Paul Sorvino, ‘Goodfellas’ and ‘Law & Order’ actor, dead at 83
By Erin Keller - New York Post
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Actor Paul Sorvino, best known for his starring role as Paul Cicero in “Goodfellas” has died. He was 83.
His wife, Dee Dee, was by side in Indiana Monday morning when he passed from natural causes.
“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.
The Post has reached out to reps for Sorvino for comment.
With over 100 acting credits to his name, Sorvino had a knack for playing gangsters and cops, notably in Martin Scorsese’s 1990 hit “Goodfellas” and NYPD sergeant Phil Cerretta on seasons 2 and 3 of “Law & Order.”
He also appeared in the 1995 movie “Nixon” and as Fulgencio Capulet in 1996’s “Romeo + Juliet.
He played an Italian American communist in Warren Beatty’s “Reds,” Henry Kissinger in Oliver Stone’s “Nixon” and mob boss Eddie Valentine in “The Rocketeer.”
Born in Brooklyn in 1939, Cicero attended the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York where he fell in love with theater. He made his Broadway debut in 1964 in “Bajour,” and booked his first movie, “Where’s Poppa?,” in 1970.
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He told the Post in 2002 that Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, Muhammad Ali were his heroes.
“Self sacrifice, risking their lives for what they believed in- they are true citizens of Planet Earth,” he said.
Christopher Serrone, who played young Henry Hill at the beginning of “Goodfellas,” told The Post in 2020 for the movie’s 30th anniversary that Sorvino would sing opera between takes.
Of his career-making role in “Goodfellas,” Sorvino once recalled how he felt typecast.
“There are many people who think I’m actually a gangster or a mafioso, largely because of ‘Goodfellas,’” he once said, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “I suppose that’s the price you pay for being effective in a role.”
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Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino in “Goodfellas.”
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Paul Sorvino and Mira Sorvino during “The Cooler” Los Angeles Premiere at The Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.
He had three children from his first marriage to Lorraine Davis, including Academy Award-winning actor Mira Sorvino. He also directed and starred in a film written by his daughter, Amanda, and featuring his son, Michael.
Sorvino was also a staunch opponent of disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein, who allegedly was accused of blacklisting Mira, after she refused his sexual advances.
Telling TMZ in 2018, Sorvino said: “If I meet him on the street, he oughta hope that he goes to jail. Because if we come across [one another], I think he’ll be lying on the floor somehow, magically. He’s gonna go to jail. That son of a bitch, good for him if he goes, because if not, then he has to meet me, and I’ll kill that motherf—ker.”
He claimed at the time he only learned about the sexual harassment and assault and blacklisting allegations against the “Shakespeare in Love” filmmaker when the public did, stating, “If I had known it, he would not be walking. He’d be in a wheelchair.”
“My daughter is a wonderful person,” he said at the time. “A courageous and wonderful human being and doesn’t deserve to have been treated that way by this pig. This pig will get his comeuppance. The law will get him. He’s going to go to jail and die in jail. But if he doesn’t … I’ll just slap him around. I won’t do anything terrible.”
The “Mighty Aphrodite” star famously thanked her dad in her 1996 Oscar speech, when she won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the Woody Allen film. Her speech brought him to happy tears. “When you give me this award, you honor my father, Paul Sorvino, who has taught me everything he knows about acting,” she said on stage.
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Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Paul Sorvino in “Goodfellas.”
A 2015 New York Times article on the 25th anniversary of “Goodfellas” noted how Sorvino revealed he was so happy to get the part.
“I’d done a lot of comedies as well as dramas, but I’d never done a really tough guy. I never had it in me,” he said. “And this [part] called for a lethality, which I felt was way beyond me. I called my manager three days before we started shooting and said, ‘Get me out. I’m going to ruin this great man’s picture, and I’m going to ruin myself.’ He, being wise, said, ‘Call me tomorrow, and if necessary I will get you out.’
“Then I was going by the hall mirror to adjust my tie. I was just inconsolable. And I looked in the mirror and literally jumped back a foot. I saw a look I’d never seen, something in my eyes that alarmed me. A deadly soulless look in my eyes that scared me and was overwhelmingly threatening. And I looked to the heavens and said, ‘You’ve found it,'” he added.
