Biografie

In the 1970s he was investigated by the Manhattan (NY) District Attorney's office for alleged extortionate activity against the owners of several nightclubs. On 2/27/70, he was arrested and subsequently indicted for extortion and menacing but plea-bargained to a charge of felony gun possession. Early in 1971 he was sentenced to a maximum of four years, of which he served 20 months. Since then, he has had no further trouble with the law.

He got a part in the film Testament in Blei (1974) which led to him obtaining a Screen Actors Guild card.

In GoodFellas - Drei Jahrzehnte in der Mafia (1990), he played a mobster named Tony who reports to a boss named Paulie. In Die Sopranos (1999), he plays a mobster named Paulie who reports to a boss named Tony.

Practices karate and kung fu.

He spent a few years in the US Army.

An Italian-American. His surname Sirico originated in Campania.

When I first read David Chase's script [for Die Sopranos (1999)], I knew this was special. This is what I'd been looking for all my life . . . When I heard James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli and Nancy Marchand were in it, I knew it was going to be a total class act. I knew right away this was a role to kill for.

I've done like 45 movies, played 40 gangsters and five crooked cops.

It makes some great movies. I mean, some of my favorite films growing up, have been, forgive me, gangster films. I learned how to walk and talk watching [James Cagney]. It's that, it's the power, it's the glamour. The mob just has all that mysticism around it that's magical.

[on being cast in Die Sopranos (1999)] I read for Uncle Junior. It was me, Dominic Chianese and Frank Vincent who went up for the role that day. About an hour after I got home, I got a call from David Chase. He said, "You want the good news or the bad news?'" .I said, "Give me the bad NEWS". He said, "You didn't get Uncle Junior. But I have something in mind. Would you be willing to do a recurring role on the show? I have a character called Paulie Walnuts".

I lived with Ma for 16 years before she passed. [David Chase] knew that going in. This became one of my story lines. Sticking to the script--that was Rule No, 1. They got the words from us anyway, We'd have the writers sit and talk with us. They heard the cadence of my voice and what I said, and how I expressed myself--you know what I mean? So I had guys write down my own words and shove them right back into my throat.