'Good Fellas,' 'Casino,' 'Copland' and several Allen films.

Born Genarro Antonio Siroco in New York in 1942, he was raised in the Brooklyn neighbourhoods of Bensonhurst and East Flatbush.

In his teens, he fell on the wrong side of the law hanging out with a street gang.

Sirico was arrested 28 times and convicted of crimes ranging from robbery to assault and disorderly conduct.

He later told the LA Times in 1990: "Where I grew up, every guy was trying to prove himself. You either had to have a tattoo or a bullet hole."

Tony would sustain a bullet wound, being shot after being spotted kissing another man's wife in a church. 

In an incident that seemed like it could have been in 'The Sopranos,' he recalled being shot in the leg: "When I saw blood all over my new white suit, I just went crazy.

"I started running towards their car.

"All I could think of was how they ruined my suit... Then they shot me again - this time in the back."

Sirico had two stretches in jail - serving one spell for an illegal weapon charge and another for armed robbery.

It was during this second period in prison that Tony caught a performance by a group of ex cons turned professional actors.

"I looked at them and I thought: 'I can do that'.

"I knew I wasn't bad looking. And I knew I had the [guts] to stand up and [bull] people.

"You get a lot of practice in prison. I used to stand up in front of these cold blooded murderers and kidnappers and make them laugh."

Through a photographer in New York's Daily News, Sirocco started to work as a model on his release and as an actor with the help of his acting coach Michael V Gazzo who would be Academy Award nominated for his performance as Frankie Pentangeli in 'The Godfather Part II'.

Soon Tony started to land bit parts in film and television, bringing a streetwise authenticity to the parts he played.

He was initially an extra on the Dino de Laurentis produced and Carlo Lizzani directed 1974 crime film 'Crazy Joe' with Peter Boyle and Eli Wallach and Francis Coppola's 'The Godfather Part II'.

There was an appearance in 1977 in an episode in the hugely popular Telly Savalas' CBS cop series.

James Toback directed him in the 1978 movie 'Fingers' - a crime drama with Harvey Keitel, Tisa Farrow, Danny Aiello and Dominic Chianese about a young man pulled between his pianist mother and Mafia hood father which would be remade in France in 2005 as 'The Beat My Heart Skipped' by Jacques Audriard with Romain Duris.

There were also appearances in the straight to video 1978 neo noir 'One Man Jury' with Jack Palance, Christopher Mitchum and Pamela Shoop, John Flynn's 1980 neo noir 'Defiance' with Jan Michael Vincent, Art Carney and Danny Aiello and Andrew Bergman's 1981 sex comedy 'So Fine' with Ryan O'Neal, Jack Warden and Fred Gwynne 

In 1982, Sirico gotsmall screen experience as a poker player in an episode of the ABC detective series spoof  'Police Squad!' with Leslie Nielsen.

James Toback directed him again in the 1982 drama 'Love and Money' with Ray Sharkey, Klaus Kinski, Armand Assante and Ornella Muti which was about a bank employee who becomes infatuated with his billionaire boss's wife.

Toback cast him as a thief in his next movie 'Exposed' in 1983, a thriller with Nastassja Kinski, Rudolf Nureyev, Harvey Keitel, Bibi Andersson and Ian McShane which drew mixed reviews.

Further roles in movies followed, with a lead in Murray Magder's little seen 1987 flick 'The Galucci Brothers,' an appearance in Toback's romcom 'The Pickup Artist' with Molly Ringwald, Robert Downey Jr, Danny Aiello and Harvey Keitel which stumbled at the box office and as a tough guy in Frank Perry's 1989 comedy 'Hello Again' with Shelley Long, Judith Ivey and Gabriel Byrne whose box office exceeded expectations after terrible reviews.

Susan Seidelman directed him in 'Cookie,' a 1989 comedy with Peter Falk, Emily Lloyd and Dianne Wiest which took a critical hammering.

He also featured in James Toback's well received documentary 'The Big Bang' which aired on PBS and saw various figures contemplate the big questions in life.

There was an appearance in 1989 in an episode of the slick Michael Mann created NBC cop series 'Miami Vice' and also that year in a HBO TV movie 'Perfect Witness' about a witness spooked by a Mob killing with Brian Dennehy, Stockard Channing and Aidan Quinn.

In 1990, Sirico notched up another appearance in a classic American movie as Tony Stacks, an associate of Paul Sorvino's Mob boss Paulie Cicero in Martin Scorsese's 'GoodFellas' with Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Robert de Niro, Joe Pesci, Frank Vincent, Samuel L Jackson and Michael Imperioli.

