From Wikipedia:
"Sirico was convicted of several crimes and had been arrested 28 times, including for disorderly conduct, assault, and robbery, before taking up acting. On February 27, 1970, he was arrested at a restaurant, and found with a .32 caliber revolver on his person. In 1971, he was indicted for extortion, coercion and felony weapons possession, convicted, and sentenced to four years in prison, of which he served 20 months at Sing Sing. According to a court transcript at the time of his sentencing, Sirico was the owner of a discotheque in Manhattan, and also had pending charges for criminal possession of a dangerous drug. Sirico has stated that he was visited by an acting troupe composed of ex-convicts during his imprisonment, which inspired him to give acting a try."
OMG. A true bad-ass.
I heard him in an interview say something like, “Yeah when I was younger I went away ... ta College.”
As I understand it, he was on his way to being a made guy with the mafia the next time they planned to “open the books” (in 1975) to new members. But about 1973 he decided to go down a different path and try his hand at acting.