In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Tony Sirico, who portrayed the oddball gangster Paulie Walnuts on “The Sopranos,” passed away on Friday. He was 79.
Bob McGowan, who served as his manager, confirmed his passing. The reason wasn’t stated.
Paul Gualtieri, known as Paulie Walnuts because he once stole a truck full of nuts while expecting television sets, was one of Tony Soprano’s most devoted, overemotional, and rash men. Paulie was the kind of person who would attend an intervention for a drug user and then punch the man in the face when it was his turn to speak. Despite the fact that she was actually his aunt, he loved his mother and she loved him because he paid the bills to keep her in a pricey nursing home.
Paulie disliked cats, slept with hookers, wore track suits, and watched television in a chair that was covered in plastic. She was also afraid of germs. On a chilly night in the Pine Barrens when there was nothing else to eat, he could appreciate a tasty ketchup packet but hated having to pay an almost $900 restaurant tab.
Paulie stood with a baseball bat casually slung over his right shoulder when the “Sopranos” cast posed for a group photo on the Rolling Stone cover in 2001. No hairstylist was permitted to touch Mr. Sirico’s hair, which was luxurious and dark with two silver “wings” on either side. He did the blow-drying and spraying himself.
In brief glimpses, viewers familiar with Woody Allen movies recognized Mr. Sirico’s face. Beginning with “Bullets Over Broadway” (1994), in which he played the right-hand man of a formidable gangster turned theater producer, he appeared in several of them. In “Mighty Aphrodite” (1995), “Everyone Says I Love You,” “Deconstructing Harry,” and “Wonder Wheel,” he played a gun-toting gangster on Coney Island as well as a boxing trainer and an escaped prisoner (2017).
On July 29, 1942, Gennaro Anthony Sirico Jr. was born in Brooklyn, the son of stevedore Jerry Sirico and Marie (Cappelluzzo) Sirico. Junior, as he was known, recalled that his first run-in with the law involved him robbing a newsstand of some nickels. His brother Robert Sirico said that although he attended Midwood High School, he never received a diploma.
He claimed to have grown up in Bensonhurst, where there were numerous mob-type individuals, in an interview with Cigar Aficionado in 2001. “I constantly observed them, observing their movements as they walked, drove their vehicles, and interacted with one another. Particularly to a child, there was an air about them that was very alluring.
He briefly worked in construction before succumbing to temptation. In James Toback’s documentary “The Big Bang,” he claimed, “I started running with the wrong type of guys, and I found myself doing a lot of bad things” (1989). Things that are bad like armed robbery, extortion, coercion, and possession of illegal weapons.
He observed a group of actors who were all former inmates who had stopped by to perform for the inmates while he was serving 20 months of a four-year sentence at Sing Sing, the maximum-security prison in Ossining, New York. He told The Daily News in 1999, “When I watched them, I said to myself, ‘I can do that.
He made his official film debut in “Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell” (1977), directed by self-described schlock director Larry Buchanan. He was an uncredited extra in “The Godfather: Part II” (1974). Following that, Mr. Sirico had over ten years of small film and television roles, with his performance as the flamboyant gangster Tony Stacks in “Goodfellas” serving as the pinnacle (1990).
Mr. Toback served as his first supporter among producers, getting him roles in the documentaries “The Pick-Up Artist” (1987) with Molly Ringwald and Robert Downey Jr., the romantic drama “Love & Money” (1981) with Ray Sharkey, and the crime drama “Fingers” (1978) with Harvey Keitel.
He played a cop in “Dead Presidents” (1995), a suburban gangster in “Cop Land” (1997), and a capo for the Gambino crime family in the television film “Gotti” before “The Sopranos” (1996).
When “The Sopranos” first premiered in 1999, it quickly gained enormous popularity. Mr. Sirico soon realized how well-known he was. In 2007, he described an unlikely scenario to The New York Times, saying, “If I’m with five other Paulies and somebody yells, ‘Hey, Paulie,’ I know it’s for me.”
He frequently collaborated with his “Sopranos” co-stars after the HBO series came to an end in 2007.
Following his role as Bert, the brother of Steve Schirripa’s Ernie, in a “Sesame Street” Christmas special (2008), he collaborated on projects with Steven Van Zandt in “Lilyhammer” from 2013 to 2014, Michael Rispoli in “Friends and Romans,” and Vincent Pastore in “Sarah Q.” (2018).
In the animated series “Family Guy,” he also provided the voice of a streetwise dog named Vinny (2013-16).
This year, he made an appearance in the crime drama “Respect the Jux.”
Early marriage and divorce for Mr. Sirico. His survivors include two children, Richard Sirico and Joanne Sirico Bello, a sister named Carol Pannunzio, two brothers named Robert Sirico and Carmine Sirico, as well as a number of grandchildren. He called Fort Lauderdale home.
He brought to “The Sopranos” at least one admirable insight from the underworld. He was adamant that his persona would never be portrayed as a rat or as someone who would inform on his criminal family. He was also hesitant to have Paulie smother an elderly nursing home resident with a pillow when she interrupted his theft of her life savings, but he was pleasantly surprised that after the episode was broadcast, no one in the old neighborhood seemed to think less of him.
Early on, though, he had a tendency to forget that he had turned away from the dark side.
In the Daily News interview, Mr. Sirico recalled, “I was this 30-year-old ex-con villain sitting in a class full of fresh-faced, serious drama students.” After I performed a scene, the teacher “leaned over to me and whispered, ‘Tony, leave the gun home.'” I didn’t even realize I was carrying a gun with me after carrying one for so long.
