Tony Sirico

Chase: "He was a main reason for the success of The Sopranos. I will miss him greatly."

“I am proud to say I did a lot of my best and most fun work with my dear pal Tony. I will miss him forever. I have a lifetime of memories with Tony–starting with Goodfellas to The Sopranos and way beyond but my God, did we have fun doing the Bensonhurst Spelling Bee. I hope he’s in heaven cracking everybody up now. Meanwhile, Lorraine Braco—who also appeared alongside Sirico in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas— wrote on Twitter, “A stand up guy who always had my back and who loved my children and my parents.

Sirico died at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said his manager, Bob McGowen. There was no immediate information on the cause of death.

And I knew I had the (guts) to stand up and (bull) people," he told the Times. "You get a lot of practice in prison. I used to stand up in front of these cold-blooded murderers and kidnappers — and make ’em laugh.” “I had both,” he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview, calling himself “unstable" during that period of his life. Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York City, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods where he said "every guy was trying to prove himself. In his last stint behind bars, in the 1970s, he saw a performance by a group of ex-convicts and caught the acting bug. “Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone I’ve ever known,” Imperioli said on Instagram.

The cast of the Sopranos have led tributes to actor Tony Sirico, aka Paulie 'Walnuts' Gualtieri, who has died at the age of 79.

I have a lifetime of memories with Tony— starting with Goodfellas to The Sopranos and way beyond— but my God, did we have fun doing the Bensonhurst Spelling Bee—I’m still laughing. He was a phenomenal actor and an even better man.’ He will be sorely missed by the HBO family.’ ‘Sending love to everyone of you… My Heart goes out to Tony’s family. You will be missed.’ The actor ‘was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone i’ve ever known. ‘And we had a lot of laughs. I was at his side through so much: through good times and bad. And Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini, who starred as Tony Soprano, said Sirico was ‘one of a kind.’ He is truly irreplaceable. He went on: ‘I will miss him forever.

Actor Tony Sirico, best known for his role on The Sopranos, has died aged 79.

I have a lifetime of memories with Tony – starting with Goodfellas to The Sopranos and way beyond but my God, did we have fun doing the Bensonhurst Spelling Bee." 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. I will miss him forever. Writing on Instagram, he said: “It pains me to say that my dear friend, colleague and partner in crime, the great TONY SIRICO has passed away today. He was beloved and will never be forgotten. I send love to his family, friends and his many many fans. He made his acting debut in the 1974 drama Crazy Joe.

'He made it clear from day one that he was my forever protector,' Meadow Soprano actor Jamie Lynn Sigler wrote.

She continued: “I met him when I was 16, and he made it clear from day one that he was my forever protector, and he was. Series creator David Chase hailed Sirico as a “jewel”, writing: “The way Buddhists refer to a jewel – supernatural and a master. “If you were lucky enough to be his friend you were guaranteed a good time whenever you were around him. He lived many lives, but with full passion in all of them.” Silvio Dante actor Steven Van Zandt, who also starred with Sirico in Netflix series Lillyhammer, wrote: “A larger-than-life character on and off screen. He added: “Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone I’ve ever known.

Tony Sirico, who played Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri in The Sopranos, has died aged 79, his brother and agent confirmed.

Speaking to the LA Times in 1990, he said: “Where I grew up, every guy was trying to prove himself. The Sopranos creator David Chase added: “The way Buddhists refer to a jewel – supernatural and a master. On The Sopranos, his legendary performance as the unwavering Paulie Walnuts cemented him as an icon, beloved for his one-liners and steadfast devotion. Terence Winter, a writer on “Sopranos,” said: “The 1st thing Tony Sirico ever said to me — literally on day one — was, ‘You’re the new writer? 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. I will miss him forever.” If you were lucky enough to be his friend you were guaranteed a good time whenever you were around him. A statement posted on Facebook by Sirico’s brother Robert read: “It is with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories, that the family of Gennaro Anthony ‘Tony’ Sirico wishes to inform you of his death on the morning of July 8, 2022. Its cast led tributes to Sirico on social media, with co-star Michael Imperioli calling him a “dear friend, colleague and partner in crime”. Gonna miss you a lot my friend. Deepest condolences to the family.pic.twitter.com/pAkDnqfLEs Deepest condolences to the family.” Gonna miss you a lot my friend.

Actor who specialised in playing characters rom the criminal underworld remembered as 'a stand up guy.

“I adore Tony Sirico,” she wrote, sharing two pictures of the pair together. “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. I will miss him forever. I send love to his family, friends and his many many fans. He was beloved and will never be forgotten. “I was at his side through so much: through good times and bad. And we had a lot of laughs.

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He touched many with his gift and my heart goes out to his family, his friends, and all of his fans. Sirico is survived by his daughter Joanne, his brother Robert, and a number of grandchildren. “He was a phenomenal actor and an even better man,” wrote Gandolfini of Sirico. “Tony was one of a kind. Sirico was not subtle, but somehow, he was nuanced.” 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. I will miss him forever. His former co-stars have been amongst those making tributes to Sirico. Michael Imperioli, who shared many scenes with Sirico as Christopher Moltisanti, said that “Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone I’ve ever known.

