Paul Sorvino

Paul Sorvino was an American actor.

In a career that spanned a half-century, Sorvino portrayed James Caan's bookie in The Gambler (1974), Claire Danes' pushy father in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996), Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in Oliver Stone's Nixon (1995) and a strung-out heroin addict in The Cooler (2003).

A respected tenor, he performed for the New York Opera at Lincoln Center in 2006.

He also starred for a season as Det. Phil Cerretta, the partner of Chris Noth's Det. Mike Logan, on NBC's Law & Order.

In 1973, Sorvino received a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award for his performance as the unscrupulous Phil Romano — one of the four former high school basketball players who reunite to visit their old coach — in the original Broadway production of Jason Miller's That Championship Season.

He reprised the role for a 1982 film, then played the coach in a 1999 Showtime telefilm for which he also made his directorial debut.

Sorvino is probably best known for his turn as Cicero, who loved a good meal and sliced his garlic with a razor blade, in GoodFellas (1990).

Sorvino appeared on the screen for the first time in Carl Reiner's Where's Poppa? (1970).

In 1975, Sorvino starred in a TV series when he played a middle-class New Jersey lawyer in We'll Get By, a CBS show created by Alan Alda. The next year, he starred as a maverick cop in the Streets of San Francisco spinoff Bert D'Angelo, Superstar.

He portrayed Bruce Willis' father on ABC's Moonlighting, and with Raymond Burr ailing, stepped in to play a visiting attorney in a Perry Mason telefilm, 1993's The Case of the Wicked Wives.

He also starred with Ellen Burstyn and Kevin Dillon on the 2000-02 CBS dramedy That's Life.

More recently, he played Frank Costello on the Epix series Godfather of Harlem.

Sorvino died July 25, 2022 in Jacksonville, Florida. he was 83.