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Paul Sorvino 1939 - 2022

Paul Anthony Sorvino of Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida United States was born on April 13, 1939 at Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, Kings County, NY, and died at age 83 years old on July 25, 2022 at Mayo Clinic 4500 San Pablo Rd S, in Jacksonville, Duval County, FL.

Paul Anthony Sorvino
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Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida United States
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April 13, 1939
Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York, United States
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July 25, 2022
Mayo Clinic 4500 San Pablo Rd S, in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, 32224, United States
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Updated: June 26, 2024
Biography ID: 192868102 What's this
Paul Sorvino Paul Sorvino (1939 - 2022)
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Paul Anthony Sorvino's History: 1939 - 2022

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  • Introduction

    Paul Anthony Sorvino April 13, 1939 – July 25, 2022) was an American actor, opera singer, businessman, writer, and sculptor. He often portrayed authority figures on both sides of the law and was known for his roles as Paulie Cicero in the 1990 gangster film Goodfellas, and NYPD Sergeant Phil Cerreta on the TV series Law & Order. He took on supporting roles in A Touch of Class, Reds, The Rocketeer, Nixon, and Romeo + Juliet. He was the father of actors Mira Sorvino and Michael Sorvino. He was born in Brooklyn, New York City. His mother, Angela (Renzi), was a piano teacher, of Italian descent. His father, Ford Sorvino, was an Italian immigrant who worked in a robe factory as a foreman. Paul originally had his heart set on a life as an opera singer. He was exposed to dramatic arts while studying at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. He furthered his studies with Sanford Meisner and eventually made his film debut in Where's Poppa? (1970). Sorvino suffered from severe asthma, and worked hard at mastering various breathing techniques to manage the illness. He wrote a best-selling book entitled "How to Become a Former Asthmatic". He also started the Sorvino Asthma Foundation based in New York City. Sorvino has appeared in a variety of film, TV and theatrical productions over the the last four decades. He received critical praise for his role in the Broadway play "That Championship Season", and played the role again in the 1981 film alongside Robert Mitchum and Martin Sheen. Other noteworthy performances during the 1980s and 1990s included a stressed-out police chief in Cruising (1980), Mike Hammer's cop buddy in I, the Jury (1982), "Lips Manlis" in Dick Tracy (1990) with James Caan and in a standout performance as mob patriarch "Paul Cicero" in the powerhouse Goodfellas (1990). For more of his accomplishments see Paul Sorvino: Professions
  • 04/13
    1939

    Birthday

    April 13, 1939
    Birthdate
    Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, Kings County, New York United States
    Birthplace
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  • Ethnicity & Family History

    Paul was Caucasian and Italian through his mother and his father. His mother Angela Maria (Renzi) Matttea (1906-1991) was born in Connecticut and was a homemaker and piano teacher. Paul's father Ford Sorvino (1904-1995) was born in Italy and was a robe factory foreman.

  • Nationality & Locations

    Paul was born in Brooklyn, New York and lived in Gilbert, Pennsylvania in his later years. He had homes in Madison Indiana and Jacksonville Florida when he passed away.

  • Early Life & Education

    Paul attended Brooklyn's Lafayette High School with Larry King. He also is a graduate of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy.