He would work again with de Niro, Pesci and Scorsese on their epic 1995 Mob tale 'Casino' with Sharon Stone as a member of Pesci's Mob character Nicky Santoro's crew.

Dennis Hopper also directed Sirico and John Turturro as Mafia henchmen in his 1990 romantic action thriller 'Crossfire' with Jodie Foster, Fred Ward and Vincent Price which featured appearances by Pesci, Charlie Sheen, Catherine Keener and Bob Dylan.

There were roles in George Gallo's 1991 comedy drama '29th Street' with Anthony La Paglia and Danny Aiello, John Landis' 1992 horror black comedy 'Innocent Blood'  with Anne Parillaud and Robert Loggia and Peter Medak's 1993 neo-noir 'Romeo is Bleeding' with Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Anabella Sciorra, Roy Scheider and Juliette Lewis.

In 1994 he worked for the first time on a Woody Allen film, playing an associate of Chazz Palmintieri's Mobster in the critically acclaimed comedy 'Bullets Over Broadway' with John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Jennifer Tilly, Tracey Ullman, Jack Warden, Rob Reiner and Jim Broadbent.

He would work with him again in the 1995 comedy 'Mighty Aphrodite' with Mira Sorvino, on the 1996 musical 'Everyone Says I Love You' with Natasha Lyonne, Goldie Hawn, Julia Roberts, Edward Norton, Alan Alda, Drew Barrymore and Tim Roth, on the 1997 black comedy 'Deconstructing Harry' with Kirstie Alley, Judy Davis, Richard Benjamin and Billy Crystal, on his 1998 comedy drama 'Celebrity' with Kenneth Branagh, Charlize Theron and Leonardo di Caprio, on the 2016 comedy 'Cafe Society' with Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carell and in the 2017 comedy drama 'Wonder Wheel' with Juno Temple, Justin Timberlake and Kate Winslet.

1995 saw him play a police officer in the Hughes Brothers' hit crime flick 'Dead Presidents' with Larenz Tate, Keith David and Chris Tucker.

Sirico appeared briefly in a photo used in James Mangold's acclaimed 1997 police corruption thriller 'Copland' with Sylvester Stallone, Harvey Keitel, Robert de Niro, Anabella Sciorra, Janeane Garafolo, Michael Rapaport and Ray Liotta.

That year he joined Mike Starr and Matt Keeslar in John Gallagher's working class Italian American neighbourhood indie comedy 'The Deli' which received mixed to negative reviews.

He played a Mob boss Joey "The Heart" Aorta in Jon Camoy's little seen 1998 indie romcom 'Mob Queen' with Candis Cayne and David Proval.

During the 1990s, Sirico also appeared in a NBC TV movie 'In The Shadow of A Killer' with Scott Bakula, Miguel Ferrer, Lindsay Frost, James Russo and Robert Forster.

Sirico appeared in a 1996 episode of the CBS sitcom 'Cosby' with Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashad and in Robert Harmon's HBO TV movie 'Gotti' about the Gambino crime family boss, John Gotti.

Joining a cast which comprised of Armand Assante as Hottie, Anthony Quinn and William Forsythe, he played the gangster Joe D'miglia in the drama which was well received.

Irish director Thaddeus O'Sullivan directed him as Tommy Gambino in another made for TV film about the Mafia 'Witness to the Mob' where he would rub shoulders with future 'Sopranos' castmates Michael Imperioli and Vincent Pastore as well as Tom Sizemore, Nicholas Turturro, Debi Mazar and Philip Baker Hall.

When word reached him that David Chase was planning a Mafia drama on HBO, Sirico read for the script of Toby Soprano's hotheaded and vain Uncle Junior 'Corrado' Soprano but the part went to 'The Godfather Part II' veteran Dominic Chianese.

Chase offered him the role of Paulie Walnuts instead but he had a condition. 

He made him promise Paulie would "never become a rat".

One of the trusted henchmen of James Gandolfini's New Jersey Mob boss Tony Soprano, Paulie became one of the show's most popular characters, with Sirico mining the potential for dark comedy.

Whether it was Paulie's habit of repeating quips he made to other characters or his indignation at Starbucks making more of a success out of selling coffee than Italian Americans, Siroco had a flair for making audiences laugh.

Nowhere was this better demonstrated than in the infamous 'Pine Barrens' episode where Paulie and Michael Imperioli's Christopher Moltisanti mess up a money collection and then the disposal of a Russian's body in a forest.

