Paul Sorvino

Paul Sorvino, an imposing actor whose roles ranged from the mob boss in "Goodfellas" to an early stint on the long-running cop drama "Law & Order," has died ...

on Twitter on Monday, "My heart is rent asunder- a life of love and joy and wisdom with him is over. Sorvino is perhaps best remembered for director Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas" as Paul Cicero, the mobster who even in prison retained a passion for cooking and fine cuisine, thinly slicing garlic with a razor blade. Sorvino attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and had thoughts of becoming an opera singer before making his Broadway debut in the mid-1960s.

Actor Paul Sorvino, known for streetwise tough guy roles in "Goodfellas" and "Law & Order," died of natural causes at the age of 83 on Monday morning.

Sorvino worked with his children in different projects over the years. "He was the most wonderful father. I love him so much. Throughout his film career, Sorvino delivered dramatic performances playing real people. “It’s nothing like me as a human being.” Sorvino, an alumni of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, made his Broadway debut in the 1964 musical "Bajour." He later starred in shows such as "Skyscraper" and "An American Millionaire," according to Playbill.

Paul Sorvino, the cop and crook of the silver screen best known for his roles in projects such as “Goodfellas” and “Law & Order,” died Monday at 83.

He once told the New York Times that he thought of himself “as a warrior-poet.” “Then I was going to fix my tie and I saw this guy,” Sorvino said of his own reflection in the mirror, surprising himself with his own lethal gaze. He starred alongside Al Pacino in “The Panic in Needle Park,” James Caan in “The Gambler,” and worked with Carl Reiner on “Where’s Poppa” and “Oh, God!.” Working consistently through the ’80s, Sorvino once again hit stardom with his role as Henry Kissinger in “Nixon” in 1995 and Fulgencio Capulet in Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet.” “Our hearts are broken,” Dee Dee Sorvino said in a statement. For his part, Sorvino didn’t see himself quite that way. Throughout his career, the Brooklyn native was an imposing presence on film and stage.

Specializing in playing cops and crooks, Sorvino was a mainstay in films and television.

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"Goodfellas" star Paul Sorvino died of natural causes on Monday at the age of 83, Page Six confirmed.

He made his Broadway debut in the 1964 musical “Bajour.” He also received critical praise for starring in the Broadway show “That Championship Season,” which earned him a Tony Award nomination. “Our hearts are broken, there will never be another Paul Sorvino, he was the love of my life, and one of the greatest performers to ever grace the screen and stage.” his wife said through a rep in a statement shared to Page Six on Monday.

Actor Paul Sorvino, best known for his starring role as Paul Cicero in "Goodfellas," has died. He was 83.

“If I meet him on the street, he oughta hope that he goes to jail,” Sorvino told TMZ in 2018. A deadly soulless look in my eyes that scared me and was overwhelmingly threatening. And I looked in the mirror and literally jumped back a foot. And I looked to the heavens and said, ‘You’ve found it.'” I saw a look I’d never seen, something in my eyes that alarmed me. I’m going to ruin this great man’s picture, and I’m going to ruin myself.’ He, being wise, said, ‘Call me tomorrow, and if necessary I will get you out.’ Born in Brooklyn in 1939, Sorvino attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, where he fell in love with theater. That son of a bitch, good for him if he goes, because if not, then he has to meet me, and I’ll kill that motherf–ker.” “My daughter is a wonderful person,” he said at the time. He’d be in a wheelchair. “Because if we come across [one another], I think he’ll be lying on the floor somehow, magically. “My father the great Paul Sorvino has passed,” 54-year-old Mira tweeted Monday. “My heart is rent asunder- a life of love and joy and wisdom with him is over.

The actor may be best known for “Goodfellas,” but he almost bailed on it because the character of the underboss Paulie Cicero was so difficult to pin down.

