Joseph Siravo

Joseph Siravo (March 11, 1955 – April 11, 2021) was an American actor born in Washington, D.C., where he was raised. He earned degrees from both Stanford University and the Tisch School of the Arts. His career spanned stage, film, and television, with Broadway appearances between 1992 and 2017.

Siravo made his screen debut in the 1993 film Carlito's Way, playing Vincent "Vinnie" Taglialucci, a character who seeks revenge for the deaths of his father and brother at the hands of a corrupt lawyer played by Sean Penn, while blaming Al Pacino's character Carlito Brigante for involvement in the killings. In 1997 he appeared in the Law & Order episode "Burned" (Season 8, Episode 9). Two years later he was cast as Johnny Soprano, the father of Tony Soprano, on The Sopranos, a role he played across five episodes of the series. His television work also included the role of Gene Gotti in the 1998 made-for-TV film Witness to the Mob and the character Niko across the first two seasons of NBC's The Blacklist. In 2015 he appeared in the Blue Bloods episode "Love Stories" as Nicholas Bianco, husband of Anna Bianco, played by Kathrine Narducci. That same year he portrayed John Gotti in the film The Wannabe. In the 2016 FX miniseries The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, Siravo played Fred Goldman, father of murder victim Ronald Goldman. In 2019 he appeared in two projects: the medical drama New Amsterdam, where he played Cardinal Mancini, a Vatican official overseeing the Pope's security during a New York visit, and The Report, directed by Scott Z. Burns and executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, in which he portrayed John A. Rizzo, former Acting General Counsel of the CIA. His final film role was in Motherless Brooklyn, also released in 2019, in which he played a Union Boss Speaker.

On Broadway, Siravo appeared in Conversations with My Father, The Boys from Syracuse, The Light in the Piazza, and Oslo, the latter two being Tony Award-winning productions. He also performed in Jersey Boys, accumulating more than 2,000 performances as Angelo DeCarlo in the First National Tour. His off-Broadway credits included Oslo, for which he received an Obie Award for Best Ensemble under director Bartlett Sher, and Mad Forest, which earned a Drama Desk nomination for Best Ensemble under director Mark Wing-Davey. Additional off-Broadway work included My Night with Reg directed by Jack Hofsiss, Gemini directed by Mark Brokaw, Tennessee & Me directed by Bob Balaban, Dark Rapture directed by Scott Ellis, Major Crimes directed by Arthur Penn, New York Actor directed by Jerry Zaks, and The Barber of Seville directed by John Rando.

Siravo was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer in 2017, which later spread to his colon. He died on April 11, 2021, at the age of 66.