Tony Sirico

Sirico was born in Brooklyn, New York City,^[3] on July 24, 1942,^{[nb 2]} to a family of Italian descent.^[2] He grew up in the East Flatbush and Bensonhurst neighborhoods of Brooklyn,^[4] and attended Midwood High School, but did not graduate.^[5] Sirico's brother, Robert Sirico, is a Catholic priest and co-founder of the free-market Acton Institute.^[6] As a teenager, Sirico was shot in a dispute over a girl.^[7] He subsequently served in the United States Army.^[7]

Sirico was convicted of several crimes and was arrested 28 times, including for disorderly conduct, assault, and robbery, before taking up acting.^[4][8] In 1967, he served time in prison for the first time as an adult.^[7] On February 27, 1970, he was arrested at a restaurant, and found with a .32 caliber revolver on his person. In 1971, he was indicted for extortion, coercion, and felony weapons possession, convicted, and sentenced to four years in prison, of which he served 20 months at Sing Sing.^[9][10][11]

According to a court transcript at the time of his sentencing, Sirico also had pending charges for criminal possession of a dangerous drug.^[9] Sirico stated that his prison was visited by an acting troupe composed of ex-convicts, which inspired him to give acting a try.^[12] He appeared in the 1989 documentary The Big Bang by James Toback, in which he discussed his earlier life.^[13]

Sirico's first confirmed role in film was as an extra in the 1974 film Crazy Joe, securing the role with the help of Richard Castellano.^[11] Michael Gazzo was Sirico's first acting coach.^[14] Sirico played gangsters in a number of films, and made-for-TV films, including Goodfellas, Mob Queen, Mighty Aphrodite, Love and Money, Fingers, The One Man Jury, Defiance, The Last Fight, Innocent Blood, Bullets over Broadway, The Pick-up Artist, Gotti, Witness to the Mob, The Search for One-eye Jimmy, Cop Land, Turn of Faith, Hello Again, Mickey Blue Eyes, and Wonder Wheel. He also played policemen in the films Dead Presidents and Deconstructing Harry. Sirico was a close friend of Woody Allen, and appeared in seven of his films.^[5]

Sirico's most acclaimed acting job was that of Paulie Gualtieri in David Chase's Emmy award-winning drama The Sopranos. He originally auditioned for the role of Uncle Junior with Frank Vincent, but Dominic Chianese landed the role. David Chase instead offered him the role of Paulie Gualtieri; Sirico agreed under the condition that his character "would not become a rat".^[11]

In animation, Sirico provided the voice of "Big Daddy" Fairywinkle in The Fairly OddParents.^[15] On Family Guy, he voiced the character of Vinny, who for three episodes in late 2013 was the family's pet dog, replacing Brian Griffin after his death; Brian would later be brought back via time travel.^[16] Sirico also made a live-action cameo in the episode "Stewie, Chris, & Brian's Excellent Adventure", where he threatens Stewie, who had insulted Italians, calling them "ridiculous people". Vinny would return in a cameo appearance at the end of the Season 15 premiere, "The Boys in the Band".^[17] Sirico would later voice characters on Seth MacFarlane's other animated series American Dad!.^[1]

In 2018, he reunited with former Sopranos actors Federico Castelluccio and Vincent Pastore in Sarah Q.^[18]

Sirico had two children, Joanne and Richard.^[19] In 2008, he released a cologne called Paolo Per Uomo.^[20]

Sirico died on the afternoon of July 8, 2022, at an assisted living facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at the age of 79. No cause of death was given, but he had been diagnosed with dementia some years before his death.^[21] Sirico's funeral mass was held at the Basilica of Regina Pacis, and he was interred at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York.^[22][23]

