Topic: Tony Sirico

Genaro Anthony "Tony" Sirico, Jr. (born July 29, 1942) is an American character actor who is most famous for his role as Paulie Gualtieri in the hit television series The Sopranos.

Sirico was born in Midwood, Brooklyn to Sicilian parents. Sirico has played gangsters in a number of films, including Mob Queen, Gangsters, Love and Money, Fingers, The Last Fight, Goodfellas, Innocent Blood, Bullets Over Broadway, The Pick-up Artist, Mighty Aphrodite, Gotti, Cop Land, and Mickey Blue Eyes. He also played policemen in the films Dead Presidents and Deconstructing Harry.

Before turning to acting, Sirico was reportedly a mob associate of the Colombo crime family serving under Carmine "Junior" Persico and had been arrested twenty-eight times. There is a Sopranos reference to this fact when Paulie says "I made it through the seventies by the skin of my balls when the Colombos were goin' at it." In 1967, he was sent to prison for robbing a Brooklyn after hours club, but was released after serving thirteen months. In 1971, he pled guilty to felony weapons possession and was sentenced to an "indeterminate" prison term of up to four years, of which Sirico ended up serving twenty months. According to a court transcript, at the time of his sentencing, he also had pending charges for drug possession.