  • Professional Career

    Always keeping himself busy, Sorvino has performed in nearly 50 movies just in the past decade, including a dynamic and under-appreciated portrayal of Henry Kissinger in Nixon (1995), as "Fulgencio Capulet" in the updated Romeo + Juliet (1996) and in the Las Vegas thriller The Cooler (2003). Sorvino was the proud father of Academy Award-winning actress Mira Sorvino. - Family: Spouse Dee Dee Sorvino (27 December 2014 - death of Paul) Vanessa Arico (20 March 1991 - 1996) (divorced) Lorraine Davis (23 July 1966 - 1988) (divorced) (3 children) Children Michael Sorvino, Amanda Sorvino, and Mira Sorvino Parents Fortunato Sorvino Marietta Sorvino Relatives William Sorvino (sibling) Bill Sorvino (niece or nephew) Trade Mark Deep baritone voice Reserved yet charming manner Often played gangsters Frequently cast by Warren Beatty Trivia Father of actress Mira Sorvino, Amanda Sorvino and Michael Sorvino. Has severe asthma. Started the Sorvino Asthma Foundation Is an enthusiastic opera singer, painter, sculptor and cook. Italian-American, with ancestry from Vomero, Naples, Campania, and Casacalenda, Province of Campobasso, Molise. His budding career was threatened when asthma compromised his ability to talk and sing. But the breathing exercises he learned thirty years ago have allowed him to breathe normally ever since. Was named as "King of Brooklyn" at the "Welcome Back to Brooklyn" festival in 1993. Speaks fluent Italian. In July 2004, he was awarded the "Premio per gli Italiani nel Mondo" at a ceremony in Rome. The prize is distributed by the Marzio Tremaglia Foundation and the Italian government to Italian emigrants and their descendants who have distinguished themselves abroad. At the ceremony, he performed the Neapolitan song "Torna a Surriento" with tenor Andrea Bocelli. Was nominated for Broadway's 1973 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for Jason Miller's "That Championship Season." Shares birthday with Ron Perlman. R anked #10 on Tropopkin's Top 25 Most Intriguing People [Issue #100] Founded the Dogfellas Dog Adoption organization in February of 2002 with his family. It is based in Manhattan and Pennsylvania. Has appeared in movies with former Law & Order (1990) castmates on two occasions: with Steven Hill in The Firm (1993) and with Chris Noth in Mr. 3000 (2004). Is a graduate of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Father-in-law of Christopher Backus. In 1993, he founded the Paul Sorvino Asthma Foundation, with the goal of building asthma centers for children and adults across the United States. Uncle of Bill Sorvino. Founder of Paul Sorvino Foods an International Food Company. Recovering with only minor bruises, after being hit by a car in Manhattan on October 7, 2011, while hailing a cab. Currently resides in Gilbert, Pennsylvania. [March 2006] As of 2022, he has appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: A Touch of Class (1973), Reds (1981) and Goodfellas (1990). Attended Brooklyn's Lafayette High School with Larry King. Personal Quotes: When asked what he thought of Goodfellas (1990) when it first came out in 1990, he said: "I thought it was boring, excessively violent and not a good movie. I thought I was boring, I thought that I had hurt my career, I thought that this movie should not have been made and it's not a good movie". He then said three hours later after thinking more about it, "Do you know, I'm kind of coming through a clearing here and I'm thinking that's not a boring movie, that's a good movie, that's a great movie maybe, and I'm really good in it!" On why he left Law & Order (1990): "One of the frustrating things about that role one of the reasons George Dzundza left, I assume, and certainly why I left - is that there wasn't enough range...It wasn't a large enough vehicle for me to express what it was I want to express as an artist." [on Scorsese not winning Best Director Oscar] It's an outrage, in my mind. What does the man have to do?

  • Personal Life & Family

    Paul was married three times - Dee Dee Benkie (m. 2014–2022), Vanessa Arico (m. 1991–1996), Lorraine Davis (m. 1966–1988). He was also in an intimate relationship with Karen Blanche for a number of years in the 1970s and early 1980s. He had three children including Mira Sorvino, Amanda Sorvino, and Michael Sorvino.
  • 07/25
    2022

    Death

    July 25, 2022
    Death date
    "natural causes"
    Cause of death
    Mayo Clinic 4500 San Pablo Rd S, in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida 32224, United States
    Death location
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  • Obituary

