Actor Paul Sorvino, known for his starring role as Paul Cicero in Goodfellas and father of Oscar-winning actor Mira Sorvino, has died. He was 83 years old.
His wife, Dee Dee, was by his side in Indiana on Monday morning when he died of natural causes, reports the New York Post.
“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 in a statement.
“My father, the great Paul Sorvino, has passed away,” Mira, 54, tweeted on Monday.
“My heart is torn – a lifetime of love, joy and wisdom with him is over. He was the most wonderful father. I love him so much. Sending you love to the stars, Dad as you ascend.
the mail Sorvino’s representatives have been contacted for comment.
With more than 100 acting credits to his name, Sorvino had a knack for playing gangsters and cops, most notably in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 hit. good colleagues and NYPD Sergeant Phil Cerreta in seasons 2 and 3 of law and order.
He played an Italian-American communist in Warren Beatty’s ○, mob boss Eddie Valentine in Joe Johnston’s. The RocketeerHenry Kissinger in Oliver Stone’s Nixon and Fulgencio Capulet to Baz Luhrmann Romeo + Juliet.
Born in Brooklyn in 1939, Sorvino attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York where he fell in love with the theater. He made his debut on Broadway in 1964 Bajour and booked his first film where is poppa in 1970.
he said the mail in 2002 that Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu and Muhammad Ali were his heroes.
“The sacrifice of themselves, risking their lives for what they believed in: they are true citizens of planet Earth,” he said.
For the film’s 30th anniversary in 2020, Christopher Serrone, who played young Henry Hill in early good colleagueshe said the mail that Sorvino would sing opera between takes.
Of his role to make career a good colleaguesSorvino once recalled how angry he felt.
“There are a lot of people who think I’m actually a gangster or a mobster, largely because of ‘Goodfellas,'” he once said, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “I guess that’s the price you pay for being effective in a role.”
He had three children from his first marriage to Lorraine Davis, including Oscar-winning actor Mira Sorvino. He also directed and starred in a film written by his daughter Amanda and with his son Michael.
Sorvino was also a staunch opponent of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was allegedly accused of blacklisting Mira after she denied his sexual advances.
“If I find him on the street, I should expect him to go to jail,” Sorvino said TMZ in 2018. “Because if we meet [one another], I think it will somehow magically be lying on the floor. He will go to jail. That son of a bitch, it’s good for him if he goes, because if he doesn’t, he has to meet me, and I’ll kill that son of a bitch.”
He claimed at the time that he only learned of the allegations of sexual harassment and assault and blacklisting against the Shakespeare in love filmmaker when the audience did, stating, “If I’d known, I wouldn’t be walking. I’d be in a wheelchair.
“My daughter is a wonderful person,” he said at the time. “A brave and wonderful human being who does not deserve to have been treated this way by this pig. This pig will have his rise. The law will get him. He will go to jail and die in jail. But if he doesn’t… I’ll just slap him. I won’t do anything terrible.”
The The mighty Aphrodite The star thanked his father in his 1996 Oscar speech when he won best supporting actor for his performance in the Woody Allen film.
“When you give me this award, you honor my father, Paul Sorvino, who taught me everything he knows about acting,” he said during his speech, which brought him to tears of happiness.
A 2015 News from New York article on the 25th anniversary of good colleagues noted how Sorvino revealed that he was so happy to land the role.
“I’d done a lot of comedies and dramas, but I’d never done a really tough guy. I never had it in me,” he said. “And this [part] it demanded a lethality, which I felt was far beyond me. I called my manager three days before we started shooting and said, “Get me out.” I’m going to ruin the image of this great man, and I’m going to ruin myself. He, being wise, said, “Call me tomorrow and I’ll get you out if necessary.”
“Then I would go to the hall mirror to adjust my tie,” he added. “I was inconsolable. And I looked in the mirror and I literally jumped back a foot. I saw a look I had never seen before, something in my eyes that alarmed me. A soulless death look in my eyes that scary and overwhelmingly menacing. And I looked up at the sky and said, ‘You found it.’
This article originally appeared in the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.