Volkswacht Bodensee - Paul Sorvino, 'Goodfellas' actor and father of Mira Sorvino, dies

"I am completely devastated. The love of my life & the most wonderful man who has ever lived is gone. I am heartbroken," his widow Dee Dee Sorvino wrote on her Facebook page.

Born in April 1939 in New York, Paul Sorvino was best known for his role as Paul Cicero in "Goodfellas," directed by Martin Scorsese and released in 1990, alongside Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta.

The following year, he distinguished himself in the television series "Law and Order," where he played a policeman. In 1995, he took on the role of Henry Kissinger in Oliver Stone's film "Nixon."

"My father the great Paul Sorvino has passed," his daughter Mira Sorvino, who won an Oscar in 1996 for her role in Woody Allen's "Mighty Aphrodite," said on Twitter.

"My heart is rent asunder -- a life of love and joy and wisdom with him is over," she said.

Paul Sorvino played a wide variety of supporting roles in movies or in television series, but he was a multi-faceted artist, with a particular love of sculpture and opera.

"Most people think I'm either a gangster or a cop or something, but the reality is I'm a sculptor, a painter, a best-selling author, many, many things -- a poet, an opera singer, but none of them is gangster, but, you know, obviously I sort of have a knack for playing these things," he said in a 2014 interview in the Orlando Weekly.

N.Fournier--BTB