Each Sopranos fan is aware of “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri, the loyal however violent lieutenant of Tony Soprano. Performed by Tony Sirico, Paulie appeared in each season of the present, and was a focus of a few of its most memorable installments, together with the immortal “Pine Barrens,” broadly regarded by most critics and followers as The Sopranos’ greatest episode.
Sadly, Sirico — whose profession stretched again years earlier than and after his most well-known work on The Sopranos — died on the morning of July 8. No reason for demise was given. Sirico was 79 years outdated.
His brother Robert introduced the information on Fb, writing that Sirico’s household is “deeply grateful for the numerous expressions of affection, prayer and condolences and requests that the general public respect its privateness on this time of bereavement.”
Shortly after his demise grew to become public, his Sopranos co-star Michael Imperioli wrote on his Instagram account “Tony was like nobody else: he was as powerful, as loyal and as huge hearted as anybody i’ve ever recognized. I used to be at his facet via a lot: via good instances and dangerous. However largely good. And we had a variety of laughs. We discovered a groove as Christopher and Paulie and I’m proud to say I did a variety of my greatest and most enjoyable work with my pricey pal Tony. I’ll miss him eternally.”
Sirico was in a position to attract on a few of his personal historical past in enjoying Paulie Walnuts; he was arrested quite a few instances in his teenagers and 20s, and finally spent over a 12 months in jail on quite a lot of fees. A decade earlier than The Sopranos, Sirico spoke about a few of his prison previous within the 1989 documentary The Huge Bang.
Whereas he was in jail, Sirico grew to become concerned with performing. Upon his launch, he began showing onscreen in small roles. His early movie appearances embody Fingers, The Decide-up Artist, and Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. Within the Nineteen Nineties, he made a number of appearances in Woody Allen motion pictures together with Mighty Aphrodite, Everybody Says I Love You, and Deconstructing Harry.
However his breakthrough got here in 1999 when he landed the function as Paulie in The Sopranos. Sirico finally appeared in 74 of the sequence’ 86 episodes. Through the years, Paulie grew to become one of many sequence’ most advanced and engaging characters. As Paulie, Sirico may very well be terrifying, pathetic, relatable, monstrous, or hilarious — and he was a grasp of the malapropisms that grew to become one in all The Sopranos’ comedic signatures.
Within the years after The Sopranos, Sirico appeared in additional movies and tv reveals. However there’s little question what he might be remembered for. There’s just one Paulie Walnuts.
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