Tony Sirico

Genaro Anthony Sirico Jr. (born July 29 1942 Midwood, Brooklyn), better known as Tony Sirico, is an Italian-American character actor who is most famous for his role as Paulie Gualtieri in the hit television series The Sopranos. Sirico was born in Midwood, Brooklyn to Neapolitan parents. Sirico has played gangster in a number of films, including Mob Queen, Gangsters, Love and Money, Fingers, The Last Fight, Goodfellas, Innocent Blood, Bullets Over Broadway, Mighty Aphrodite, Gotti, Cop Land, and Mickey Blue Eyes. He also played a policeman in the film Dead Presidents. Sirico's brother, Robert Sirico, is a priest and co-founder of the free-market Acton Institute.Before turning to acting, Sirico was reportedly a mob associate of the Colombo crime family serving under Carmine "Junior" Persico and had been arrested twenty-eight times. There is a Sopranos reference to this fact when Paulie says "I made it through the seventies by the skin of my balls when the Colombos were goin' at it."... full article at wikipedia