‘Mean Streets’ actor was 80 years old – The Hollywood Reporter

Richard Romanos, the powerful actor best known for his role as Michael Longo, a microlender in Italy who gets into this with Johnny Civillo, who played Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s film. I mean the streets, He died. He was 80 years old.

Romanos died on December 23 at a private hospital in Volos, Greece, his son Robert Romanos said Hollywood Reporter.

Romanos took over prominent voice roles for Ralph Bakshi in the 1970s Processors (Like the dwarf warrior Weehawk) and 1982 Oh good looking (as a greaser gang leader in the 1950s), and in between, he played taxi driver Harry Canyon in another animated film, Heavy metal (1981).

He also appeared in four episodes of The soprano As Richard LaPena, Jennifer Melfi’s husband to Lauren Bracco, from 1999 to 2002.

in I mean the streets (1973), Johnny is known for disrespecting Romanos’ character when he leans on him for his money.

“You know, Michael, you make me laugh,” Civillo says. “You see, I’m borrowing money all over this neighborhood, right and left, from everyone, and I never pay it back. So, I can’t borrow any money from anyone anymore, right? So who’s going to let me borrow money from but you?”

“I’m borrowing money from you, because you’re the only person here I can borrow money from without paying it back, right? You know, because that’s what you are, and that’s what I think of you, idiot. You’re smiling because you’re an idiot. You’re a fucking jerk! I’ll tell you something else I’m fucking you where you breathe, because I don’t care about you or anyone else.

Michael, of course, will get his revenge on the road to Brooklyn.

The son of a dentist, Richard Joseph Romanos was born on February 8, 1943, in Barrie, Vermont, and grew up in West Hartford, Connecticut. He graduated from Xavier University in Cincinnati in 1964 with a degree in philosophy and spent a year in law school before studying acting with Lee Strasberg at Carnegie Hall.

In 1970, he appeared in episodes of the series Mission: Impossible And Mod band And in the TV movie starring David Janssen Night chase Before he was hired I mean the streets.

His iconic scene with De Niro came on the next-to-last day of filming, as Scorsese recalls in Andy Duggan’s 2011 book, The Outcast: Robert De Niro.

The director said: “Something happened between Bobby and Richard because the hostility between them in that scene is real, and I played on it.” “They got on each other’s nerves to the point where I think they really wanted to kill each other. I just kept filming frame after frame of Bobby screaming all these insults while the crew was very upset.

Romanos said that De Niro actually got angry when he saw him laughing during his speech. “By laughing I was saving face. He thought I should be angry, but he had no control over my reactions.” “Sometimes the reaction you get from your co-star is not the one you want. Then you simply have to respond to it. But at this scene I laughed organically. I thought Bobby was very funny when he did those things. “It seemed ridiculous.”

Romanos spent the rest of the decade appearing on shows such as Rhoda, Kojak, Starsky and Hatch, Rockford Files And Hawaii Five-O And in the movie Russian roulette (1975).

In 1981-1982, he got a regular role as a detective. Lt. Charlie Gunzer on the ultra-violent ABC crime show Strike forceStarring Robert Stack and produced by Aaron Spelling, but the series was canceled after 20 episodes.

He played another cop in another short-lived ABC series, Bad gamein 1981.

Romanos’ resume included films Sitting ducks (1980), protocol (1984), Couch trip (1988), Oscar (1991), Point of no return (1993), Cops and robbers (1994), Nailed it (2001) and Young black stallion (2003) and television work Hill Street Blues, Team A, MacGyver, Cagney and Lacey And NYPD blue.

In addition to his son, survivors include his second wife, Oscar-nominated costume designer Anthea Silbert (Rosemary’s baby, Chinatown, Julia), whom he married in August 1985, and his younger brother Robert Romanos, who played Mike Damon in the film. Fast times at Ridgemont High School.

Twenty-three years ago, Romanos and Silbert moved to the Greek city of Skiathos, and wrote about his experience in… Chapter Three: A small island in the Aegean Seapublished in 2011. In addition, he authored two novels set in the country, in 2011 cocoon And 2014 echo matula.

The couple, who were declared honorary citizens of Skiathos in 2021, also wrote and produced two Lifetime TV films, 1998’s Give up the ghost And 1999 If you believe (The latter received a WGA nomination.)

Romanos’ first wife was actress and singer Tina Pullman. They were married from 1967 until their divorce in 1975.