Sorvino is also memorable as Edelson, the commanding officer of the undercover cop Burns (Al Pacino) in William Friedkin’s “Cruising” (from 1980; rent or buy on major platforms). Assigning his underling to work the gay sex-club underworld of Manhattan in search of a killer, Edelson inquires into Burns’s sexual history with the most blunt question imaginable, not batting an eyelash. For another taste of the more voluble Sorvino, his turn as Curtis Mahoney, a federal agent posing as an investigative journalist in Mike Nichols’s much-maligned 1974 “The Day of the Dolphin” (available on Kino Now), is worth looking into. Later, overseeing elaborate dinners in prison, he has a special system for slicing garlic, and once his cellmate Henry (Liotta) enters bearing wine and Scotch, he proclaims, “Now we can eat.” Presiding over a celebration of Henry’s release from the joint, he’s Uncle Paulie. Henry and his merry men are either paying tribute to Paulie with a percentage of their ill-gotten gains or lying to his face. In the first place, he was a proud Italian American. A connoisseur of Italian culture, particularly food and music, he was not inclined to play a Mafioso. In addition, Sorvino, who died Monday at 83, was a voluble guy, and he liked playing voluble guys. Sorvino’s vision of Paulie was an incredibly nuanced portrayal of a man who, on the page, comes across as simple and as unpleasant as sudden death. Just don’t do it.” Without losing any of the character’s outer-borough intonations, Sorvino clips the words like he’s snapping necks. Much of “Goodfellas” (streaming on HBO Max) is devoted to how three underlings, played by Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro, did not stay in line. Vario, then, was a middle manager of mayhem. He scoffed at the idea of “choices,” insisting: “I found the guy and the guy made the choices.” Much is made in the early scenes of the movie about how most of the criminal’s directives were executed with a mere nod. When Paul Sorvino was offered the role of Paulie Cicero, the Queens-based mob underboss in Martin Scorsese’s “Goodfellas” (1990), he very much did not want to accept it.

The actor who played Paul Cicero in Goodfellas and starred on two seasons of Law & Order was 83.

Naturally, Sorvino followed Goodfellas with a two-season run on Law & Order, playing Sergeant Phil Cerreta for 31 episodes. Sorvino was born in Brooklyn in 1939 and attended a performing arts school, where he decided to become a theater actor. Paul Sorvino, the intimidating tough-guy actor best known for playing mobsters and cops—but who prided himself on the times he was able to do anything else—has died.

Although known as a gentle giant, he once said about Harvey Weinstein for blackballing his daughter Mira: 'I will kill the motherfucker.'

(Tony Sirico, her co-star in the film and another Brooklynite who played a convincing mobster, died at the age of 79 earlier this month.) Oof, my god this is a hard day for character actors. Good for him if he does, because if not, he has to meet me. Sorvino was born and raised to working class parents in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. His family let him train at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York where he hoped to become an opera singer. Sorvino is the second cast member of “Goodfellas” to die this year. His wife Dee Dee Sorvino wrote on Instagram: “I am completely devastated.

Actor Paul Sorvino died Monday. He was known for his role as Paulie in Martin Scorcese's gangster epic, "Goodfellas." He was 83 years old.

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In his over 50 years in the entertainment business, Sorvino was a mainstay in films and television, playing an Italian American communist in Warren Beatty's ...

Songs performed included “Torna A Sorriento,” “Guaglione,” “O Sole Mio,” “The Impossible Dream” and “Mama.” He was proud of his daughter and cried when she won the best supporting actress Oscar for “Mighty Aphrodite” in 1996. “The reality is I’m a sculptor, a painter, a best-selling author, many, many things — a poet, an opera singer, but none of them is gangster…. But he wanted to be seen for more than what he was on screen and took particular pride in his singing. Born in Brooklyn in 1939 to a mother who taught piano and father who was a foreman in a robe factory, Sorvino was musically inclined from a young age and attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York where he fell for the theater. He’d be in a wheelchair.”

The 'Goodfellas' star gets emotional over his daughter's tribute in a clip that's resurfaced following his death this week.

After his passing, Mira paid tribute to Paul—who is also father to her siblings Michael and Amanda—on Twitter. “My father the great Paul Sorvino has passed. When asked about Weinstein’s alleged abuse of his daughter, Paul didn’t mince words, telling TMZ in 2018, “He’s going to go to jail. In the years following her win, Mira has been open about being blacklisted by Harvey Weinstein after she rejected his sexual advances.

Her acceptance speech produced one of the most indelibly emotional Oscar moments. “When you give me this award,” she said in her acceptance speech, “you honor ...

“Slow Dancing” aside, Sorvino did lament in interviews that he never got to carry a feature film, but his was a singular career. My favorite scene in Sydney Pollack’s “The Firm” that does not include Holly Hunter was Sorvino’s late-in-the-film appearance as a mobster who is unexpectedly visited by the very lawyer he wants to get his “f**kin’ hands on.” His looks-could-kill glare at Tom Cruise speaks volumes. Better a Sorvino binge to truly appreciate the breadth and depth of the eclectic characters he embodied. The tweets issued following news of his passing speak to the esteem in which he is held by other character actors. Sorvino’s 60-year career (he made his Broadway debut in 1964 as a member of the chorus in Bajour), spanned theater, movies, and television. Just one year before he made his Tony nominated breakthrough as a morally-challenged millionaire in Jason Miller’s play, That Championship Season, he was making commercials for Arrid deodorant and Hunt’s Tomato Sauce, according to a 1972 New York Times profile written by Patricia Bosworth. I’m going to ruin this great man’s picture, and I’m going to ruin myself.' Then I was going by the hall mirror to adjust my tie. “"He ought to hope that he goes to jail,” he said coolly. In 1996, Mira Sorvino was the recipient of the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Woody Allen’s “ Mighty Aphrodite.” Her acceptance speech produced one of the most indelibly emotional Oscar moments. “Goodfellas” would have been my go-to movie to watch in his honor had I not re-watched it just last May following star Ray Liotta’s death. A deadly soulless look in my eyes ... And I looked to the heavens and said, 'You’ve found it.'" And I looked in the mirror and literally jumped back a foot.