    Paul Sorvino, Master of the Mild-Mannered Mobster, Dies at 83 A would-be singing star, he found success in Hollywood playing a variety of roles, but they were often quiet, dangerous men, like Paulie Cicero in “Goodfellas.” Paul Sorvino in 1976. He sang and performed onstage before finding his stride in movies and television. Paul Sorvino in 1976. He sang and performed onstage before finding his stride in movies and television.Credit...Associated Press By Anita Gates July 25, 2022 Updated 6:30 p.m. ET Paul Sorvino, the tough-guy actor — and operatic tenor and figurative sculptor — known for his roles as calm and often courteously quiet but dangerous men in films like “Goodfellas” and television shows like “Law & Order,” died on Monday. He was 83. His publicist, Roger Neal, confirmed the death, at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. No specific cause was given, but Mr. Neal said that Mr. Sorvino “had dealt with health issues over the past few years.” Mr. Sorvino was the father of Mira Sorvino, who won a best supporting actress Oscar for Woody Allen’s “Mighty Aphrodite” (1995). In her acceptance speech, she said her father had “taught me everything I know about acting.” “Goodfellas” (1990), Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed Mafia epic, came along when Mr. Sorvino was 50 and decades into his film career. His character, Paulie Cicero, was a local mob boss — lumbering, soft-spoken and ice-cold. “Paulie might have moved slow,” says Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta, his neighborhood protégé in the film, “but it was only because he didn’t have to move for nobody.” (Mr. Liotta died in May at 67.) Mr. Sorvino almost abandoned the role because he couldn’t fully connect emotionally, he told the comedian Jon Stewart, who interviewed a panel of “Goodfellas” alumni at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. When you “find the spine” of a character, Mr. Sorvino said, “it makes all the decisions for you.” That didn’t happen, he recalled, until one day when he was adjusting his necktie, looked in the mirror and saw something in his own eyes. When he saw what he called “that lethal Paulie look,” Mr. Sorvino told The Lowcountry Weekly, a South Carolina publication, in 2019, “I knew at that moment I had embraced my inner mob boss.” He had made his mark onstage as a very different but perhaps equally soulless character in “That Championship Season” (1972), Jason Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning tragicomedy about the sad reunion of high school basketball players whose glory days are decades past. In the original Broadway production, Mr. Sorvino played Phil Romano, a small-town strip-mining millionaire arrogantly having an affair with the mayor’s wife. Mr. Sorvino received a Tony Award nomination for best actor in a play and reprised the role in a 1982 film adaptation. Paul Sorvino (1939-2022) The tough-guy actor, who was best known for his role as the mobster Paulie Cicero in “Goodfellas,” died at 83. Obituary: A would-be opera singer, Paul Sorvino found success in Hollywood playing quiet but dangerous men. Remembering ‘Goodfellas’: In 2015, we asked the cast to reflect on the film’s production 25 years later. Here’s what Mr. Sorvino recalled. An Operatic Soul: “Singing allows me to be me,” Mr. Sorvino told The Times ahead of his New York City Opera debut in 2006. Paul Anthony Sorvino was born on April 13, 1939, in Brooklyn, the youngest of three sons of Fortunato Sorvino, known as Ford, and Marietta (Renzi) Sorvino, a homemaker and piano teacher. The elder Mr. Sorvino, a robe-factory foreman, was born in Naples, Italy, and emigrated to New York with his parents in 1907. Paul grew up in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn and attended Lafayette High School. His original career dream was to sing — he idolized the Italian American tenor and actor Mario Lanza — and he began taking voice lessons when he was 8 years old or so. In the late 1950s, he began performing at Catskills resorts and charity events. In 1963, he received his Actors Equity card as a chorus member in “South Pacific” and “The Student Prince” at the Theater at Westbury on Long Island. That same year, he began studying drama at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York. Acting jobs were elusive. Mr. Sorvino’s Broadway debut, in the chorus of the musical “Bajour” (1964), lasted almost seven months, but his next show, the comedy “Mating Dance” (1965), starring Van Johnson, closed on opening night. Mr. Sorvino worked as a waiter and a bartender, sold cars, taught acting to children and appeared in commercials for deodorant and tomato sauce. After his first child, Mira, was born, he wrote advertising copy for nine months, but the office job gave him an ulcer. “Most of the time I was just another out-of-work actor who couldn’t get arrested,” he told The New York Times in 1972. “I had confidence in my ability, and I was angry as hell when other people didn’t recognize it.” Then his luck changed. He made his film debut in “Where’s Poppa?” (1970), a dark comedy directed by Carl Reiner, in a small role as a retirement-home owner. Then “That Championship Season” came along, starting with the Off Broadway production at the Public Theater. The film role that first won him major attention was as Joseph Bologna’s grouchy Italian American father in “Made for Each Other” (1971). Mr. Sorvino, almost five years younger than Mr. Bologna, wore old-age makeup for the role. He appeared next as a New Yorker robbed by a prostitute in “The Panic in Needle Park” (1972) but did not fall victim to the cops-and-gangsters stereotype right away. In 1973. he was George Segal’s movie-producer friend in “A Touch of Class” and a mysterious government agent in “The Day of the Dolphin.” Mr. Sorvino later played an egotistic, money-hungry evangelist with a Southern accent in the comedy “Oh, God!” (1977) and God Himself in “The Devil’s Carnival” (2012) and its 2015 sequel. He was a down-to-earth newspaper reporter in love with a ballerina in “Slow Dancing in the Big City” (1978). In “Reds” (1981), he was a passionate Russian American Communist leader just before the Bolshevik Revolution. He was Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, complete with German accent, in Oliver Stone’s “Nixon” (1995). And he played Fulgencio Capulet, Juliet’s intense father with an ancient grudge, in Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” (1996). But in a half-century screen career, Mr. Sovino’s characters were often on the wrong side of the law. He played, among others, Chubby de Coco (“Bloodbrothers,” 1978), Lips Manlis (“Dick Tracy,” 1980), Big Mike Cicero (“How Sweet It Is,” 2013), Jimmy Scambino (“Sicilian Vampire,” 2015) and Fat Tony Salerno (“Kill the Irishman,” 2011). And in at least 20 roles, he played law officers with titles like detective, captain or chief. For one season (1991-92), he was Sgt. Phil Cerreta on NBC’s “Law & Order,” but he found the shooting schedule too demanding — and difficult on his voice. Mr. Sorvino continued to sing professionally, making his City Opera debut in Frank Loesser’s “The Most Happy Fella” in 2006. His personal life sometimes reinforced his tough-guy image. Most recently, in 2018, when the movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was on trial for criminal sexual acts — and Mira Sorvino had accused him of harassment — Mr. Sorvino predicted that Mr. Weinstein would die in jail. “Because if not, he has to meet me, and I will kill the [expletive deleted] — real simple,” Mr. Sorvino said in a widely aired video interview. Four months later, Mr. Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Mr. Sorvino’s final screen roles were in 2019. He played a corrupt senator in “Welcome to Acapulco,” a spy-comedy film, and the crime boss Frank Costello in the Epix series “Godfather of Harlem.” He married Lorraine Davis, an actress, in 1966, and they had three children before divorcing in 1988. Mr. Sorvino’s second wife, from 1991 until their 1996 divorce, was Vanessa Arico, a real estate agent. He married Dee Dee Benkie, a Republican political strategist, in 2014. Mr. Sorvino began making bronze sculpture in the 1970s and considered his nonperforming arts work particularly satisfying. “That’s why I prefer it,” he told The Sun-Sentinel, a Florida newspaper, in 2005. “No one really tells you how to finish something.” “Acting onstage is like doing sculpture,” he said. “Acting in movies is like being an assistant to the sculptor.” Mr. Sorvino is survived by his wife, Dee Dee Sorvino; three children, Mira, Amanda, and Michael; and five grandchildren. Johnny Diaz contributed reporting.
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4 Memories, Stories & Photos about Paul

