He was 79. Great in the Sopranos .
“I was born, grew up, spent a few years in the army, couple more in the can, and here I am, half a wise guy.”
That pretty much sums it up. RIP
Guy was an interior decorator. He killed 16 Czechoslovakians.
His house looked like shit.
I’m just saying, Tone.
Paulie Walnuts.
Vinnie Griffin.
Alias Ted Hughes (but he had nothing to do with wacking Sylvia Plath).
A fascinating guy who managed to convey a remarkable breadth of emotion into a character who could have otherwise been very one-dimensional. I think Sirico was both “playing himself” and “acting” at the same time, which is hard to explain but it is a thing and it’s different and much rarer than one or the other. He was really, truly, intensely emotive and nuanced, and the hard man exterior was as real as the big hearted and sensitive soul underneath it (the “Big Bang” interview paints a fuller picture.)
He carried this emotion over into Paulie and as I have rewatched the show at least 20 times I am constantly catching new bits of brilliance in his characterization. Think about it, really think - he got a lot of major storylines centering around him. A show as A-list as The Sopranos could not do this with a cardboard caricature. There’s a reason why he provides so many moments that move the story forward. How many Silvio-centered storylines were there, on the whole run of the show? Two, maybe? Whereas things that Paulie did or didn’t do or say were a CONSTANT source of plot devices. EVERYONE was, at some point or another in the story, playing off of Sirico.
If you’ve been through the Talking Sopranos podcast in which Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa discuss each individual episode of the series with each other and a wide variety of co-stars, writers, directors and people otherwise involved in the creation of the show, it’s clear that everyone who worked with him adored the guy.
Ah, damn, he was brilliantly as Paulie. He could be side-splittingly funny in one scene and terrifying in the next. RIP.
Tony Sirico had been acting for 20 years before The Sopranos, whereas Silvio was pretty much Steven Van Zandt’s first acting gig, so that’s not the best comparison.
“Ride a painted pony, let the spinning wheel spin.”
Or, as they say on The Sopranos…
Ride the painted pony, let the spinning wheel glide.
First James Caan, now this guy. Someone put out a contract on actors who played Mafiosi?
Sicilianos!
RIP, Paulie. You were a real paesano!
He also stipulated he would never, ever be a rat!
I saw the news yesterday and said, “Paulie Walnuts died”. Everyone knew who I was talking about.
My Mom and Uncle grew up on the same block as him in Brooklyn. His younger brother and Uncle were best friends.
Tony really was involved the mob. My uncle was briefly a loosely affiliated bookie. Tony did protection rackets on discos in the 70s. My uncle’s favorite story about him was walking into the bathroom of a disco and seeing Tony with some poor guy’s head in the toilet. Tony looked up and saw Uncle and they smiled and waved at each other.
First James Caan, now Tony Sirico. People with uncredited parts in Godfather II are dying left and right. (How is it that Bruno Kirby died years ago but Dominic Chianese is still going?)