Forget the horse's head. Forget “I know it was you, Fredo”. The most gangster moment in gangster film history came from Paul Sorvino in Goodfellas.

There is a great contrast to the scene in Goodfella's final act when Hill unravels over the course of a manic, paranoid day in which he tries to not just offload stolen silencers, pick up his brother and cut some drugs but timing the preparation of an intricate family meal. And just like the code of omertà that – in theory at least – helps keep them out of jail, food preparation is ritualistic and follows strict rules. That’s why the razor blade is so memorable: it represents discipline, care and the correct way of doing things. “Paulie did the prep-work," Hill tells us, "and he had this wonderful system for doing the garlic. Forget mob bosses getting whacked to "House of the Rising Sun" in Casino, or Robert De Niro’s Al Capone delivering an ode to baseball in The Untouchables. Forget, even, the FBI agents discussing the meaning of ‘fuggedaboutit in Donny Brasco. If you're looking for an iconic mafia movie scene, one that encapsulates everything that is great about the genre and why we love it, none holds a candle – or, for that matter, a razor blade – to Goodfella’s prison dinner scene. Red and white wine.

Sure, Martin Scorsese's stone-cold classic from 1990 might be Sorvino's most memorable performance, but spending all one's words on just that one film (no ...

Sorvino was an actor of physical and heft and command. I also have a soft spot for I, The Jury, one of the sleaziest neo-noirs from that decade (which is really saying something), in which he played across from an overheated Armand Assante as Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, and a frequently underclothed Barbara Carrera. It ain’t art, but it surely is something. Sydney Pollack used his recent GoodFellas mobster past to excellent effect in a cameo near the end of the Tom Cruise blockbuster, The Firm. I also dearly loved his work as Henry Kissinger in Oliver Stone’s Nixon, in which he played the polarizing former secretary of state as if he were born in the man’s shoes. Sorvino became a quick staple of the auteur era of the ‘70s, turning up in such notable films as The Panic in Needle Park, A Touch of Class, The Gambler, Oh God!, and Bloodbrothers. The last of those films is my first memory of him. One of the gifts that I thought Sorvino had in great abundance was the ability to go from charming to threatening. Where does one even begin with Paul Sorvino? Leaning into GoodFellas is the most obvious point of entry, yet how can we ignore the fact that the man’s career covered six decades and a whopping 172 credits?

Mr. Sorvino had been cast as the stately but menacing mob boss Paulie Cicero, a character based on convicted mobster Paul Vario, and was having trouble with the ...

With encouragement from his wife, Lorraine Davis, he returned to show business, making his Broadway debut in 1964 in the musical comedy “Bajour.” But I see acting as a sharing of love, a giving for the love of giving. “They seek the applause to make up for a lack of love. “It’s almost my later goal in life to disabuse people of the notion that I’m a slow-moving, heavy-lidded thug,” Mr. Sorvino told Orlando Weekly in 2014. Therapy helped, he said, but for a time he simply gave up acting altogether, quitting the business to join a New York advertising agency. “I had confidence in my ability, and I was angry as hell when other people didn’t recognize it,” he recalled. The youngest of three sons, Paul Anthony Sorvino was born in Brooklyn on April 13, 1939, and grew up in the borough’s Bensonhurst neighborhood. He sang at bingo games, nightclubs and summer resorts in the “minestrone belt” of the Catskills, and supported himself by waiting tables, mixing cocktails at private parties and selling dictionaries door-to-door. “I looked in the mirror and literally jumped back a foot,” he later told the New York Times. “I saw a look I’d never seen, something in my eyes that alarmed me. “It’s a very good system,” Henry explains in a voice-over. “Get me out,” he told his manager in a desperate phone call. Mr. Sorvino had been cast as the stately but menacing mob boss Paulie Cicero, a character based on convicted mobster Paul Vario, and was having trouble with the role.

Tributes have been pouring in to honor the late actor Paul Sorvino. "My heart is rent asunder -- a life of love and joy and wisdom with him is over," said ...

about his "Lost Cat Corona" co-star. God bless you," tweeted Arquette "He was the most wonderful father.