Actor Richard Romanus, Best Known for “Mean Streets ”and“ The Sopranos”, Dead at 80

The late actor is survived by his son, Robert, and his wife, Oscar-nominated costume designer Anthea Sylbert

Richard Romanus, the actor best known for his roles in Mean Streets and The Sopranos, has died, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 80.

He died Dec. 23 in a hospital in Volos, Greece, his son, Robert Romanus, told the outlet. No cause of death was given.

Romanus was known for his tough-guy roles including Michael Longo in 1973’s Mean Streets. In the Martin Scorsese-directed crime drama, Romanus played a loan shark who gets into a memorable confrontation with Johnny Civello (Robert De Niro).

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Scorsese, 81, recalled the iconic bar scene in Andy Dougan's Untouchable: Robert De Niro, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"Something had happened between Bobby and Richard because the animosity between them in that scene is real, and I played on it. They had gotten on each other’s nerves to the point where I think they really wanted to kill each other,” the writer-director recalled in the 2011 biography. “I kept shooting take after take of Bobby yelling all these insults while the crew was getting very upset.”

According to Romanus, De Niro, 80, was upset with him because he saw him laugh.

“By laughing I was saving face,” he said. “He thought I should be fuming, but he had no control over my reactions. 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.”

Added Romanus: “I thought Bobby was very funny when he was doing that stuff. And he looked ridiculous.”

Romanus also appeared in three episodes of another iconic crime drama, The Sopranos, as the estranged husband of Dr. Jennifer Melfi, Tony Soprano’s psychiatrist, from 1999 to 2002, per IMDB.

Some of his other television credits include Charlie’s Angels, Mission: Impossible, MacGyver, The A-Team, Hawaii Five-0 and Strike Force. He also starred in several made-for-TV movies including Night Drive, Gold of the Amazon Women, More Than Murder and Ghost of a Chance.

His final role was Ben Ishak in 2003’s The Young Black Stallion, a prequel to the 1979 Disney classic The Black Stallion.

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The late actor is survived by his son, Robert; his wife, Oscar-nominated costume designer Anthea Sylbert; and his younger brother Robert Romanus (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Fame), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Romanus and Sylbert, who tied the knot in August 1985, co-wrote and produced two Lifetime movies, 1998’s Giving Up the Ghost and 1999’s If You Believe, which earned them a WGA nomination, per the outlet.

More than two decades ago, the couple moved to the Greek town Skiathos, and were declared honorary citizens of the town in 2021, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Romanus also published three books, all set in Greece, starting in 2011: Act III: A Small Island in the Aegean, Chrysalis and Matoula’s Echo, per his Amazon author bio.

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