A huge favourite of fans, the episode is a great example of Siroco and Imperioli's comic timing and is a masterclass in physical comedy.

Regarded as possibly the greatest TV drama of all time, 'The Sopranos' ran on HBO for 74 episodes over six seasons, ending in 2007 and helped make Siroco a household name.

In 1999, he joined Hugh Grant, James Caan and Jeanne Trippelhorn in Kelly Makin's Mob romcom 'Mickey Blue Eyes' which again featured fellow 'Sopranos' cast members John Ventimiglia, Aida Turturro, Vincent Pastore, Tony Darrow and Frank Pellegrino. 

Despite mixed reviews, the comedy was a box office hit.

There were also roles in Steven Feder's 2000 romcom 'It Had To Be You' with Natasha Henstridge, Michael Vartan and Michael Rispoli,  Vincent Di Rosa's 2001 crime drama 'Smokin' Stogies' with Frank Vincent and Charles Jarrott's crime tale 'Turn of Faith' with Ray Mancini and Mia Sara.

In 2005, Sirico provided the voice of Big Daddy Fairwinkle on Nickolodeon's animated comedy 'The Fairly OddParents'.

With 'The Sopranos' now over, he continued to regularly work on the big and small screen, narrating the Indian movie 'Karma Calling'.

2007 and 2008 also saw him work with the Muppets, appearing alongside fellow 'Sopranos' cast member Steve Schirripa as Bert to his Ernie in 'Elmo's Christmas Countdown' and again with him as a Mafia hood in NBC's special 'A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa' which also featured Uma Thurman, Jane Krakowski, Nathan Lane and Richard Griffiths.

On TV, there were also appearances between 2010 and 13 in NBC's comedy spy show 'Chuck' with Zachary Levi, in CBS's supernatural drama 'Medium' with Patricia Arquette, on the Syfy Channel's TV movie 'Jersey Shore Shark Attack' and as a priest on the Norwegian American comedy drama 'Lilyhammer' on Netflix which starred his old 'Sopranos' sparring partner Steven Van Zandt and featured guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Paul Kaye and Michael Badalucco.

There was another 'Sopranos' reunion of sorts on Nickelodeon's TV movie 'Nicky Deuce' with Noah Munck and Rita Moreno, which featured appearance by him, Steve Schirripa, James Gandolfini, Michael Imperioli and Vincent Curatola.

Sirico memorably had a recurring role between 2013 and 2016 as the voice of an Italian greyhound called Vinny in Fox's adult animated comedy 'Family Guy'.

In 2014, Sirico landed the lead role of a retired detective who drifts into crime in Juha Wuokijoki's 'Zarra's Law' with Brendan Fehr and Erin Cummings but it struggled to find an audience.

In Christopher Kublan's indie comedy 'Friends and Romans,' he joined Anabella Sciorra, Michael Rispoli and Paul Ben Victor in a story about Mafia movie extras trying to stage a Shakespearean production. 

There was a rr in Timothy Scott Bogart's 2015 'Touched' - a forgettable drama about a car crash victim with Jenna Elfman and Bruce Davison.

He guested on the short-lived NBC police action comedy series 'Taxi Brooklyn' with Chyler Leigh and Jacky Ido and there was also an appearance in 2016 in an episode of Fox's single camera legal comedy show 'The Grinder' with Rob Lowe and Fred Savage.

In Fox's adult animated comedy 'American Dad,' he appeared twice as a Mobster known as Enzo Perotti between 2017 and 2019.

Along with Vincent Pastore, Sally Kirkland and Burt Young, he popped up in John A Gallagher's 2018 indie drama 'Sarah Q'.

Before his death, Sirico completed roles in Ganaga Goba's crime drama 'Respext the Jux' with Ciera Payton and John Comrie's 'Super Athlete' with Christopher Lloyd.

Ill health, however, prevented him from appearing in last year's 'The Many Saints of Newark,' Tim Van Patten's movie spin-off of 'The Sopranos'.

He was held in such regard among fellow cast members from 'The Sopranos' that a host of them from Lorraine Bracco to Jamie Lynn Siglerto Steven Van Zandt were quick to pay tribute to him after his passing, along James Gandolfini's son Michael.

Michael Imperioli penned arguably the sweetest tribute to his castmate who is survived by two children.

"We found a groove as Christopher and Paulie and I am proud to say I did a lot of my best and most fun work with my dear pal Tony," he mused.

"I will miss him forever. He is truly irreplaceable."

(Tony Sirico passed away at the age of 79 on July , 2022)