Paul Sorvino

Paul Anthony Sorvino (Template:IPAc-en, Template:IPA; April 13, 1939 – July 25, 2022) was an American actor.<ref name=Steyn>Template:Cite episode</ref> He often portrayed authority figures on both the criminal and the law enforcement sides of the law.

Sorvino was particularly known for his roles as Lucchese crime family caporegime Paulie Cicero (based on real life gangster Paul Vario) in Martin Scorsese's 1990 gangster film Goodfellas and as NYPD Sergeant Phil Cerreta on the second and third seasons of the TV series Law & Order. He also played a variety of father figures, including Juliet's father in Baz Luhrmann's 1996 film Romeo + Juliet, as well as guest appearances as the father of Bruce Willis' character on the TV series Moonlighting and the father of Jeff Garlin's character on The Goldbergs. He was in additional supporting roles in A Touch of Class (1973), Reds (1981, as Louis C. Fraina), The Rocketeer (1991), Nixon (1995, as Henry Kissinger), and The Cooler (2003).

Usually cast in dramatic supporting roles, he occasionally acted in lead roles in films including Bloodbrothers (1978), and also in comedic roles including his turn as a bombastic Southern evangelist in Carl Reiner's Oh, God! (1977). Sorvino was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor for the 1972 play That Championship Season, and later starred in film and television adaptations. He was the father of actors Mira Sorvino and Michael Sorvino.

Early life

Sorvino was born on April 13, 1939, and raised in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His mother, Angela Maria Mattea (née Renzi; 1906–1991), was a homemaker and piano teacher who was born in Connecticut to Italian (Molisan) parents from Casacalenda. His father, Fortunato “Ford” Sorvino (1902–1995), was an Italian (Neapolitan) immigrant who worked in a robe factory as a foreman.Template:Citation needed

Sorvino attended Lafayette High School (where he was a classmate of Peter Max, a painter and artist), graduated, and then went to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Career

Sorvino began his career as a copywriter in an advertising agency. He took voice lessons for 18 years. While attending The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, he decided to go into the theatre.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He made his Broadway debut in the 1964 musical Bajour,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and six years later he appeared in his first film, Carl Reiner's Where's Poppa?, starring George Segal and Ruth Gordon.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1971, he played a supporting role in Jerry Schatzberg's critically acclaimed The Panic in Needle Park, starring Al Pacino and Kitty Winn.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

File:Paul Sorvino Mitzi Hoag We'll Get By 1975.JPG

Sorvino with Mitzi Hoag in 1975

Sorvino received critical praise for his performance as Phil Romano in Jason Miller's 1972 Broadway play That Championship Season, a role he reprised in the 1982 film version.<ref name= championship/> He acted in another George Segal-starring film with a prominent supporting role in the Academy Award-winning romantic comedy A Touch of Class (1973).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy (1974), he played Harry Walters, a real estate salesman randomly picked up by a beautiful woman (JoAnna Cameron) and raped at gunpoint as a prank.<ref name=nicerguy>Template:Cite web</ref> He appeared in the 1976 Elliott Gould/Diane Keaton vehicle I Will, I Will... for Now.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He starred in the weekly series We'll Get By (1975, as George Platt),<ref name= wellgetby>Template:Cite web</ref> Bert D'Angelo/Superstar (1976, in the title role),<ref name=superstar>Template:Cite web</ref> and The Oldest Rookie (1987, as Detective Ike Porter).<ref name= oldestrookie>Template:Cite web</ref> He also directed Wheelbarrow Closers, a 1976 Broadway play by Louis La Russo II, which starred Danny Aiello.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1981, Sorvino played the role of Italian-American communist Louis C. Fraina in Warren Beatty's film Reds. He appeared in Larry Cohen's 1985 horror film The Stuff as a reclusive militia leader, alongside future Law & Order co-star Michael Moriarty. Sorvino also helped found the American Stage Company, a group that launched several successful Off-Broadway shows, in 1986.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1991, Sorvino took on the role of Sergeant Phil Cerreta (replacing actor George Dzundza in a new role) on the popular series Law & Order. Sorvino initially was excited about the role but left after 29 episodes, citing the exhausting schedule demanded by the filming of the show, a need to broaden his horizons, and the desire to preserve his vocal cords for singing opera. Sorvino's exit from the series came in an episode in which Sgt. Cerreta is shot in the line of duty and transferred to an administrative position in another precinct. He was replaced by Jerry Orbach.<ref name="Courrier and Green 123-125">Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1993, Sorvino substituted for Raymond Burr in a Perry Mason TV movie, The Case of the Wicked Wives.<ref name=perrymason>Template:Cite web</ref> He had earlier appeared as Bruce Willis' father in the weekly series Moonlighting<ref name=moonlighting>Template:Cite web</ref> and the "Lamont" counterpart in the never-aired original pilot for Sanford and Son. Some of his most notable film roles were caporegime Paul Cicero in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1990)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Henry Kissinger in Oliver Stone's Nixon (1995).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In addition to Goodfellas, Sorvino also played mob bosses Eddie Valentine in The Rocketeer<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Tony Morolto in The Firm.<ref name=thefirm>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Sorvino founded the Paul Sorvino Asthma Foundation; he intended to build asthma centers for children and adults across the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1998, he narrated the series The Big House for The History Channel. In 1999, he directed and again starred in (albeit playing a different role) a TV version of That Championship Season.<ref name=championship>Template:Cite news</ref>