Actor Tony Sirico, best known for his role as Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri, a mobster on The Sopranos, has died at the age of 79.

Famed Godfather actor James Caan, who died earlier this week, aged 82, was quoted as saying of his old friend and fellow actor: “He’s been able to romanticise his past, throw in a few bangles and sparkles and use it as an actor. Sirico was born in Brooklyn, New York, and in keeping with his typecast, was arrested 28 times – spending two stretches in prison. Actor Tony Sirico, best known for his role as a mobster on The Sopranos, has died aged 79.

Sirico played a major role in the HBO drama that started in 1999 and became an influential hit early in the era of prestige television.

... I knew right away this was a role to kill for." Sirico often played Italian-American mobsters, including a small part in "Goodfellas," Martin Scorsese's popular and critical hit from 1990. Sirico also took a comic turn voicing the talking dog Vinny on the animated show "Family Guy."

A familiar face in Woody Allen movies, the actor became widely know for his portrayal of Paulie Walnuts on the hit HBO series.

“I was this 30-year-old ex-con villain sitting in a class filled with fresh-faced, serious drama students,” Mr. Sirico recalled in the Daily News interview. Mr. Sirico followed that with more than a decade of small television and movie roles, capped by his part as the flashy mobster Tony Stacks in “Goodfellas” (1990). He brought at least one admirable lesson from the mob world to “The Sopranos.” He insisted that his character never be portrayed as a rat, someone who would snitch on his crime family. He was a boxing trainer in “Mighty Aphrodite” (1995), an escaped convict in “Everyone Says I Love You” (1996), a matter-of-fact jailhouse cop in “Deconstructing Harry” (1997) and a gun-toting gangster on Coney Island in “Wonder Wheel” (2017). Once “The Sopranos” hit the air in 1999, it became enormously and widely popular. “When I watched them, I said to myself, ‘I can do that,’” he told The Daily News in 1999. When the “Sopranos” cast appeared in a group shot on the cover of Rolling Stone in 2001, Paulie stood with a baseball bat casually slung over his right shoulder. He worked in construction for a while but soon yielded to temptation. Paulie was the kind of guy who would participate in an intervention for a drug addict, and when it was his turn to speak, punch the guy in the face. There was an air about them that was very intriguing, especially to a kid.” He hated being stuck with an almost $900 restaurant check but could appreciate a tasty ketchup packet on a cold night in the Pine Barrens when there was nothing else to eat. He appeared in several of them, beginning with “Bullets Over Broadway” (1994), in which he played the right-hand man of a powerful gangster turned theater producer.

Sirico, who played Tony Soprano's oft-hilarious foot soldier Paulie Walnuts, died this week at 79 years old.

Deepest condolences to the family.pic.twitter.com/pAkDnqfLEs Gonna miss you a lot my friend. He continued, “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. I will miss him forever. View this post on Instagram I was at his side through so much: through good times and bad. Tony Sirico, who played Paulie Walnuts, the oft-hilarious foot soldier to James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano, has died at 79 years old.

Tony Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in The Sopranos and brought his tough-guy swagger to films including Goodfellas, ...

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Tony Sirico, the New York actor best known for playing Paulie Walnuts Gualtieri on "The Sopranos," has died at an assisted living facility in Florida.

Deepest condolences to the family," Van Zandt wrote in his own social media post. I send love to his family, friends and his many many fans. 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. I will miss him forever.

Tony Sirico, a one-time jailbird who achieved fame as mobster Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri in "The Sopranos," died Friday, his brother the Rev.

His character’s hair-trigger temper was seasoned with a mentor-like role to the more junior Christopher Moltisanti, portrayed by Michael Imperioli. But mostly good.” An acting group comprised of ex-convicts visited the facility and inspired him to take up acting. But it was his portrayal of “made” mobster Paulie Walnuts in “The Sopranos” that cemented Mr. Sirico’s fame. “It is with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories, that the family of Gennaro Anthony ‘Tony’ Sirico wishes to inform you of his death on the morning of July 8, 2022,” Rev. Sirico, president emeritus of the Acton Institute, wrote. Tony Sirico, a one-time jailbird who achieved fame as mobster Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri in “The Sopranos,” died Friday, his brother the Rev. Robert Sirico said on Facebook. He was a little more than two weeks short of his 80th birthday.

Among his other film credits are Woody Allen's “Bullets over Broadway” and “Mighty Aphrodite.”

And I knew I had the (guts) to stand up and (bull) people,” he told the Times. “You get a lot of practice in prison. I used to stand up in front of these cold-blooded murderers and kidnapers — and make ’em laugh.” “I had both,” he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview, calling himself ”unstable” during that period of his life. Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York City, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods where he said “every guy was trying to prove himself. In his last stint behind bars, in the 1970s, he saw a performance by a group of ex-convicts and caught the acting bug. Michael Imperioli, who portrayed Christopher Moltisanti on “The Sopranos,” called Sirico his “dear friend, colleague and partner in crime.”

The beloved actor was best known for his scene-stealing performance as Paulie Walnuts on HBO's 'The Sopranos'. Tony Sirico Image via HBO.

