Sam Coppola

Sam Coppola (July 31, 1932 – February 5, 2012) was an American character actor who worked across stage, film, and television from 1968 until his death. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, he later resided in Leonia, New Jersey for 38 years. He trained at the Lee Strasberg acting studio and accumulated credits in more than 35 films and nearly 40 television productions over the course of his career.

Coppola's film work spanned several decades and included appearances in a number of prominent productions. He played an uncredited cop in Serpico (1973) and portrayed Dan Fusco, the hardware and paint store owner who dispenses advice to John Travolta's character Tony Manero, in Saturday Night Fever (1977). He later appeared as Fuselli in Fatal Attraction (1987). His screen work also extended to television commercials, including a Chevy spot featuring a nursing home resident that aired during the 2011 Super Bowl and a Ball Park Franks advertisement in which he played a hot dog vendor alongside Michael Jordan.

On television, Coppola appeared in the series Ryan's Hope from 1975 to 1976 and went on to take roles in The Equalizer (1986), The Practice (1997), The Wire (2006), and The Good Wife (2011), as well as multiple entries in the Law & Order franchise. In the 1999 premiere season of The Sopranos, he made a brief appearance as the unconventional family therapist of Dr. Jennifer Melfi. In the 2001 A&E television film The Big Heist, he portrayed mob boss Paul Castellano.

Coppola's stage career included a 1983 Broadway appearance in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. He later portrayed Aaronow, an aging real estate salesman, in a 2000 production of Glengarry Glen Ross at McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey, and played the hobo Vladimir in a 2005 off-Broadway production of Waiting for Godot. Coppola was not related to film director Francis Ford Coppola.

He was predeceased by his wife and is survived by two children, Jason and Samantha, and three grandchildren. Coppola died on February 5, 2012, from an aneurysm.