Paul Sorvino’s daughter Mira Sorvino paid tribute to the late star on Monday following the Goodfellas actor’s death. He was 83. Mira, 54, famously thanked Sorvino when she accepted her Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1996, bringing her father to tears in one of the best moments of an Oscars ceremony.
“My father the great Paul Sorvino has passed,” Mira tweeted on Monday. “My heart is rent asunder- a life of love and joy and wisdom with him is over. He was the most wonderful father. I love him so much. I’m sending you love in the stars Dad as you ascend.”
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Mira, a Harvard graduate, is the daughter of Sorvino and his first wife, Lorraine Davis. Her brother, Michael Sorvino, is also an actor, having worked with their father in the 2013 movie Once Upon a Time in Queens. Mira and Michael have a sister, Amanda Sorvino.
In 1996, Mira won an Oscar for her supporting role in Mighty Aphrodite. When she accepted the Oscar, she paid tribute to her father, who was never nominated for an Oscar himself. “When you give me this award you honor my father Paul Sorvino, who has taught me everything I know about acting,” Mira said. “I love you very much, Dad. I always looked at great performances and was so moved by how much other people’s hearts made me feel as a child. And I wanted to be an actor who could move other people and make other people see something about the human spirit, and you’ve made me feel that I’ve made a small step towards that.” As Mira mentioned her father, the cameras cut to Sorvino, who was in tears.
Mira was one of the first actresses to publicly share her experience with Harvey Weinstein. She accused the producer of sexual harassment and said he blacklisted her when she refused his advances. The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson said Weinstein kept him from casting Sorvino in his films. After she spoke out, Sorvino told TMZ he wanted to “kill” Weinstein, whom he called a “motherf—er.”
“He ought to hope that he goes to jail, because if we come across [one another]… I think he’ll be going on the floor,” Sorvino told TMZ in January 2018. Sorvino said he had no idea of the ordeal his daughter went through. If he did, Weinstein “would not be walking. He’d be in a wheelchair,” Sorvino said. He praised Mira as a “wonderful” and “courageous” prison and hoped Weinstein would “die in jail.”
“My love for my father has only continued to grow since this moment.All the love in my heart,” Mira tweeted after her father’s comments to TMZ went viral. “He is the most loving father, the most brilliant actor, the most beautiful operatic tenor, the most talented visual artist- the wisest and most human advice giver, & best Grandpa ever!!”
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