Tony Ganios
{{Short description|American actor (1959–2024)}}
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{{Sources|date=February 2024}}
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{{Infobox person
| name = Tony Ganios
| image = Tony_Ganios_in_Porky's_1981.jpg
| caption = Tony Ganios in Porky's 1981
| yearsactive = 1979–2024 (semi-retired in 1993)
| occupation = Actor
| birth_date = {{birth date|1959|10|21}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|2024|2|18|1959|10|21}}
| death_place = New York, U.S.
}}
Tony Ganios (October 21, 1959 – February 18, 2024) was an American actor.{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2024/02/tony-ganios-dead-1235832120/|title=Tony Ganios Dies: 'Porky's', 'The Wanderers' Actor Was 64|website=Deadline|date=February 20, 2024|access-date=February 20, 2024}} He played the tough guy Perry in the 1979 film The Wanderers, and Anthony 'Meat' Tuperello in the 1981 comedy Porky's and its sequels.
Life and career
Tony Ganios was of Greek and Italian ancestry. He made his debut appearance as tough guy Perry in The Wanderers. In 1981, he played a former football player turned mountain man in the John Belushi film Continental Divide.
Soon after, Ganios starred in the 1981 teen-sex comedy Porky's and its two sequels.
Ganios appeared in five episodes of the Emmy Award-winning 1980s TV series Wiseguy as muscular mob lawyer Mike "Mooch" Cacciatore, and he made a guest appearance in an episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King. In 1990, Ganios appeared as a mercenary in Die Hard 2, casually murdering a church caretaker, and memorably meeting his death when Bruce Willis stabs him in the eye with an icicle.
After brief appearances in three films between 1991 and 1993, Ganios semi-retired from acting. One of those films was Rising Sun, in which he revisits his matchstick-chewing The Wanderers hero as an adversary for Sean Connery.
Ganios died of heart failure on February 18, 2024, at age 64 after being hospitalized for a spinal-cord infection.{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/2024/film/obituaries-people-news/tony-ganios-dead-porkys-the-wanderers-1235917670/|title=Tony Ganios, Star of 'Porky's,' Dies at 64|website=Variety|date=February 20, 2024|access-date=February 20, 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://www.neomagazine.com/2024/04/tony-ganios-the-gentle-giant-who-was-a-renaissance-man/|title=Tony Ganios: The gentle giant who was a renaissance man|website=NEO|date=April 2, 2024|access-date=April 4, 2024}}
Filmography
| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+List of acting credits in film |
| scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Title ! scope="col" | Role ! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1979
| Perry LaGuardia | Film. Debut as an actor and his first collaboration with director Philip Kaufman and actor Ken Wahl. |
| 1981
| Bartini | Film |
| 1981
| Max Bernbaum | Film |
| 1981
| Porky's | Anthony "Meat" Tuperello | Film |
| 1983
| Anthony "Meat" Tuperello | Film |
| 1984
| Big Mac | Film |
| 1985
| Anthony "Meat" Tuperello | Film |
| 1987
| Simons | Episode: "Any Number Can Play" |
| 1988
| Sergio | Episode: "Video Games" |
| 1989-1990
| Wiseguy | Mike "Mooch" Cacciatore | 5 episodes. Second collaboration with Ken Wahl. |
| 1990
| Baker | Film |
| 1991
| EPA Man | Film. Third collaboration with Ken Wahl. |
| 1992
| {{Interlanguage link multi|Ring of the Musketeers|de|3=Der Ring der Musketiere|lt=Ring of the Musketeers}} | Tony | 1 episode |
| 1993
| Doorman guard (Perry) | Last appearance as an actor and his second collaboration with director Philip Kaufman. |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0304393}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20191206004102/https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/tony-ganios/credits/177394/ TV Guide]
- [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/tony_ganios Rotten Tomatoes]
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Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:Male actors from Brooklyn
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:Deaths from congestive heart failure in the United States