What The Cast Of The Sopranos Looks Like Today

What set Tony Sirico aside from his "Sopranos" castmates was that his tough guy act wasn't actually an act: he grew up in and around the notorious district of Bensonhurst, New York, a long-established mafia hotspot. Long before he was cast as wing-tipped sociopath Paulie Walnuts, Sirico took a Los Angeles Times reporter on a tour of the area, calling it a "good Italian neighborhood." Living there wasn't easy, however, as Sirico explained in full detail.

"I was a pistol-packing guy," he said. "The first time I went away to prison, they searched me to see if I had a gun, and I had three of 'em on me. In our neighborhood, if you weren't carrying a gun, it was like you were the rabbit during rabbit-hunting season." During his last stretch behind bars in the late 1970s, Sirico saw a performance by a group of ex-con actors and decided he had the looks and guts to do what they were doing.

His confidence wasn't misplaced. After minor appearances in films like "Goodfellas" and "Bullets Over Broadway," Sirico finally won a role of some real substance and ended up playing a central part in some of the all-time greatest "Sopranos" episodes, particularly "Pine Barrens." Outside of reuniting with Steven Van Zandt in "Lilyhammer" and working with Woody Allen again for 2016's "Cafe Society," Sirico hasn't done much in the years since, though he occasionally cashes in on his tough guy image with cameos.