Paul Sorvino, the burly actor who made a career out of playing tough guys, most notably cold-hearted mobster Pauly Cicero in Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas, has died. He was 83.
Sorvino, the father of Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino (Aphrodite the Mighty), died Monday of natural causes, his wife Dee Dee said.
“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,” she said.
Mira tweeted: “My heart is broken – his life of love, joy and wisdom is over. He was the most wonderful father. I love him so much. Sending you love in the stars, Dad, as you soar.”
Publicist Roger Neal said he died at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.
During a solid career spanning half a century, Sorvino played James Caan’s bookie in The Gambler (1974), Claire Danes’ pushy father in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet (1996), Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in Oliver Stone’s Nixon (1995 ) and confronted heroin addict in The Cooler (2003).
He played the founder of the American Communist Party in Warren Beatty’s Reds (1981) and worked with the actor-director again in Dick Tracy (1990), Bullworth (1998) and Rules Don’t Apply (2016).
A respected tenor who fulfilled a dream when he performed for the New York City Opera at Lincoln Center in 2006, the Brooklyn native also starred for one season as Det. Phil Cerretta, the partner of Chris Noth’s Det. Mike Logan, for NBC’s Law & Order.
In 1973, Sorvino received a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award for his portrayal of the unscrupulous Phil Romano—one of four former high school basketball players who reunite to visit their old coach—in Jason Miller’s original Broadway production of That Championship Season, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
He reprized the role in a 1982 film, then played the coach in a 1999 Showtime telefilm, making his directorial debut. He returned to Scranton, Pennsylvania, the setting of That Championship Season, to star in and direct his only feature film, The Trouble With Cali (2012).
However, Sorvino is probably best known for his role as the good-food-loving, garlic-slicing Cicero in the ultra-violent GoodFellas (1990), which Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese adapted from Pileggi’s 1986 non-fiction book.
In a 2015 New York Times op-ed on the film’s 25th anniversary, Sorvino said he was overjoyed to get the part — and scared to death.
“I’ve been in a lot of comedies as well as dramas, but I’ve never really done a tough guy. I never had it in me,” he said. “And this [part] it required a lethality that I felt was far beyond me. I called my manager three days before we started shooting and said, “Get me out. I will ruin the image of this great man and I will ruin myself. He, being wise, said, “Call me tomorrow and I’ll get you out if I have to.”
“Then I went to the hall mirror to fix my tie. I was just inconsolable. And I looked in the mirror and literally took a step back. I saw a look I had never seen before, something in my eyes that alarmed me. A deadly soulless look in my eyes that scared me and was extremely threatening. And I looked to the heavens and said, “You found it.” “
Standing 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds in his prime, Sorvino also played men on the wrong side of the law in The Panic in Needle Park (1971), William Friedkin’s The Brink’s Job (1978), The Rocketeer (1991), and The Firm ( 1993).
“There are a lot of people who think I’m actually a gangster or a mobster, largely because of Goodfellas,” he once said. “I guess that’s the price you pay for being effective in a role.”
He might be a big slob though. When his daughter took the stage to accept the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1996, Sorvino was seen in the audience crying with joy.
My father, the great Paul Sorvino passed away. My heart is broken – a life of love, joy and wisdom with him is over. He was the most wonderful father. I love him so much. Sending you love in the stars, Dad, as you soar.
— Mira Sorvino (@MiraSorvino) July 25, 2022
Sorvino was born on April 13, 1939, in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn. His father was an Italian immigrant who worked in a bathrobe factory, and his mother was a homemaker and piano teacher. His parents often argued, and he spent time in California with his mother before graduating from Lafayette High School in 1956.
Sorvino said he was always fascinated by the human voice and sang in hotels in the Catskills as a teenager. He takes lesson after lesson and dreams of becoming an opera singer, but suffering from asthma forces him to focus on acting.
He attended the American Academy of Music and Drama, studied with Sanford Meissner and William Esper, and performed on stage.
Learning to control his asthma with breathing exercises—he later founded the Sorvino Children’s Asthma Foundation and wrote a 1985 book, How to Become an Ex-Asthmatic—Sorvino made his Broadway debut as the Singing Patrolman in the musical comedy Bajour in 1964 .
Sorvino first appeared on screen in Carl Reiner’s Where’s Daddy? (1970), then played Joseph Bologna’s father in Made for Each Other (1971), George Segal’s film producer friend in A Touch of Class (1973), and a government agent in Mike Nichols’ The Day of the Dolphin (1973) .
In 1975, Sorvino broke into a TV series when he played a middle-class New Jersey lawyer on We’ll Get By, a CBS show created by Alan Alda. However, the comedy lasted only 12 episodes. The following year, he starred as a maverick cop in the Streets of San Francisco spinoff Bert D’Angelo, Superstar. This was canceled after 11 episodes.
Speaking about his one season (1991-92) of Law & Order, Sorvino didn’t feel nostalgic. “I felt like I was in the Russian gulag,” he said. “There was absolutely no communication with the writers and producers and we had to work under the worst possible conditions.”
He left the show and Logan found a new partner, Det. Lenny Briscoe (Jerry Orbach).
Sorvino also played the cop who sends Al Pacino undercover in Friedkin’s Cruising (1980) and portrayed detectives in I, The Jury (1982) and as the title character in another short-lived CBS show, The Oldest Rookie from 1987-88.
He played Bruce Willis’ father on ABC’s Moonlighting and, with an ailing Raymond Burr, stepped in to play a guest attorney in Perry Mason’s 1993 telefilm The Case of the Wicked Wives.
He also starred with Ellen Burstyn and Kevin Dillon in the 2000-02 CBS drama That’s the Life.
Sorvino’s resume also included Oh My God! (1977), Slow Dancing in the Big City (1978), Blood Brothers (1978), Lost and Found (1979), the 1979 telefilm Dummy, Turk 182! (1985), The Stuff (1985), A Fine Mess (1986), Money Talks (1997), Plan B (2001), Perfume (2001), Mr. 3000 (2004) and The Bronx Bull (2016).
Most recently, he played Frank Costello in the Epix series The Godfather of Harlem.
In a 1995 interview with Charlie Rose, Sorvino lamented that he was never given the chance to carry a studio photo. “I’ve been to the top of the mountain, but I haven’t been the man,” he said. “I was a passenger on the bus, but I wasn’t the driver.”
Sorvino sang the role of Alfred in Die Fledermaus with the Seattle Opera Company in 1981 and years later starred in a revival of The Most Happy Fella at Lincoln Center. It also records three CDs.
Sorvino married his third wife, Dee Dee Benkey, a Republican Party strategist and former aide to President George W. Bush, in 2014. The two met on Fox News Channel’s “Your World” with Neil Cavuto.
He had been dealing with health issues for the past few years, she said, and will be buried at Hollywood Cemetery for good. Survivors include his other children, Amanda and Michael, and five grandchildren.
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