File:Paul Sorvino.jpg

Sorvino in 2008

In Hey Arnold!: The Movie, Sorvino voiced the main antagonist, Mr. Scheck, the CEO of Future Tech Industries, who wants to convert Arnold's neighborhood into a huge shopping mall.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> From 2000 to 2002, Sorvino had a lead role as Frank DeLucca in the television drama That's Life.<ref name=thatslife>Template:Cite web</ref> He also starred in the comedy Still Standing as Al Miller, father to Bill (Mark Addy). Sorvino filmed The Trouble with Cali in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area of Pennsylvania. He directed and starred in the film, and his daughter Mira also acted in a lead role in the film.<ref name=stillstanding>Template:Cite news</ref>

Sorvino played GeneCo founder Rotti Largo in the 2008 musical film Repo! The Genetic Opera.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Working with Repo! director Darren Lynn Bousman again, Sorvino played God in The Devil's Carnival, a short film screened on tour beginning in April 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Sorvino's final motion picture The Ride was released posthumously in 2022. Sorvino appeared alongside Dean Cain, D.B. Sweeney, and his wife Dee Dee in his final performance. Sorvino's scenes were filmed in Jacksonville, Florida.<ref name="Bell">Template:Cite web</ref>

Personal life

Sorvino lived in Los Angeles and Madison, Indiana. He had three children: Mira, Michael, and Amanda from his first marriage with Lorraine Davis. Mira and Michael are actors.

On January 17, 2007, news reports detailed that he pulled a gun in front of Daniel Snee, an ex-boyfriend of his daughter Amanda, after the man pounded on her hotel room door and made threats. Amanda testified that Snee threatened to kill her at a hotel on January 3 in Stowe, Vermont. She said she locked herself in the bathroom and called both the police and her father. Her 67-year-old father showed up before police, she testified. When police arrived, the young man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, she said. As a deputy sheriff in Pennsylvania, Sorvino was legally authorized to carry a gun in different states. He did not point the gun at Snee or threaten him.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In March 2008, Sorvino and his daughter Amanda lobbied with the Americans Against Horse Slaughter in Washington D.C., for U.S. Congress to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S311/HR503). The Sorvinos run a private horse rescue operation in Gilbert, Pennsylvania.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Sorvino was also an accomplished sculptor, specializing in cast bronze. In December 2008 his sculpture of the late playwright Jason Miller was unveiled in Scranton, Pennsylvania. In addition, he guest-starred on the 2008 album of Neapolitan singer Eddy Napoli, Napulitanata, performing a duet of the song "Luna Rossa".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2007, Sorvino launched Paul Sorvino Foods to market a range of pasta sauces. Based on his mother's recipe, the product appeared in supermarkets in the northeastern United States in late 2009.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Three years later, Sorvino became part owner in Janson-Beckett Cosmeceuticals.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

