Genaro Anthony "Tony" Sirico, Jr. (born July 29, 1942) is an ex-associate of the
Colombo crime family of New York City who later went onto become an actor and voice actor who is most noted for his role as the mobster Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri in the television series The Sopranos.
Biography
Before turning to acting, Sirico was convicted of several crimes, and had been arrested 28 times. There is a Sopranos reference to this fact when Paulie says, "I lived through the seventies by the skin of my nuts 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. Sirico was investigated by the Manhattan District Attorney's office for alleged extortionate activity against the owners of several nightclubs. After a dispute with a disco owner, Sirico once warned, "I'm going to come back here and carve my initials in your forehead. You better learn a lesson, you better show me the respect I deserve". He was once actually declared a "danger to society" by a New York judge. A Bellevue Hospital psychiatric report from that period concluded that Sirico suffered from a "character disorder."
On February 27, 1970, he was arrested and subsequently indicted for extortion and menacing but plea-bargained to a charge of felony gun possession. 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 20 months. Sirico said that during his imprisonment, he was visited by an acting troupe composed of ex-cons, which inspired him to give acting a try. According to a court transcript, at the time of his sentencing, he also had pending charges for drug possession. Sirico appeared in a 1989 documentary about life, The Big Bang by James Toback, in which he discussed his earlier life. Since then, Sirico has had no further trouble with the law.