Richard Romanus, the tough-guy personality actor best recognized for his turn as Michael Longo, the Little Italy shylock that enters into it with Robert De Niro’s Johnny Civello in Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets, has actually passed away. He was 80.
Romanus passed away Dec. 23 in an exclusive healthcare facility in Volos, Greece, his child, Robert Romanus, informed The Hollywood Press reporter.
Romanus dealt with famous voice duties for Ralph Bakshi in 1977’s Wizards (as the fairy warrior Weehawk) and 1982’s Hey Great Lookin’ (as the leader of a 1950s greaser gang), and in in between, he played the taxi driver Harry Canyon in one more computer animated movie, Heavy Steel (1981 ).
He likewise showed up on 4 episodes of The Sopranos as Richard LaPenna, the on-again, off-again partner of Lorraine Bracco’s Jennifer Melfi, from 1999-2002.
In Mean Streets (1973 ), Romanus’ personality is notoriously disrespected by Johnny when he leans on him for his cash.
“You know, Michael, you make me laugh,” Civello states. “You see, I obtain cash around this area, left and right from everyone, and I never ever pay them back. So, I can not obtain no cash from no one say goodbye to, right? So that would certainly that leave me to obtain cash from yet you?
“I borrow money from you, because you’re the only jerk-off around here who I can borrow money from without payin’ back, right? You know, ’cause that’s what you are, that’s what I think of you, a jerk-off. You’re smiling ’cause you’re a jerk-off. You’re a fucking jerk-off! I’ll tell you something else, I fuck you right where you breathe, because I don’t give two shits about you or nobody else.”
Michael, obviously, will certainly obtain his retribution when driving to Brooklyn.
The child of a dental expert, Richard Joseph Romanus was born upon Feb. 8, 1943, in Barre, Vermont, and elevated in West Hartford, Connecticut. He finished from Xavier College in Cincinnati in 1964 with a level in viewpoint and invested a year in regulation institution prior to examining showing Lee Strasberg at Carnegie Hall.
In 1970, he showed up on episodes of Objective: Difficult and The Mod Team and in the David Janssen-starring telefilm Evening Chase prior to he was worked with on Mean Streets.
His legendary scene with De Niro began the next-to-last day of capturing, Scorsese remembered in Andy Dougan’s 2011 publication, Untouchable: Robert De Niro.
“Something had happened between Bobby and Richard because the animosity between them in that scene is real, and I played on it,” the supervisor stated.“They had gotten on each other’s nerves to the point where I think they really wanted to kill each other. I kept shooting take after take of Bobby yelling all these insults while the crew was getting very upset.”
Romanus stated De Niro really snapped when he saw him laugh throughout the tirade. “By laughing I was saving face. He thought I should be fuming, but he had no control over my reactions,” he stated.“Sometimes the reaction you get from your acting partner is not the one you want. Then you simply have to react off that. But in this scene I laughed organically. I thought Bobby was very funny when he was doing that stuff. And he looked ridiculous.”
Romanus invested the remainder of the years turning up on such programs as Rhoda, Kojak, Starsky & & Hutch, The Rockford Documents and Hawaii Five-O and in the movie Perilous (1975 ).
In 1981-82, he landed a normal function as Det. Lt. Charlie Gunzer on the ultra-violent ABC criminal offense program Strike Pressure, starring Robert Heap and generated by Aaron Punctuation, yet the collection was terminated after 20 episodes.
From left: Michael Goodwin, Robert Heap, Dorian Harewood, Trisha Noble and Richard Romanus from the 1981-82 collection Strike Pressure.
Robert Phillips/ Everett Collection.
He played one more police officer on one more brief ABC collection, Bad deed, in 1981.
Romanus’ résumé consisted of the movies Resting Ducks (1980 ), Protocall (1984 ), The Sofa Journey (1988 ), Oscar (1991 ), Defining Moment (1993 ), Polices and Robbersons (1994 ), Toenailed (2001) and The Young Black Stallion (2003) and television work with Hillside Road Blues, The A-Team, MacGyver, Cagney & & Lacey and NYPD Blue.
Along with his child, survivors include his 2nd partner, Oscar-nominated outfit developer Anthea Sylbert (Rosemary’s Child, Chinatown, Julia), whom he wed in August 1985, and more youthful sibling Robert Romanus, that played Mike Damone in Quick Times at Ridgemont High.
Twenty-three years back, Romanus and Sylbert transferred to the Greek community of Skiathos, and he covered the experience in Act III: A Little Island in the Aegean, released in 2011. And also, he authored 2 books established in the nation, 2011’s Chrysalis and 2014’s Matoula’s Mirror.
The pair, that were stated honorary people of Skiathos in 2021, likewise composed and generated 2 Life time telefilms, 1998’s Offering Up the Ghost and 1999’s If You Think (the last obtained them a WGA election).
Romanus’ very first partner was actress-singer Tina Bohlmann. They were wed from 1967 till their 1975 separation.