In an April 2014 interview, Sorvino said, "Most people think I'm either a gangster or a cop or something, but the reality is I'm a sculptor, a painter, a best-selling author, many, many things—a poet, an opera singer, but none of them is gangster, but, you know, obviously I sort of have a knack for playing these things. It's almost my later goal in life to disabuse people of the notion that I'm a slow-moving, heavy-lidded thug, and most people's impression of me IS that—because of the success of Goodfellas and a few other things, but they forget that I was also Dr. Kissinger in Nixon, the deaf lawyer in Dummy, and they forget a lot of things that I've done. It would be nice to have my legacy more than that of just tough guy."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Before screening his film Once Upon a Time in Queens at the Florida Film Festival in Orlando in April 2014, Sorvino revealed that he practiced New Formalism, by writing rhymed and metrical verse after the heyday of Modernist poetry, and recited one of his own poems as an example.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In December 2014, Sorvino married political pundit Dee Dee Benkie after he met her while appearing as a guest on Your World With Neil Cavuto.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In January 2018, Sorvino found out that Harvey Weinstein allegedly sexually harassed his daughter Mira, and blacklisted her within the film industry after she rejected the film mogul's sexual demands. In response, Sorvino told TMZ, "He's going to go to jail. Oh yeah. That son of a bitch. Good for him if he goes, because if not, he has to meet me. And I will kill the motherfucker. Real simple. If I had known it, he would not be walking. He'd be in a wheelchair. This pig will get his comeuppance. The law will get him. He's going to go to jail and die in jail."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Death

Sorvino died of natural causes at Mayo Clinic Florida in Jacksonville on July 25, 2022, aged 83.<ref name=Bahr>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=Gates>Template:Cite news</ref> He was interred at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Template:Abbr
1970	Template:Sortname	Owner of 'Gus & Grace's Home'		<ref name="TVG filmog">Template:Cite web</ref>
1971	Template:Sortname	Template:Sortname
	Template:Sortname	Template:Sortname
	Template:Sortname	Gig's Father
1972	Template:Sortname	Taxi Driver		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1973	Template:Sortname	Walter Menkes		<ref name="TVG filmog" />
	Template:Sortname	Curtis Mahoney
1974	Template:Sortname	"Hips"
1975	Template:Sortname	Joe "Big Joe"
1976	Template:Sortname	Lou Springer
1977	Template:Sortname	Reverend Willie Williams
1978	Template:Sortname	"Chubby" De Coco
	Template:Sortname	Lou Friedlander
	Template:Sortname	"Jazz" Maffie
1979	Template:Sortname	Reilly
1980	Template:Sortname	Captain Edelsen
1981	Template:Sortname	Louis Fraina
1982	Template:Sortname	Walter
	I, the Jury	Detective Pat Chambers
	That Championship Season	Phil Romano
1983	Off the Wall	Warden Nicholas F. Castle
1985	The Stuff	Colonel Malcolm Grommett Spears
1985	Turk 182	Himself
1986	A Fine Mess	Tony Pazzo
1986	Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter	Gino
1990	Dick Tracy	"Lips" Manlis
	Goodfellas	Paul Cicero
1991	The Rocketeer	Eddie Valentine
	Age Isn't Everything	Max
1993	The Firm	Tommie Morolto	Uncredited
1995	Cover Me	J.J. Davis
	Nixon	Henry Kissinger	Nominated – Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
1996	Love Is All There Is	Piero Malacici
	Romeo + Juliet	Fulgencio Capulet
1997	American Perfekt	Sheriff Frank Noonan
	Men with Guns	Horace Burke		<ref name="RT">Template:Cite web</ref>
	Money Talks	Guy Cipriani		<ref name="TVG filmog" />
	Most Wanted	CIA Deputy Director Ken Rackmill
1998	Bulworth	Graham Crockett
	Knock Off	Harry Johanson
2000	Longshot	Laszlo Pryce
	The Amati Girls	Joe
2001	Perfume	Lorenzo Mancini
	See Spot Run	Sonny Talia
	Witches to the North	Gallio
2002	Ciao America	Antonio Primavera
	Hey Arnold!: The Movie	Alphonse Perrier du von Scheck	Voice role
2003	The Cooler	Buddy Stafford
	Mambo Italiano	Gino Barberini
2004	Mr. 3000	Gus Panas
2006	Mr. Fix It	Wally
2007	Template:Sortname	"Catch" Turner
2008	Last Hour	Maitre Steinfeld	Direct to video
	Template:Sortname	Ledudal
	Repo! The Genetic Opera	Rotti Largo
2009	The Wild Stallion	Nolan	Direct to video
2011	Kill the Irishman	Tony 'Fat Tony' Salerno
2012	The Trouble with Cali	Ivan		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	The Devil's Carnival	God		<ref name="TVG filmog" />
	For the Love of Money	"Red"
	Divorce Invitation	Daniel Miller
2013	How Sweet It Is	Mike "Big Mike" Cicero
	Once Upon a Time in Queens	Joe Scoleri
	The Immigrant	Yeshiva Principal
2015	Hybrids	The Count
	Careful What You Wish For	Sheriff Jack "Big Jack"
	No Deposit	Alfie
	Sicilian Vampire	Jimmy Scambino		<ref name="RT" />
	Cold Deck	"Chips"		<ref name="TVG filmog" />
2016	Alleluia! The Devil's Carnival	God
	Template:Sortname	Frank
	The Brooklyn Banker	Benny		<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
	Detours	Joe DiMaria		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	The Bronx Bull	Giuseppe LaMotta		<ref name="TVG filmog" />
	The Red Maple Leaf	Joseph Palermo		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Rules Don't Apply	Vernon Scott		<ref name="TVG filmog" />
	A Winter Rose	'Skippy'
2017	Lost Cat Corona	Uncle Sam
	Template:Sortname	Phil
	Undercover Grandpa	Giovanni
2018	Template:Sortname	Chief Lassiter
2020	Most Guys Are Losers	Grandpa
2021	The Birthday Cake	Uncle Carmine		<ref name="TVG filmog" />
2022	The Ride	Paulie Amato		<ref name="Bell"/>
Template:TableTBA	Template:Pending film	Grandpa	Posthumous release	<ref name="tvinsider">'Law & Order' & 'Goodfellas' Actor Paul Sorvino Dies at 83</ref>
	Template:Pending film	Mr. McCormack	Posthumous release

