Tough-guy actor known for playing quiet but dangerous men

LOS ANGELES • Paul Sorvino, a tough-guy actor - and operatic tenor and figurative sculptor - known for his roles as calm and often courteously quiet but dangerous men in films such as Goodfellas (1990) and television shows like Law & Order (1990 to 2010), died on Monday. He was 83.

No specific cause was given, but his publicist Roger Neal said the actor "had dealt with health issues over the past few years".

Sorvino was the father of actress Mira Sorvino, 54, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for director Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite (1995). In her acceptance speech, she said her father had "taught me everything I know about acting".

Goodfellas director Martin Scorsese's acclaimed mafia epic came along when the older Sorvino was 50 and decades into his film career.

His character, Paulie Cicero, was a local mob boss - lumbering, soft-spoken and ice-cold.

Sorvino almost abandoned the role because he could not fully connect emotionally, he told comedian Jon Stewart in 2015.

When you find the spine of a character, Sorvino had said, "it makes all the decisions for you".

That did not happen, he recalled, until one day when he was adjusting his necktie, and looked in the mirror and saw something in his own eyes. When he saw what he called "that lethal Paulie look", he told South Carolina publication Lowcountry Weekly in 2019, "I knew at that moment I had embraced my inner mob boss".

He made his mark on stage as a very different but perhaps equally soulless character in That Championship Season (1972), director 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, Sorvino played Phil Romano, a small-town strip-mining millionaire arrogantly having an affair with the mayor's wife.

Sorvino received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a play and reprised the role in a 1982 film adaptation.

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.

His other movie credits included Bloodbrothers (1978), Reds (1981) and Dick Tracy (1990).

He was United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, complete with a German accent, in director Oliver Stone's Nixon (1995).

Sorvino also played Lord Capulet, Juliet's intense father with an ancient grudge, in director Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996).

For one season (1991 to 1992), he was Sergeant Phil Cerreta on NBC's Law & Order, but he found the shooting schedule too demanding and difficult on his voice.

Sorvino's final screen roles were in Welcome To Acapulco, a spy-comedy film, and the Epix series, Godfather Of Harlem, both in 2019.

He is survived by his wife Dee Dee Sorvino; three children, Mira, Amanda and Michael; and five grandchildren.

NYTIMES