R.I.P. Paul Sorvino from Goodfellas and Law & Order
The actor who played Paul Cicero in Goodfellas and starred on two seasons of Law & Order was 83
Aux News Law & Order
Paul Sorvino, the intimidating tough-guy actor best known for playing mobsters and cops—but who prided himself on the times he was able to do anything else—has died. That comes from the Associated Press and was confirmed by his publicist, who said that he died this morning “of natural causes” in Indiana. Sorvino, who was in Goodfellas, Romeo + Juliet, and dozens of episodes of Law & Order, was 83.
Sorvino was born in Brooklyn in 1939 and attended a performing arts school, where he decided to become a theater actor. He made his Broadway debut in 1964 with Bajour and his film debut a few years later in Carl Reiner’s 1970 black comedy Where’s Poppa? with George Segal and Ruth Gordon. In 1972, a well-received performance in Jason Miller’s That Championship Season got Sorvino a gig in the movie adaptation (with everyone else in the original cast replaced by notable names like Martin Sheen, Bruce Dern, Robert Mitchum, and Stacy Keach).
He also appeared in cult horror film The Stuff and had a fruitful working relationship with Warren Beatty, appearing in Reds, Dick Tracy, Bulworth, and Rules Don’t Apply. His most high-profile film role, though, came from playing mob heavy Paul Cicero in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas—a role that, as is the case with most actors from Goodfellas, effectively defined the rest of his career.
Either you’re doing that, or you’re doing a response to that, whether it means playing against type or playing someone who is pointedly not a mobster, like a cop. Naturally, Sorvino followed Goodfellas with a two-season run on Law & Order, playing Sergeant Phil Cerreta for 31 episodes. Unfortunately, the character’s contribution to the Law & Order canon is mostly just notable for who replaced him: Jerry Orbach’s Lennie Briscoe, one of the most popular TV characters of all time.
Paul Sorvino had three children, including actors Michael and Mira Sorvino—with the latter memorably bringing her father to tears when she thanked him in her Oscars speech in 1996. The AP obituary also quotes Sorvino as saying that he always hoped he would be remembered as more than just a mobster, saying: “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…. It would be nice to have my legacy be more than that of just tough guy.”
64 Comments
This one hurts. There’s a moment early in the film where Paulie is talking to the Bamboo Lounge owner and he looks over at Henry Hill while shrugging his shoulders in a real exaggerated way to say look at this guy. My entire life I have done this move when I’m confused and I’ve called it The Paulie. Well I’ll shrug in your honor Mr Sorvino! Fare thee well.
RIP
I think it’s from the same scene, where Paulie’s talking to the lounge owner about Tommy, and says “What do you want me to do, whack him?” and the Bamboo lounge guys says “Wouldn’t be a bad idea…” and Paulie gives him the death-iest of death glares. I’ve tried to replicate that “you just crossed the line fucko” glare to my kids for years.
The scene in Get Shorty when Travolta is trying to tease the dead-eyed stare out of DeVito always reminds me of Sorvino’s look in Goodfellas. It would have been easier to just say “do Paulie.”
My favorite quote from Goodfellas. RIP Paul
Ray Liotta, Jimmy Caan, now Paul Sorvino. Guys like De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci should be getting nervous.
But not Keith Richards. He’s going to outlive us all.
He’s going to be the first person to live forever.
Keith Richards won’t die until a group of adventure find and destroy his phylactery
Keith’s been dead for twenty, maybe thirty years. He just hasn’t noticed yet.
There was some sci fi book I read as a kid about which I remember nothing else except that despite being set hundreds of years in the future, Keith Richards and Paul McCartney were both still alive. In all that time Paul kept getting fatter and Keith kept getting thinner.
Protect Pesci at all costs
*Layla Intensifies*
Gettin’ whacked by God.
While it is unfortunate that he will be remembered for a role that he seemed to askew in real life, cot damn did he do an amazing job as Paulie. That clip of him crying as his daughter Mira accepts the Oscar is amazing, and almost brought me to tears. RIP tha gawd.
Yeah, his IRL personality was apparently just a big, happy, ebullient guy. Which of course makes me happy.
Eschew, bb.
This is Kevin Smith’s troll account.
He was so good in Goodfellas. He was able to convey so much menace without saying a word. Rest in peace.
Paulie may have moved slow. Only because Paulie didn’t have to move for ANYbody.
The impression I got the first time I saw Goodfellas was that Paulie’s life revolved around crime and Italian sausage.
The reviewer in the Baltimore Sun wrote that the first thing you’ll do after seeing Goodfellas is go to Little Italy and get an Italian sausage sandwich!
I totally believe that. In fact, I think I’ll stop at my favorite spot today.
I’ve never actually seen Goodfellas (I know) but I enjoyed the recent Godfather of Harlem series (2) in which he had a prominent role. After some time to grieve I assume there will be some furious rewriting for S3.
I’m…not even sure what to say to this.
“I’ve never actually seen Goodfellas…”Did you also skip Casino, The Departed, The Irishman, and The Godfather Trilogy as well?