Paul Sorvino
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
07/25/2022
Paul Sorvino
TV and Movie Star.
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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07/26/2022
Yesterday, we lost another wonderful actor, Paul Sorvino. He was an actor, opera singer, businessman, writer, and sculptor - and if that wasn't enough, he was the father of Academy Award winner Mira Sorvino.

Paul's career spanned the generations covering four decades: born in 1939, he played roles that ranged from Shakespeare plays like Romeo and Juliet, to gangsters in the Goodfellas. You might remember him as Sergeant Phil Cerreta on seasons 2 &3 of the television show "Law and Order"?

Paul Anthony Sorvino (1939 - 2022) RIP.
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07/26/2022
I saw that Tony Dow, Wally Cleaver in Leave It To Beaver, is in hospice and in his final hours. That will be two gone. Sigh.
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Paul Sorvino.
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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07/25/2022
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Daddy with Mira Sorvino.
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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07/25/2022
Daddy with Mira Sorvino.
Movie Stars Paul and Mira.
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Paul Sorvino.
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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07/25/2022
Paul Sorvino.
Movie Star.
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Paul Sorvino's Family Tree & Friends

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Other Sorvino Family Biographies

Sorvino, Marietta (Nov 28, 1906 - May 31, 1991) Sorvino, Carlo (Jun 19, 1906 - Apr 10, 1994) Sorvino, Ralph (Aug 1, 1922 - Jul 1982) Sorvino, Anthony (Apr 25, 1903 - Jan 1973) Sorvino, Ford (Apr 30, 1902 - Aug 26, 1995) Sorvino, Josephine (Feb 10, 1892 - Apr 1966)
Sorvino, Pasquale (Apr 21, 1904 - Jan 1977) Sorvino, Mary (Jan 17, 1903 - Jun 1995) Sorvino, Madeline (Aug 26, 1917 - Aug 1983) Sorvino, Jennie (Aug 25, 1912 - Mar 25, 2008) Sorvino, Constance (Feb 22, 1923 - Nov 29, 1965)
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