Actor Paul Sorvino, interpreter of 'One of ours', dies at 83

July 25, 2022 will be marked as a black day for cinema.

To the deaths of director Bob Rafelson and actor David Warner, is added that of also actor Paul Sorvino at the age of 83, known above all for his participation in the great film

(1990),

by Martin Scorsese, about a group of Brooklyn gangsters, with an all-star cast: Ray Liotta, who died in May of this year, Robert de Niro, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino, who played the role of Paulie Cicero.

On the other side of the law, Sorvino got into the skin of Phil Cerretta, New York police sergeant in the series

in 1991, in which he participated in 29 chapters.

They were only two of his performances in a career of almost half a century.

On a personal level, the actor, who died this Monday at the age of 83, was the father of fellow actors Mira and Michael Sorvino.

A spokesman for Sorvino confirmed the death, which occurred at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, of "natural causes."

Shortly after, Dee Dee Sorvino, his third wife, published this tweet: “I am completely devastated.

The love of my life and the most wonderful man who ever lived is gone.

My heart is broken".

I am completely devastated

The love of my life & the most wonderful man who has ever lived is gone.

I am heartbroken ❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/0wBSG3uTgD

— Dee Dee Sorvino (@deedeegop) July 25, 2022

In addition to being an actor, Paul Sorvino was an opera singer, businessman, writer and sculptor.

However, his entire career has as a knock on his performance as Paulie Cicero in

, based on a real Italian-American gang of gangsters.

On the occasion of the film's 25th anniversary in 2015, which brought together part of the cast at the New York Tribeca Film Festival, Sorvino declared that this film "is part of American iconography, one of the three or four best films in history. And if you're lucky enough to do something like that in your career, you're very lucky."

A film that left numerous famous moments, such as that of Sorvino himself cutting garlic with a razor blade in prison.

However, the actor recalled that day that he was leaving the shoot two days after it began: "I called my agent and told him: 'Get me out of here, I can't do it.'

But a day later, while he was adjusting his tie in front of the mirror, he saw himself as Paul Cicero, he saw himself become the character.

"And he scared me," he declared.

Born on April 13, 1939, in Brooklyn, his mother was a homemaker and piano teacher of Italian descent.

His father was a Neapolitan immigrant who worked in a robe factory.

His first participation in a 1970 film,

He had previously been a writer at an advertising agency and thanks to his singing skills, he had made his Broadway debut in the 1964 musical

. Throughout the 1970s he alternated supporting roles in movies, musicals and television series such as

.

In 1981 he landed one of his first major roles in the Warren Beatty film

.