Gennaro Anthony Sirico Jr is known as “Tony Sirico” is an American actor famous for his high-profile role in HBO hit crime series “The Sopranos” (1999-2007) as Paulie Walnuts Gualtieri. He played a part as Tony Stacks in “Goodfellas” (1990). He also appeared in several Woody Allen movies includes, including “Bullets Over Broadway” (1994), “Mighty Aphrodite” (1995), “Deconstructing Harry” (1997) and “Celebrity” (1998).
He played several mafia roles in “Gotti” (1996), “Cop Land” (1997) and “Mickey Blue Eyes” (1999). He voiced the character of Vinny Griffin in the “Family Guy” (2013-2016). Sirico has won “Screen Actors Guild Award” twice in 2000 and 2008.
In this article, we’ll take a detailed look at Tony Sirico’s net worth, TV shows, movies, education, and personal life!
Walk Through the Article
Net Worth
Tony Sirico has built an impressive net worth, in the course of his acting career. His estimated net worth is $10 Million as of March 2020. He has made screen appearances in plenty of movies and television series. Most of his income generated from “The Sopranos” which received consistently high ratings in its entire run. Tony made $75000 per episode in the initial seasons after salary negotiation his salary got double to $150,000. By the final season of the show, he earned over 1 Million USD. His other esteemed projects which earned him stable net worth include “Dead Presidents”, “Family Guy” and “American Dad!”. He believes that show business is the best way to make a safe living.
The 77-year old actor proved his worth as a charismatic artist and still holding his fame at this point in his career.
Early life
He was born on 29 July 1942 in New York, United States. His mother is Marie Sirico. He was raised in an Italian Catholic family in Brooklyn. He spent early childhood in the locale of East Flatbush and Bensonhurst. He has two brothers carmine Sirico and Robert Sirico, who is a Roman Catholic pastor and established “Acton Institute of the Study of Religion and Liberty”. He was a troubled child and got arrested at the age of 7 for stealing.
He served in the US military and knows karate and kung fu. Sirico has been detained 28 times for disorderly conduct, drug possession, and other felonies. He had two stints in jail for armed robbery and weapon charges. In 1967, he was convicted of robbing an after-hour club in Brooklyn and sent to prison “Sing Sing Prison” for 13 months. In 1999, he and Sopranos co-star Vincent Pastore were seen meeting James Clemenza and his brother Jerry, Colombo crime family soldiers, at a Christmas party in Little Italy. Clemenza was under FBI surveillance at the time.
During imprisonment, he met an acting troupe of ex-convicts called “Theatre of the Forgotten” visited to entertain the prisoners and decided to give a shot to acting. His criminal past helped him with the criminal characters so blurring the line between reel and real.
Personal life
Sirico spent most of his life with his mother. He is married but the identity of her wife is still unknown. He has a son named Richard Sirico and a daughter named Joeanna Sirico, both of them are in the ’30s. Tony is a member of the United Service Organization (USO) and other non-profitable organizations. He sponsored St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Goodfellas
In 1990, Sirico played an obtrusive old-school gangster in the American crime film “Goodfellas” directed by Martin Scorsese. The film was based on the non-fiction book “Wiseguy” written by Nicholas Pileggi. It states the story of mob associate Henry Hill, his family, and associates. The film received exceptional response and critics named it one of the best gangster movies. It got nominated for six Academy Awards and won five awards from the “British Academy of Film and Television Arts” for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Supporting actor.
Family guy
Sirico landed as a recurring role in the “Family Guy” (2013-2016). Family guy is an animated sitcom premiered on Fox in 1999. It depicts the story of a family consists of parents Lois and Peter, their kids Meg, Chris, Stewie and pet dog Brian Griffin. He voiced the character of Vinny Griffin, a greyhound, introduced in the show after the death of Brian.
Sirico joined the show in twelve and thirteen seasons and provided the voice in following episodes; “Life of Brian”, “Into Harmony’s Way”, “Christmas Guy”, “The Boys in the Band” and “Stewie, Chris & Brian’s Excellent Adventure” with Live action. He’s thrived in the role Vinny. He also sang the theme song with other voice actors for season one.
The Sopranos
Tony Sirico secured his first epochal role in The Sopranos. He played Paul “Paulie Walnuts” Gualtieri, right-hand of the series protagonist “Tony Soprano”. Paulie is reckless, pretentious and extremely faithful to Tony. His devotion towards Tony makes him a highly valuable member of the crew. Paulie is one of the most vibrant characters in the show, he is prejudiced and inflexible and most prominently his weird sense of humor and freakish jokes earned him popularity. He was part of the series till the end and appeared in six seasons comprised of 86 episodes from 1999-2007. The Sopranos won twenty-one “Emmy Awards”, eight “Screen Actors Guild Awards”, twelve “TCA Award” and Five “Golden Globes”.
Acting Career
Sirico has appeared in 45 movies and 18 television projects. He began his acting career through a recommendation of actor “Richard Castellano” in the film “Crazy Joe” (1974). He then appeared in 1978 in “The one Man Jury” as Charlie Nuts, “Fingers” as a mobster, “Hughes and Harlow: Angels in Hell”, “Defiance” in (1980) as Davey, “So Fine” (1981), “Love &Money” (1982), “Exposed” (1983), “The Pick-up Artist” and “Hello Again”(1987). In 1989, he appeared in the documentary “Big Bang”, where he talked about his life experiences and acting career. He had a guest role in movies such as “Goodfellas” (1990), “29th Street” (1991), “Innocent Blood” (1992), “Romeo is Bleeding” (1993). Sirico had several Allen woody movies in his career, like “Bullets Over Broadway” (1994), “Everyone Says I Love You” (1996), “Deconstructing Harry” (1997). In the same year, he appeared as a supporting actor in “Cop Land” (1997) as Toy. Sirico was a part of Actor’s group approached for playing mobster roles.
His other movie roles include “Mob Queen” and “Celebrity” (1998). In the 2000’s he continues taking small roles like “Smokin’ Stogies” as Tony, “Truth of Faith” (2002) as Jimmy, “Friends, and Romans” (2014) as Bobby. He appeared in two short films, “Skate” (2010) and “Family on Board” (2013).
His recent gigs include Café Society (2016) as Vito and “Wonder Wheel” (2017) as Angelo. Some of his projects are in the pre-production phase like “Street Justice” (2019), “Made in Chinatown” (2019) and “Respect the Jux”, release date to be announced yet.
Sirico has also done a handful of television projects. He had single episode stints in “Kojak” (1977), “Police Squad!” (1982), “Miami Vice” (1989), “Cosby” (1996), “Chuck” (2010), “Medium” (2010), “Taxi Brooklyn” (2014), “The Grinder” 2016) and “American Dad!” (2017). He had minor roles in “The Fairly OddParents” (2005), TV Special “Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa” and “Lilyhammer” (2013-2014). His works in Television films include “Perfect witness” (1999), “In the Shadow of a Killer” (1992), “Gotti” (1996), “Witness to the Mob” (1998), and “Nicky Deuce” (2013). In 2019, he appeared in the comedy-drama “Sarah Q” along with ‘The Sopranos’ actors Federico Castelluccio and Vincent Pastore. He also appeared in Denny’s phone money, Aftonbladet and Netflix commercials.
Net worth of co-stars
Find out more about co-stars of Tony in his previous movies and TV shows:
- Jamie-Lynn Sigler, co-star from The Sopranos
- Aida Turturro, co-star from The Sopranos
- Drea De Matteo, co-star from The Sopranos
- Edie Falco, co-star from Sopranos
