‘Sopranos’ actor Tony Sirico, dies at 79

By Associated Press

LOS ANGELES: Tony Sirico, who performed the impeccably groomed mobster Paulie Walnuts in “The Sopranos” and introduced his tough-guy swagger to movies together with “Goodfellas,” died Friday. He was 79.

Sirico died at an assisted residing facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, stated his supervisor, Bob McGowen. There was no rapid info on the reason for demise.

A press release from Sirico’s household confirmed the demise of Gennaro Anthony “Tony” Sirico “with great sadness, but with incredible pride, love and a whole lot of fond memories.”

McGowan, who represented Sirico for greater than twenty years, recalled him as “loyal and giving,” with a robust philanthropic streak. That included serving to ex-soldiers causes, which hit house for the Army veteran, his supervisor stated.

Steven Van Zandt, who performed reverse Sirico as fellow mobster Silvio Dante on “The Sopranos,” saluted him on Twitter as “legendary.” “A larger-than-life character on and off-screen. Gonna miss you a lot my friend,” the actor and musician stated.

Michael Imperioli, who portrayed Christopher Moltisanti on “The Sopranos,” known as Sirico his “dear friend, colleague and partner in crime.” “Tony was like no one else: he was as tough, as loyal and as big-hearted as anyone I’ve ever known,” Imperioli stated on Instagram.

Sirico was unconcerned about being forged in a string of dangerous man roles, McGowan stated, most prominently that of Peter Paul “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri within 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 didn’t mind playing a mob guy, but he wouldn’t play an informant,” or as Sirico put it, a “snitch,” McGowan stated.

Sirico, born July 29, 1942, in New York City, grew up within the Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods the place he stated “each man was making an attempt to show himself. You both needed to have a tattoo or a bullet gap.”

“I had both,” he advised the Los Angeles Times in a 1990 interview, calling himself ”unstable” throughout that interval of his life. He was arrested repeatedly for prison offences, he stated and was in jail twice. In his final stint behind bars, within the Nineteen Seventies, he noticed a efficiency by a gaggle of ex-convicts and caught the performing bug.

“I watched ’em 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,” 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.”

Sirico additionally was forged exterior the gangster mould, enjoying cops within the movies “Dead Presidents” and “Deconstructing Harry.” Among his other credits were Woody Allen films including “Bullets over Broadway” and “Mighty Aphrodite,” and appearances on TV sequence together with “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 different family.