Paul Anthony Sorvino is an American actor. He began his career as a copywriter in an advertising agency, where he worked with John Margeotes, founder of Margeotes, Fertitta, and Weiss. He took 18 years of voice lessons. While attending The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, he decided to go into the theatre. He made his Broadway debut in the 1964 musical Bajour, and six years later he appeared in his first film, Carl Reiner‘s Where’s Poppa? starring George Segal and Ruth Gordon.
He received an avalanche of critical praise for his performance as Phil Romano in Jason Miller‘s 1972 Broadway play That Championship Season, a role he repeated in the 1982 TCS film version.
In 1981, Sorvino played the role of Italian-American communist Louis C. Fraina in Warren Beatty’s epic film Reds. He appeared in Larry Cohen‘s 1985 science fiction horror film The Stuff as a reclusive militia leader, alongside his future Law & Order co-star Michael Moriarty.
Some of his most notable film roles were caporegime Paul Cicero in Martin Scorsese‘s Goodfellas (1990) andHenry Kissinger in Oliver Stone‘s Nixon (1995). In addition to Goodfellas, Sorvino also played mob bosses Eddie Valentine in The Rocketeer and Tony Morolto in The Firm. He founded the Paul Sorvino Asthma Foundation, with the goal of building asthma centers for children and adults across the United States. In 1998 he narrated the series “The Big House” for The History Channel.