The American actor Tony Sirico died this Friday at the age of 79, after a career of more than four decades in series and movies and the remembered role of Pauli Gualtieri in “The Sopranos”, in which he played an Italian member of the mafia in United States, as vehement as it is fundamentalist in its beliefs, a role closer to his life than fiction.
The news was given on social networks by his family and his colleague Michael Imperioli, who shared a cast in both the acclaimed HBO series and “Good Boy”, the brilliant gangster film made by Martin Scorsesse.
Sirico’s life, at least in its beginnings, seems to have inspired several of the papal roles that he later had to interpret. The son of Italian immigrants, he was born in Brooklyn and from a very young age was associated with the underworld, to the point of having been arrested 28 times. In addition, he has been linked as a member of the Colombo clan, one of the most important families in the American mafia.
“At that time I did not think well. So I hooked up with these guys and all of a sudden I was an assault artist. I robbed every nightclub in New York,” she acknowledged in an interview with the LA Times in 1990, quoted by Variety.
“I have to admit that I feel weird when someone sees me and asks for my autograph. I think it’s that old guilt. Maybe I feel like I don’t deserve the attention,” she added.
That guilt and search for redemption is something that is carried forward in “The Sopranos” and the great theme of Scorsesse’s filmography, the first great director who quoted Sirico.
Having made his debut in 1974 in the mafia drama “Crazy Joe”by Carlo Lizzani, had minor roles in series such as “Kojak” or films such as “Violencia Calljera”, by John Flynn, or “The Galucci Brothers”, by Murray Magder, in which he had his first co-star.
From that moment on, his collaborations were on the rise, with Woody Allen films such as “Mighty Aphrodite”, “Bullets over New York” and “Café Society”. But world fame came with the role of Pauli, although Sirico had auditioned for that of Corrado Soprano, better known as “Uncle Jun”, Tony Soprano’s uncle, a role that finally fell into the hands of an outstanding Dominic Chianese.
Gualtiere’s character it brought him that quota of humor that the group of gang members needed to digest the violence in which they were submerged. The scene in which he enters a modern coffee chain and, outraged by the heresy towards his Italian roots, steals a Volturno coffee maker will remain in the memory.
“It pains me to say that my dear friend, colleague and partner in crime, the great TONY SIRICO passed away today. Tony was as tough, loyal and big-hearted as anyone I’ve ever met. I was by his side in many things: in the good and the bad. And we laughed a lot,” Imperioli wrote on Instagram.
On Facebook, Sirico’s family wrote that they are “deeply grateful for the many expressions of love, prayers and condolences and requests that the public respect their privacy at this time of mourning.”
According to the publication, the actor is survived by his two children, Joanne Sirico Bello and Richard Sirico, as well as grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews and other relatives.
