Goodfellas Actor Paul Sorvino Passes Away At 83: A Look At His Career As Actor-Director And Singer
Veteran actor Paul Sorvino, popular for his role in Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic
goodfellas
and the father of Oscar Award-winner Mira Sorvino, has died. He was 83. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sorvino died on Monday, July 25 of natural causes. Publicist Roger Neal said Sorvino died at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida.
“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,” his wife Dee Dee said.
Mira Sorvino took to Twitter to pay tributes to her father. “My heart is rent asunder — a life of love and joy and wisdom with him is over. He was the most wonderful father. I love him so much. I’m sending you love in the stars Dad as you ascend,” she wrote .
Paul Sorvino with Robert De Niro in Goodfellas
Paul Sorvino, who made his debut with Carl Reiner’s
Where’s Poppa?
in 1970, starred in films such as
The Gambler,
The Brink’s Job,
The Firm,
Nixon,
Romeo and Julietand
The Cooler
in his career spanning 50 years.
His on-screen partnership with actor-director Warren Beatty was especially of note as they collaborated on films such as
Reds,
Dick Tracy,
Bulworth
and
Rules Don’t Apply,
Sorvino also starred in one season of the NBC series
Law & Orderon which he played the role of Detective Phil Cerretta, the partner of Detective Mike Logan (Chris Noth).
Also a tenor, the actor’s dream came true when he performed for the New York Opera at Lincoln Center in 2006. Back in 1973, Sorvino received a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award for his performance as the immoral Phil Romano in the original Broadway production of Jason Miller’s
That Championship Seasonwinner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Almost 10 years later, he reprized the role for a film. He played the coach in a 1999 Showtime telefilm, which also marked his directorial debut. In 2012, Sorvino starred in and directed his only feature film
The Trouble With Callwhich he based in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the setting of
That Championship Season,
Paul Sorvino with Robert De Niro and other cast in Goodfellas
But, it was his role of Cicero from the 1990 biographical
goodfellasadapted by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese from Pileggi’s 1986 non-fiction book, that earned him most recognition to the point that he once said people think “I’m actually a gangster or a mafioso”.
Sorvino was born on April 13, 1939, in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, to a father who was an Italian immigrant working in a robe factory, and mother, a housewife and piano teacher.
The actor was always fascinated with the human voice and song in Catskills hotels as a teenager. He even took lessons to realize his dream of becoming an opera singer, but an affliction with asthma forced him to focus on acting. A student at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Sorvino cut his teeth with theater roles making his Broadway debut in the musical comedy
Bajore
in 1964.
His first TV role came in 1975 with
We’ll Get Bya CBS show created by Alan Alda, which he followed up with
Bert D’Angelo, Superstar, He also starred with Ellen Burstyn and Kevin Dillon on the 2000-02 CBS dramedy
That’s Life,
More recently, he played Frank Costello on the Epix series
Godfather of Harlem,
Sorvino married his third wife, Dee Dee Benkie, a GOP strategist and former aide to President George W Bush, in 2014. He is also survived by his other children, Amanda and Michael, and five grandchildren.
