Paul Sorvino Trivia | 40 facts about the late actor

Paul Sorvino was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Paulie Cicero in the 1990 gangster film Goodfellas.

So let’s dive into unknown trivia and facts about his life and career.

1. His full name is Paul Anthony Sorvino
2. He was born April 13, 1939
3. He died on July 25, 2022
4. He was an American actor, opera singer, businessman, writer, and sculptor
5. He often portrayed authority figures on both sides of the law
6. He was known for his roles as Paulie Cicero (based on Paul Vario) in the 1990 gangster film Goodfellas, and NYPD Sergeant Phil Cerreta on the second season of the TV series Law & Order
7. He also played a variety of father figures, including Juliet’s father in Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film Romeo + Juliet
8. As well as guest appearances as the father of Bruce Willis’ character on Moonlighting and the father of Jeff Garlin’s character on The Goldbergs
9. He took on additional supporting roles in A Touch of Class, Reds, The Rocketeer, The Cooler, and Nixon (as Henry Kissinger)
10. He was usually cast in dramatic supporting roles
11. He had occasional leads in films including Bloodbrothers
12. And also in comedic roles including his turn as a bombastic Southern evangelist in Carl Reiner’s Oh, God!
13. Sorvino was also nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor for the 1972 play That Championship Season
14. He later starred in film and television adaptations
15. He was the father of actors Mira Sorvino and Michael Sorvino
16. Paul Sorvino was born and raised in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, a borough of New York City
17. His mother, Angela Maria Mattea (née Renzi; 1906–1991), was a homemaker and piano teacher of Italian (Molisan) descent who was born in Connecticut
18. His father, Ford Sorvino, was an Italian (Neapolitan) immigrant who worked in a robe factory as a foreman
19. Sorvino attended Lafayette High School (where he was a classmate of painter Peter Max) and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy
20. Paul Sorvino lived in Los Angeles and Madison, Indiana
21. He had three children: Mira, Michael, and Amanda from his first marriage with Lorraine Davis
22. Mira and Michael are actors
23. On January 17, 2007, news reports detailed that he displayed a gun in front of Daniel Snee, an ex-boyfriend of his daughter Amanda, after the man pounded on her hotel room door and made threats
24. Amanda testified that Snee threatened to kill her at a hotel on January 3 in Stowe, Vermont
25. She said she locked herself in the bathroom and called both the police and her father
26. Her 67-year-old father showed up before police, she testified
27. When police arrived, the young man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, she said
28. As a deputy sheriff in Pennsylvania, Sorvino was legally authorized to carry a gun in different states
29. He did not point the gun at Snee or threaten him
30. In March 2008, Sorvino and his daughter Amanda lobbied with the Americans Against Horse Slaughter in Washington, D.C., for Congress and the Senate to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (S311/HR503)
31. The Sorvinos run a private horse rescue operation in Gilbert, Pennsylvania
32. Sorvino was also an accomplished sculptor, specializing in cast bronze
33. In December 2008 his sculpture of the late playwright Jason Miller was unveiled in Scranton, Pennsylvania
34. In addition, he guest-starred on the 2008 album of Neapolitan singer Eddy Napoli, Napulitanata, performing a duet of the song “Luna Rossa”
35. In 2007, Sorvino launched Paul Sorvino Foods to market a range of pasta sauces
36. Based on his mother’s recipe, the product appeared in supermarkets in the northeastern United States in late 2009
37. Three years later, Sorvino became part owner in Janson-Beckett Cosmeceuticals
38. Before screening his film Once Upon a Time in Queens at the Florida Film Festival at Orlando, Florida, in April 2014, Sorvino revealed that he writes rhymed and metrical poetry and recited one of his own works as an example
39. In December 2014, Sorvino married political pundit Dee Dee Benkie after meeting her on Your World With Neil Cavuto
40. In January 2018, Sorvino learned that Harvey Weinstein allegedly sexually harassed his daughter Mira, and then blacklisted her within the film industry after she rejected Weinstein’s sexual demands