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Paul Sorvino was an opera singer who acted.
He was a warm and nurturing presence playing the suburban Italian American patriarch on the sitcomThats Life.
Sorvino didnt merely play roles.
He sang them, quietly or boldly.
Fittingly, Sorvinos last screen role was in the as yet unreleased filmThe Chameleon.
Most people think Im either a gangster or a cop or something, Sorvino told the OrlandoWeekly.
Sorvinorecognized his potential as an opera singer in elementary schooland fantasized about singing at the Met.
But that path was thwarted by childhood asthma.
Sorvinos operatic nature was long apparent outside of his formal work.
When he let the feelings flow, it could be overwhelming for the viewer.
This was often the case when his daughter Mira Sorvinos name was brought up.
Weinsteins behavior, specifically, summoned arighteous angerin Sorvino that wouldve been at home in a gangster picture.
Hes going to go to jail, he told TMZ.
That son of a bitch.
Good for him if he goes, because if not, he has to meet me.
And I will kill the motherfucker.
Sorvino was married three times.
He and Lorraine Davis were together from 1966 to 1988.
In 1991, he wed Vanessa Arico.
Paul Sorvino co-starred in six films with Mira, includingTheStuff,ParallelLives, andBeneath the Leaves.
Sorvino was fiercely protective of his kids.
She called both the police and her father, who was staying at a timeshare nearby.
Sorvino, then 67, showed up before the local police with a handgun.
Snee was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct.
He believed that if the performer was being truthful, the feelings would flow organically.
He was blessed, he said, with the ability to summon common emotions without much fuss.
If you ask me to weep, I will weep for you, he said.
I will not fake it.
I wont put glycerin in my eyes.
I will find the place in me that causes me to weep.
But he realized that this was in many ways more difficult than playing outsize characters.
The problem with playing yourself is, the question is, what are you?
An actor with a song in his heart.
