Tributes to Tony Sirico, the actor who played Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri in the TV drama The Sopranos, have poured in after the announcement of his death at the age of 79.
He is the third recent loss among actors who became famous for their portrayal of villains in defining fictional depictions of mob life, following the deaths of James Caan, who starred in The Godfather, and Ray Liotta, who appeared in Goodfellas and the Sopranos prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.
