Goodbye to Paul Sorvino at the age of 83.
Sorvino, the father of Oscar winner Mira Sorvino, played many roles in his long career but the most remembered is as mobster Paulie Cicero in the classic film "Goodfellas" in 1990.
Paulie Cicero was played to perfection by Sorvino, playing him with empathy yet without mercy and Sorvino's casting was simply perfect as well as his performance- visual without being hokey, Sorvino's Cicero could have never been played by anyone else.
Sorvino spent most of his career as a dramatic actor in supporting roles such as "Nixon" playing Henry Kissinger but occasionally turned up in comedic roles such as Bruce Willis's father in "Moonlighting" and more recently Jeff Garlin's father in "The Goldbergs".
Sorvino also was terrific as stoic manager Gus Panas in "Mr. 3000" in 2004 and would find success with voiceover work as he did in "Hey Arnold, the movie" as the bad guy "Mr.Scheck".
However, what made me a Paul Sorvino fan more than anything he performed, occurred in 2018.
Mira Sorvino had been essentially blacklisted from Hollywood by Harvey Weinstein after rejecting his sexual advances and when Sorvino found out about it and was asked by TMZ about Weinstein, he responded with the type of emotion that every caring father would respond in such a situation.
Goodbye to Larry Storch at the age of 99.
Storch is best known for his Emmy-nominated in "F- Troop" in the mid-60s but I'll remember him more for his various guest-starring roles in various comedies of the sixties and seventies, game show appearances, and his roles on Saturday morning television of the age.
Storch voiced many (and I mean MANY) characters on animated programming including Muhammad Ali (really) and starred with F Troop castmate Forrest Tucker on the "Real Ghost Busters" in a live-action Saturday morning program on CBS.
Storch also was known for his stage performances, released a few albums, and started his career as a comedian, so there weren't many entertainment genres that Storch didn't hit at one time or another during his career.
Goodbye to Tony Dow at the age of 77.
Dow was the earnest older brother, Wally, to the title character in Leave it to Beaver for the run of the series from 1957 to 1963 and was known as one of the nicer people in Hollywood.
Dow's Wally became a stereotype of the American teenager during the show's tenure and while "Beaver" became a staple of syndicated television, it wasn't a big smash during its first-run period as it never finished in the top thirty programs in any of its six seasons.
Dow continued acting but also worked as a director, producer, and visual effects supervisor on various programs as well as bringing Wally Cleaver back for a four-season run with "The New Leave it to Beaver" in the mid-1980s.
Goodbye to Hank Goldberg at the age of 82.
The long-time handicapper for horse racing and football for ESPN, Goldberg moved to ESPN after serving as the color commentator on the Miami Dolphins radio network from 1978 to 1992.
Goldberg entered the handicapping business under the tutelage of Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder and it was Goldberg that was the ghostwriter for Snyder's popular newspaper column of the day and his researcher for Snyder's bits on the NFL Today.
Goodbye to Johnny Egan at the age of 83.
A pass-first point guard, Egan was the shortest player in the league at a listed six feet even and was selected in two expansion drafts in three years.
Egan was taken by Milwaukee in the 1968 expansion draft and two seasons later was tabbed by the Cavaliers in the 1970 version of expansion.
Egan begged his way out of Cleveland and was traded to the then-San Diego Rockets two months into the Cavaliers first season.
Egan would move with the Rockets to Houston, where he would become the team's head coach midway through the 1973-74 season and would hold the job for four seasons, making the playoffs once where the Rockets won their first playoff series in franchise history in a three-game mini-series win over the New York Knicks.
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