Film

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Note
1974	Crazy Joe	Extra	[24]
	The Godfather Part II	Rosato Brothers Hood	Uncredited[3]
1978	Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell	Frankie Rio	[3]
	Fingers	Riccamonza	[4][25]
	The One Man Jury	Charlie "Nuts"	[26]
1980	Defiance	Davey	[27]
1981	So Fine	Associate	[28]
1982	Love and Money	Raoul	[29]
1983	Exposed	Thief	[30]
	The Last Fight	Frankie	[4]
1987	The Galucci Brothers	Galucci Brother	[31]
	The Pick-up Artist	Patsy Cabaluso	[4]
	Hello Again	Tough Guy	[27]
1989	White Hot	Luke	[32]
	Cookie	Carmine's Wiseguy	[4]
	The Big Bang	Himself	Documentary[13]
1990	Catchfire	Greek Guy	[33][30]
	Goodfellas	Tony "Stacks"	[24]
1991	29th Street	Fortunado	[14]
1992	Innocent Blood	Jacko	[34]
1993	New York Cop	Mr. C	[35]
	Romeo Is Bleeding	Malacci	[36]
1994	Men Lie	Porno Witness	[37]
	Bullets Over Broadway	Rocco	[24]
	The Search for One-eye Jimmy	"Snake"	[38]
1995	Dead Presidents	Officer Spinelli	[39]
	Mighty Aphrodite	Boxing Trainer	[14]
	Dearly Beloved	Mr. Bedutz	Short film[40]
1996	Everyone Says I Love You	Escaped Convict	[14]
1997	Deconstructing Harry	Police Officer	[39]
	Cop Land	Salvatore "Toy" Torillo	[14]
	The Deli	Tony	[14]
	The Good Life	Junior	Never released[41]
1998	Mob Queen	Joey "The Heart" Aorta	[14]
	Celebrity	Lou DeMarco	[14]
1999	Mickey Blue Eyes	Risolli Guard	[42]
2000	It Had to Be You	Ricky Valentino	[14]
2001	Smokin' Stogies	Tony "Batts"	[43]
2002	Turn of Faith	Jimmy	[43][44]
2008	The Sno Cone Stand Inc	Bob Beasley	[45]
2009	Karma Calling	Lord Ganesh	[43][46]
2010	Skate	Skate	Short film[47]
2014	Zarra's Law	Tony Zarra	[39]
	Friends and Romans	Bobby Musso	[3]
	Family on Board	Rocco	Short film[47]
2015	Touched	Anthony	[48]
2016	Café Society	Vito	[27]
2017	Wonder Wheel	Angelo	[43]
2018	Sarah Q	Mr. Danny	[27]
2022	Respect the Jux	Bobby	Posthumous release[27][3]
TBD	Super Athlete	Coach Lou	Completed, posthumous release[27]

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Television

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977	Kojak	Greek God	Episode: "Case Without a File"[43]
1982	Police Squad!	Poker Player	Episode: "Ring of Fear (A Dangerous Assignment)"[49]
1989	Miami Vice	Frank Romano	Episode: "Fruit of the Poison Tree"[35]
	Perfect Witness	Marco	Television film[28]
1992	In the Shadow of a Killer	Tony Andretti	Television film[28]
1996	Cosby	Teddy	Episode: "Happily Ever Hilton"[50]
	Gotti	Joe Dimiglia	Television film[14]
1998	Witness to the Mob	Thomas Gambino	Television film[28]
	Vig	Locasso	Television film[43]
1999–2007	The Sopranos	Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri	74 episodes[26]
2005	The Fairly OddParents	Big Daddy Fairywinkle	Voice[50] Episodes: "Talking Trash" and "Big Wanda"
2007	Elmo's Christmas Countdown	Famous Bert	TV special[51]
2008	A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa	Mobster	TV special[35]
2010	Chuck	Matty	Episode: "Chuck Versus the Fake Name"[52]
	Medium	Big Daddy	Episode: "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day"[52]
2012	Jersey Shore Shark Attack	Captain Salie	Television film[39]
2013–2014	Lilyhammer	Tony Tagliano	Episodes: "2.8: Ghosts" and "3.8: Loose Ends"[3]
2013	Nicky Deuce	Charlie Cement	Television film[27]
2013–2016	Family Guy	Vinny/Himself	Voice[3][27] Episodes: "Life of Brian", "Into Harmony's Way", "Christmas Guy", "The Boys in the Band", and "Stewie, Chris & Brian's Excellent Adventure" (live action)
2014	Taxi Brooklyn	Tony	Episode: "Revenge"[52]
2016	The Grinder	Sebastian	Episode: "Grinder v Grinder"[52]
2017–2019	American Dad!	Enzo Perotti / Mobster	Voice[52] 2 episodes

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Music videos

More information Year, Song ...

Year	Song	Artist
1998	"Slang Editorial"	Cappadonna

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Video games

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	The Sopranos: Road to Respect	Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri	Voice[53]

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