He also played Angelo ‘Gyp’ DeCarlo in more than 2,000 appearances of ‘Jersey Boys’.
Joseph Siravo, the veteran Broadway actor and educator who played Johnny “Johnny Boy” Soprano on HBOs The Sopranos, died after a long battle with cancer. He was 64.
His friend and The Sopranos co-star Garry Pastore confirmed Siravo’s death in a post on Instagram Sunday night. “RIP my dear friend, who fought an incredible battle. I will miss you. See you on the other side,” Pastore wrote.
The BBC quoted his daughter Allegra Okarmus as writing on Instagram: ‘I was by his side when my dear father passed away this morning in his beloved Treehouse this morning … I’m so grateful to have him here on earth and I know he has not gone very far yet. He had a lot of credit, but his favorite was by far that of Nonno Joe. ‘
“Joe was an excellent actor and a wonderful man and he will be greatly missed,” The Soprano‘s co-star Michael Imperioli said on Instagram. ‘His actions [as] Johnny Boy Soprano was in the spot and he also made a perfect John Gotti in Nick Sandow’s The Wannabe. In my opinion, he was the best of all the actors who played the Teflon Don. ‘
Television audiences around the world are better known for their turn than Tony Soprano’s ruthless father The Sopranos, Siravo has built up an impressive list with credits for Broadway, Off-Broadway and local theaters and an integral part of the first national tour of the Tony and Grammy Awards Jersey Boys, who plays the role of Angelo “Gyp” DeCarlo in more than 2000 performances.
Sivaro was born on February 12, 1957 in Washington DC and studied at Stanford University, where he performed for the Stanford Mendicants, a post-capella group for all men. He graduated from Stanford in 1977 with a BA and received his MFA from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts Theater Program in 1980, where he was trained under the guidance of Ron Van Lieu, Olympia Dukakis and Nora Dunfee.
Siravo made his acting in the theater for the first time. His notable Broadway credits include the Tony Award-winning play by JT Rogers Oslo, Herb Gardner’s Conversations with my Father with Tony Shaloub and Judd Hirsch, the musical The boys from Syracuse and Craig Lucas’ musical The light in the piazza.
Off-Broadway he plays in Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest and Michael Develle Winn’s Up against the wind and in the regional theater he starred in a number of Shakespeare productions, including Hamlet, Anthony & Cleopatra and Othello.
In 2006 Siravo was part of the first national tour of the phenomenally successful musical Jersey Boys, based on the career and music of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. He played the Genovese family boss Gyp DeCarlo and stayed at the production until 2012, performing in 38 cities.
To a wider audience, Siravo will always be remembered as Johnny “Johnny Boy” Soprano from HBO’s highly acclaimed mob drama The Sopranos. Siravo takes on the role of the DiMeo crime family capo and father of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini). In the program, he appears in flashback and dream series in five episodes, making his first appearance in ‘Down Neck’, the seventh episode in season one with his last one in episode 15 of season six titled ‘Remember When’
Siravos also star in the Emmy-winning drama of FX The People VOJ Simpson: American Crime Story, in which he delivers a powerful performance as Fred Goldman, the father of the murdered Ron Goldman.
His other television credits include For life, New Amsterdam, Nobility, The Blacklist, Elementary, in treatment, Made in Jersey, Dirty sexy money, Hack, Third watch, Law and order, Witness to the mob and Cosby.
Siravo made his big screen debut in Brian De Palma Carlito’s way in 1993, in which he played Vinnie Taglialucci, the grieving son of a mob boss who wants revenge on David Kleinfeld (Sean Penn) and Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino). Although he focused mainly on theater and television, Siravo’s film credits include Maid in Manhattan, Shark Tale, plays John Gotti The Wannabe and recently The report, Fairness and Motherless in Brooklyn.
Throughout his career, Siravo was dedicated to teaching his trade, and was a sought-after private acting tutor and also a member of the NYU’s Grad Acting faculty, led by Zelda Fichandler, where he taught Voice, Speech and Text with the primary focus on Shakespeare. He was also the founder of the Shakespeare & Beyond Workshop and had a long association with the Lucid Shakespeare Workshop.
His production credits include the film Things hanging from trees.