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Template:Abbr
1974	It Couldn't Happen to a Nicer Guy	Harry Walters	Television film	<ref name=nicerguy/>
1975	We'll Get By	George Platt	Main role	<ref name=wellgetby/>
1976	The Streets of San Francisco	Sergeant Bert D'Angelo	"Superstar"	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Bert D'Angelo/Superstar		Main role	<ref name=superstar/>
1977	Seventh Avenue	Dave Shaw	Miniseries	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1979	Dummy	Lowell Myers	Television film	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1983	Chiefs	Sheriff Skeeter Willis	Miniseries	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1985	Surviving: A Family in Crisis	Harvey	Television film	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Wes Craven's Chiller	Reverend Penny		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1986	Moonlighting	David Addison Sr.	"The Son Also Rises"	<ref name=moonlighting/>
1987-1988	The Oldest Rookie	Detective Ike Porter	Main role	<ref name=oldestrookie/>
1989	Murder, She Wrote	Al Sidell	"Three Strikes, You're Out"	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1991-1992	Law & Order	Sergeant Phil Cerreta	Main role	<ref name="Courrier and Green 123-125"/>
1993	A Perry Mason Mystery: The Case of the Wicked Wives	Anthony Caruso	Television film	<ref name=perrymason/>
1994	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Nikolai Rozhenko	"Homeward"	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Parallel Lives	Ed Starling	Television film	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Without Consent	Dr. Winslow		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1996	Escape Clause	Lieutenant Gil Farrand		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1997	Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way	Joe Torre		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Duckman	Variecom CEO	Voice role Template:Sortname	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1998	Houdini	Blackburn	Television film	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	The Big House	Narrator	Main role	<ref name="TVG filmog" />
1999	That Championship Season	Coach	Television film Also director	<ref name=championship/>
2000	Cheaters	Constantine Kiamos	Television film	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	The Thin Blue Lie	Frank Rizzo		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2000 & 2002	That's Life	Frank DeLucca	Main role	<ref name=thatslife/>
2004 & 2006	Still Standing	Al Miller	4 episodes	<ref name=stillstanding/>
2009	Doc West	Sheriff Roy Basehart	Television film	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Template:Sortname	Santa Claus		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2012	Imaginary Friend	Jonathan		<ref name="TVG filmog" />
	Jersey Shore Shark Attack	Mayor Palantine		<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2014	Elementary	Robert Pardillo	"All in the Family"	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	The Goldbergs	Ben 'Pop-Pop' Goldberg	"The Most Handsome Boy on the Planet"	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2016	Grandfathered	Jack Martino	Template:Sortname	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2017	Bad Blood	Nicolo Rizzuto	Main role	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
	Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders	Dr. Dominico Scarpa	"II Mostro"	<ref name="TVG filmog" />
2019-2021	Godfather of Harlem	Frank Costello	Main role	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

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