The actor continued to work throughout the final years of his life, with his most recent performance being this year's Respect the Jux. He'll also post-humously be seen in Super Athlete sometime in the next year. Certainly, Sirico played an undeniable part in making the gangster series as frequently funny and entertaining as it often was, and moreover, his highly memorable and quotable performance could often be underrated, especially as it never earned the same awards recognition as his fellow stars. Sirico's cause of death has not been publicly announced at the time of this writing.

His role as a mobster in 'The Sopranos' was modeled in part on his earlier life as a shakedown artist who served time in prison.

When Mr. Sirico took the role of Paulie Walnuts on “The Sopranos,” he said he would do anything except rat out his friends as an informant — in part because he still lived in his old Brooklyn neighborhood. “When he saw me, he tore up the ticket and asked for an autographed picture, which I carry in the trunk … In one year, it’s like I got a life transplant. “I was a pistol-packing guy,” he told the Times. “The first time I went away to prison, they searched me to see if I had a gun — and I had three of ’em on me. “I ran out of my local OTB” — an off-track betting booth for horse races — “and a cop was putting a ticket under the wipers of my double-parked car,” Mr. Sirico told the New York Daily News in 2000. As a teenager, he was shot in the leg and back when he kissed another boy’s girlfriend. Mr. Sirico once said, “If Paulie can’t curse, he can’t talk,” and he delivered some of the show’s funniest lines, always in a serious, deadpan style, usually punctuated by profanity. He was an extra in the 1974 organized crime film “Crazy Joe,” then began to get parts in commercials and TV shows, usually cast as a crook or a cop. His character killed more people than any other during the course of the show — nine — but there was much more to “The Sopranos” than mob violence. And then there was his hair: a pompadour first sculpted into place in the ’50s, now highlighted by two wings of silver slicked back on the sides. Mr. Sirico wore a pinkie ring in real life, the same as Paulie. When the show’s wardrobe staff picked out a shirt for him, he said he had one just like it at home. Gennaro Anthony Sirico Jr. was born July 29, 1942, in Brooklyn and grew up in the heavily Italian Bensonhurst section. Mr. Sirico was 79 when he died July 8 at an assisted-living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Sirico died at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said his manager, Bob McGowen. There was no immediate information on the cause of ...

And I knew I had the (guts) to stand up and (bull) people,” he told the Times. “You get a lot of practice in prison. I used to stand up in front of these cold-blooded murderers and kidnapers — and make ’em laugh.” “I had both,” he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview, calling himself ”unstable” during that period of his life. Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York City, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods where he said “every guy was trying to prove himself. Michael Imperioli, who portrayed Christopher Moltisanti on “The Sopranos,” called Sirico his “dear friend, colleague and partner in crime.” LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tony Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in “The Sopranos” and brought his tough-guy swagger to films including “Goodfellas,” died Friday. He was 79.

The news was made public on Saturday by Michael Imperioli, the Emmy Award-winning actor and screenwriter who co-starred with Sirico during the revolutionary ...

Imperioli uploaded a photo from their time working together, and wrote in a caption that “Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big hearted as anyone I’ve ever known.” He added “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,” and “He was beloved and will never be forgotten. The news was made public on Saturday by Michael Imperioli, the Emmy Award-winning actor and screenwriter who co-starred with Sirico during the revolutionary show’s six seasons. As Christopher Moltisanti, the youngest high-ranking member of the Sopranos crew, Imperioli and Sirico were frequent scene partners, sent on assignments as classic sitcom “frenemies” whose amusing tasks would quickly turn gruesome and violent.

He played the lovable but murderous gangster Paulie Walnuts on the HBO series, The Sopranos (1999 to 2007). Read more at straitstimes.com.

... I knew right away this was a role to kill for." Sirico also took a comic turn voicing the talking dog Vinny on the animated show Family Guy (1999 to present). Born in Brooklyn on July 29, 1942, Tony Sirico served 20 months in prison on a gun charge in the early 1970s, according to the movie database IMDB.com.

Tony Sirico, who played the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in "The Sopranos" and brought his tough-guy swagger to films including "Goodfellas," ...

And I knew I had the (guts) to stand up and (bull) people," he told the Times. "You get a lot of practice in prison. And I knew I had the (guts) to stand up and (bull) people," he told the Times. "You get a lot of practice in prison. "I had both," he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview, calling himself "unstable" during that period of his life. Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York City, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods where he said "every guy was trying to prove himself. "I had both," he told the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview, calling himself "unstable" during that period of his life. I used to stand up in front of these cold-blooded murderers and kidnapers - and make 'em laugh." Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York City, grew up in the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods where he said "every guy was trying to prove himself. That included helping ex-soldiers' causes, which hit home for the Army veteran, his manager said. In his last stint behind bars, in the 1970s, he saw a performance by a group of ex-convicts and caught the acting bug. I used to stand up in front of these cold-blooded murderers and kidnapers - and make 'em laugh." That included helping ex-soldiers' causes, which hit home for the Army veteran, his manager said. In his last stint behind bars, in the 1970s, he saw a performance by a group of ex-convicts and caught the acting bug.