Of those, I’ve seen the Departed only, and it was within the last couple of years. It was ‘cos I’d watched Infernal Affairs and I wanted to see how it compared.
Cool. I thought The Departed was nicely done. Plus you get the bonus of seeing Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon go head to head, seeing how they seem to be mistaken for each other all the time.
Actually skipping the Irishman is understandable
Yeah, the whole de-aging thing is kind of creepy.
Also “Santa Baby 2!”
And not a word about The Rocketeer!
He may be a gangster but he still loved America and wasn’t pro Nazi.
Oh, yeah! He’s great in that and it’s an oft-overlooked little gem!
Good
He was a damn fine Kissinger too. Actually, I think he was more convincing than the real Kissinger.
Like David Warner, he appeared on Star Trek TNG, though unfortunately in a rather less distinguished role as Worf’s never before mentioned adoptive brother (and this was the show’s final season!) who’s made a straw man bad guy to prop up the Prime Directive despite being objectively in the right by any sane measure.
I don’t recall that episode. Is he a Klingon or is he his adopted brother. Because I am not sure if it’s sillier to see him in Klingon makeup or imagine that he is the son of Worf’s very Jewish adopted parents.
The latter. He makes a great case for, “No, the Prime Directive is dumb, actually” by surreptitiously beaming an entire pre-Warp civilization onto a holodeck.
His adopted brother; he played Nikolai Rozhenko.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Nikolai_Rozhenko
“Enjoy every sandwich…”
Get his fucking name out of your mouth, Barsanti.
First Ray Liotta and now Paul Sorvino?!?!
God’s coming after the Goodfellas stars!!!Put De Niro, Pesci, and Bracco in bubblewrap NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Future AV Club headline:
Joe Pesci Dead at 79 After Asphyxiating on Bubble Wrap
Okay, maybe I didn’t plan this shit through…
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Paulie Walnuts have a very small role in Goodfellas? Yeah its been a bad year.
I remember him most as Worf’s a’hole brother on ST:TNG. Rest in peace.
He had good intentions while trying to not violate the Prime Directive.
He lived in the apartment directly above my good friend’s in West Hollywood. 19 years ago, when he was having a particularly raucous party, Paul came down to complain… and wound up staying an hour, and got pretty loaded.Wonderful man. His memory will be a blessing.
Aw man. He may have moved slow. But that’s because he didn’t have to move for anybody. RIP.
Unpopular opinion, I’m well aware, but I liked Phil Cerreta more than I ever liked Lenny Briscoe. I’ve never been a fan of Briscoe. Orbach always seemed fakey to me in the role. Sorvino’s two seasons of L&O were the best seasons, followed by the first season. I even liked Greevey better than Briscoe.I’m not trying to be a troll, that’s just the way I’ve always felt. I’ve never heard of anyone who agrees with me, though.
I also love the Sorvino seasons of L&O the best. George Dzundza (Season 1) was ok on the show — he had his moments – but the show was still trying to find its feet.
George Dzundza was the original Sean Bean by which I mean he died in everything. No Way Out. Dead. Law & Order. Dead. Basic Instinct. Dead.
Nah, I agree with you. I never understood the accolades for Orbach in that role either. He wasn’t bad, just not a legendary take to a character as some people have made it. And in all reality, he played it way too late in life.
I liked Cerreta a lot and would also argue that he’s preferable to Briscoe, but fuck Greevey; he was such a sanctimonious prick. I did a pandemic rewatch of the entire series and every time a victim had a sexual proclivities he didn’t agree with, his scenes would just be him saying to Logan that maaaybe the victim had it coming. And then there’s the feeling all conflicted about arresting people who bombed an abortion clinic!My L&O hot take is that I don’t care for McCoy, especially Sam Waterston’s take on the character in latter seasons — it’s just a lot of head bobbing and shouting. Michael Moriarty is apparently a luncatic IRL, but I really liked the way he portrayed Stone as wanting to see Justice™ served for victims; he has the best “convincing the victim to testify” scenes of any DA. With McCoy, it more often that not felt like he was more concerned with winning than with the law or doing what’s right.
I always felt that 60% of Sam Waterston’s acting is widening his eyes. See also: early Rupert Grint.
I won’t go that far, but Cerretta is criminally overlooked in that series.
As a reminder, he uttered the greatest line in cinema in The Rocketeer:
“The Rockawho??”
“Who are they gonna believe, Eddie? Some two-bit hoodlum or the number three box office draw in America?”[Petulantly under his breath] “Number three jerk in America…”
Ray Liotta, James Caan, Paulie Walnuts, and now Paul Sorvino – all within a month. Jesus…
i know him best from mambo italiano
And now he gotta turn his back.RIP.
Long before L&O, he starred in another cop show that you don’t mention – Bert D’Angelo, Superstar – and that I had completely forgotten was originally a spinoff from Streets of San Francisco. Michael Douglas, Karl Malden, and Paul Sorvino; that’s a whole lot of talent for 1970s TV.