Actor Paul Sorvino passed away yesterday at age 83. He is best known for playing the role of the mafia don, Paulie Cicero, in Martin Scorsese’s classic movie “Goodfellas.” He was so perfectly cast in the movie as the crime boss because of his presence. You could just feel that Paulie Cicero was the man and his crew respected him as so. Ray Liotta, who passed away this past May, played Henry Hill in the film and he had a perfect line in the film to sum up Paul Cicero….
“Paulie may have moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didn’t have to move for anybody.” That literally incapsulated the mafia boss’s role in the film.
We lost James Caan earlier this month as well. He did not play a mob boss in film but he did play a mob boss’s son in The Godfather which could be the greatest mob movie of all time.
Another gangster movie/tv legend passed away earlier this month when Tony Sirico died at 79. He did not play a mob boss either but he had a minor role in Goodfellas and also was a central figure in HBO’s “The Sopranos” where he played Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri, one of Tony Soprano’s soldiers.
With the passing of all of these legendary actors in mob/crime movies and tv shows, I (Donnie) decided to create a list of “The Best Crime Lords/Mob Bosses In Movies & TV.” The list is in no particular order.
Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) in “Goodfellas”
Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) in “The Sopranos”
Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) in “The Departed”
Tony Montana (Al Pacino) in “Scarface”
Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in “The Godfather Part II”
Don Corleone (Marlo Brando) in “The Godfather”
Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi) in “Boardwalk Empire”
Al Capone (Robert De Niro) in “The Untouchables”
Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) in “Pulp Fiction”
Stringer Bell (Idris Elba) in “The Wire”
Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector) in “The Wire”
Avon Barksdale (Wood Harris) in “The Wire”
Bill "the Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis) in “Gangs of New York“
Keyser Söze/Verbal Kint (Kevin Spacey) in “The Usual Suspects”
Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody (Jacki Weaver) in “Animal Kingdom”
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Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) in “American Gangster”
John Gotti (Armand Assante) in HBO’s “Gotti”
Sonny LoSpecchio (Chazz Palminteri) in “A Bronx Tale”
Sonny Black (Michael Madsen) in “Donnie Brasco”
James "Whitey" Bulger (Johnny Depp) in “Black Mass”
Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) in “Sons of Anarchy”
Nino Brown (Wesley Snipes) in “New Jack City”
