Until Martin Scorsese entrusted him with the role of Paul Cicero in “Les Affranchis”, he appeared dozens of times on the screen, sometimes under the direction of prestigious directors. The American actor died on July 25 at the age of 83.
by
From 1970 to 1990, Paul Sorvino appeared from tens of times on the screen, large or small, sometimes under the direction of prestigious directors – Mike Nichols, Warren Beatty, William Friedkin -, without ever taking the public really taking awareness of its existence. Until Martin Scorsese entrusted him with the role of Paul Cicero, in the freed. Capo of a mafia family from Brooklyn, Paul Cicero is an affable and ruthless colossus that initiates young Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) to the profession of organized crime. The continuation of Paul Sorvino’s career, who died on July 25 in Jacksonville (Florida), at 83, was not very different, made up of often brief appearances in very variable productions of interest. But we now knew who he was: the creator of an unforgettable character, an actor capable of imposing his brand in a few plans.
Paul Sorvino was born on April 13, 1939, in Brooklyn (New York), in a family of Neapolitan origin. Very early attracted by the scene, he first tried to become a singer before starting studies of dramatic art. His acting beginnings are laborious and he supports the needs of his family (her daughter, the future actress Mira Sorvino, was born in 1967) as a server or by working for an advertising agency. After having won a first job in the cinema in where’s poppa?, By Carl Reiner (1970), he appears in Panique to Needle Park, by Jerry Shatzberg (1971).
The following year, it was on Broadway that he had his first success. He plays Phil Romano, an unscrupulous businessman, in That Championship Season, by Jason Miller, who stages the meeting of a school basketball team, twenty years after his championship victory. He will resume the role in the film adaptation of the play, carried out by Jason Miller, in 1982.
proud of his Italian-American heritage
In the cinema, we see him as a CIA agent in the Dauphin day, of Mike Nichols (1973), as a supervisor of the policeman played by Al Pacino in Cruising, by William Friedkin (1980), and by militant communist In Reds, from Warren Beatty (1981).
Throughout the 1980s, Paul Sorvino works mainly for television, appearing in the Lunes of the Moon, Superflicted or Arabesque, until Scorsese offers him the role of Paul Cicero, which the actor accepts with reluctance. Proud of his Italian-American heritage, uncertain of his ability to embody a character totally devoid of scruples, he struggles to find the key that will open the psyche of this criminal patriarch. Paul Sorvino said he had surprised himself in front of his mirror, forging his tie, discovering a freezing look, which has become the essence of Paul Cicero.
You have 27.72% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.