R.I.P. Tony Sirico, Paulie Walnuts from The Sopranos
Turning to acting after a long prison stint, Sirico became a key part of one of the greatest crime dramas of all time

Tony Sirico has died. Best known for his role as loud-mouthed, frequently buffoonish gangster Paulie Walnuts on all six seasons of HBO’s The Sopranos, Sirico came by his underworld acting chops honestly: He was first introduced to the craft while serving a stint in prison after a multi-year career as a stick-up man who targeted New York’s nightclubs, before an encounter with a visiting company of ex-convicts-turned-actors drastically altered the course of his life. In addition to his role on the legendary HBO drama, Sirico appeared in Goodfellas, in the casts of several Woody Allen films, and, somewhat improbably, in a multi-episode arc on Family Guy. Per Variety, he died earlier today. Sirico was 79.
Born Gennaro Anthony Sirico Jr. in 1942, Sirico spent the first 30 years of his life building up an arrest record nearly as impressive as his eventual acting resumé, ultimately being arrested 28 times on a variety of charges, and serving a total of five years of prison time. During his last stint in prison, he encountered a group called The Theater Of The Forgotten, former convicts turn actors who toured prisons. “I saw them, and right there and then I knew what I wanted to do,” Sirico said in a 2001 interview. “It just hit me. I said, ‘I can do that.’ And when I got out I called someone who had been a friend of mine for many years, Richie Castellano, who had played Fat Clemenza in The Godfather. I told Richie I wanted to be an actor.”
After Castellano helped Sirico get his first role (in 1974's Crazy Joe), he began steadily working, and didn’t really stop for the next several decades. His character names from this period paint a picture of the course of his career: Names like “Tough Guy,” “Jacko,” and “Rocco” dot his resumé—the latter in Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway, the first of four films the writer/director would cast Sirico in. (He also scored a few roles on the “enforcement” side of the law, including playing a cop in Albert Hughes’ Dead Presidents.)