FOG BLOG ENTERTAINMENT LOG; TONY SIRICO , ACTOR ON 'THE SOPRANOS' HAS DIED, HE WAS 79!

Tony Sirico, actor who played Paulie Walnuts on The Sopranos, dead at 79 Sirico played major role in HBO drama and was frequently cast in Woody Allen films U.S. actor Tony Sirico is seen in New York City in February 2003. Sirico, who played the lovable but murderous gangster Paulie Walnuts on the HBO hit TV series The Sopranos, died on Friday at age 79, his family said. (Mark Mainz/Getty Images)

U.S. actor Tony Sirico, who played the lovable but murderous gangster Paulie Walnuts on the HBO series The Sopranos and was frequently cast in Woody Allen films, died on Friday at age 79, his family said. Sirico played a major role in the HBO drama that started in 1999 and became an influential hit early in the era of prestige television. Though he played smaller parts in six Woody Allen movies from 1994 to 2016, Sirico was not especially well known before his breakout role, in which he was a captain in the crime family of lead character Tony Soprano, played by the late James Gandolfini. The Paulie Walnuts character was a steely criminal who displayed periodic kindness, sometimes providing goofy comic relief with malapropisms, but always loyal to the boss. "A larger than life character on and off screen. Gonna miss you a lot my friend," Sopranos co-star Steven Van Zandt said on Twitter.