Richard Foronjy, a character actor who grew up in the gangster world and went to prison before becoming an actor in movies including “Midnight Run,” “Prince of the City” and “Carlito’s Way,” died Sunday. He was 86.
Foronjy, born in Brooklyn, N.Y., saw his first small role as Corsaro in “Serpico,” the 1973 autobiographical crime drama that starred Al Pacino as a whistleblower whose work led to an investigation by the Knapp Commission into the department.
In the 1984 “Repo Man,” starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez, Foronjy played Arnold Plettschner, the rent-a-cop with the memorable speech, “You’re fuckin’ right I’m Plettschner! Arnold Plettschner! Three times decorated in two world wars! I was killing people while you were still swimming around in your father’s balls! You little scumbag! I worked five years in a slaughterhouse, and ten years as a prison guard in Attica!”
In the 1988 comedy action film “Midnight Run,...
Foronjy, born in Brooklyn, N.Y., saw his first small role as Corsaro in “Serpico,” the 1973 autobiographical crime drama that starred Al Pacino as a whistleblower whose work led to an investigation by the Knapp Commission into the department.
In the 1984 “Repo Man,” starring Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez, Foronjy played Arnold Plettschner, the rent-a-cop with the memorable speech, “You’re fuckin’ right I’m Plettschner! Arnold Plettschner! Three times decorated in two world wars! I was killing people while you were still swimming around in your father’s balls! You little scumbag! I worked five years in a slaughterhouse, and ten years as a prison guard in Attica!”
In the 1988 comedy action film “Midnight Run,...
- 5/21/2024
- by Selena Kuznikov
- Variety Film + TV
Brian De Palma’s “play nice” films—in which he shows that he can groove to the strictures of pop cinema while reinvigorating formulaic stories with his formal gifts—often have an acrid aftertaste. While watching The Untouchables or Mission: Impossible, the De Palma acolyte may sense the artist’s resentment at having to impersonally flex his mastery. Carlito’s Way, though, is an exception.
Working from a vivid screenplay by David Koepp, adapted from two novels by Judge Edwin Torres, De Palma embraces the romantic possibilities of mainstream cinema, using his skill to deepen the audience’s engagement with melodrama rather than to interrogate it. The 1993 film is an increasingly endangered bird—an intelligent and beautiful entertainment for adults—that was taken for granted by many at the time.
The opening credits sequence establishes a different De Palma register—a cohesion between the sentimental pull of pop cinema and the...
Working from a vivid screenplay by David Koepp, adapted from two novels by Judge Edwin Torres, De Palma embraces the romantic possibilities of mainstream cinema, using his skill to deepen the audience’s engagement with melodrama rather than to interrogate it. The 1993 film is an increasingly endangered bird—an intelligent and beautiful entertainment for adults—that was taken for granted by many at the time.
The opening credits sequence establishes a different De Palma register—a cohesion between the sentimental pull of pop cinema and the...
- 9/26/2023
- by Chuck Bowen
- Slant Magazine
Arrow Video has just announced an all-new remastered 4K Uhd release of Al Pacino‘s gritty crime drama with his former Scarface director Brian De Palma. Carlito’s Way is scheduled to hit the streets with this new special edition on September 26. The details for product are listed below.
Arrow Video description:
Academy Award winner Al Pacino reunites with his Scarface director Brian De Palma for this tough-minded thriller about a gangster looking for salvation down the mean streets of 1970s New York City. Gangster Carlito Brigante (Pacino) gets released early from prison thanks to the work of his lawyer, Kleinfeld. Vowing to go straight, Carlito nonetheless finds dangers waiting for him in the outside world. As Carlito works toward redemption, Kleinfeld sinks into cocaine-fuelled corruption. When Kleinfeld crosses the mob, Carlito gets caught in the crossfire and has to face a hard choice: remain loyal to the friend who...
Arrow Video description:
Academy Award winner Al Pacino reunites with his Scarface director Brian De Palma for this tough-minded thriller about a gangster looking for salvation down the mean streets of 1970s New York City. Gangster Carlito Brigante (Pacino) gets released early from prison thanks to the work of his lawyer, Kleinfeld. Vowing to go straight, Carlito nonetheless finds dangers waiting for him in the outside world. As Carlito works toward redemption, Kleinfeld sinks into cocaine-fuelled corruption. When Kleinfeld crosses the mob, Carlito gets caught in the crossfire and has to face a hard choice: remain loyal to the friend who...
- 6/30/2023
- by EJ Tangonan
- JoBlo.com
Undoubtedly, Al Pacino claims the top spot among Hollywood’s greatest dramatic actors of all time.
Spanning over five remarkable decades, Pacino’s illustrious career has been marked by his delivery of iconic performances, leading him to garner multiple Emmy and Tony Awards, in addition to an Oscar for Best Actor.
Related: Top 10 Richest Actors in the World [2022]
In the gangster movie genre, Pacino stands tall alongside legends like Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.
Pacino’s breakthrough as Michael Corleone made him the ultimate choice for crime-related narratives, excelling in roles on both sides of the law in iconic crime dramas. His filmography boasts a consistent pattern of partnering with acclaimed directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Mann, and Sidney Lumet, ensuring a continuous elevation of the art of storytelling in his chosen projects.
Despite having received a modest number of wins, Pacino’s impact on the silver screen remains immeasurable,...
Spanning over five remarkable decades, Pacino’s illustrious career has been marked by his delivery of iconic performances, leading him to garner multiple Emmy and Tony Awards, in addition to an Oscar for Best Actor.
Related: Top 10 Richest Actors in the World [2022]
In the gangster movie genre, Pacino stands tall alongside legends like Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci.
Pacino’s breakthrough as Michael Corleone made him the ultimate choice for crime-related narratives, excelling in roles on both sides of the law in iconic crime dramas. His filmography boasts a consistent pattern of partnering with acclaimed directors like Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Mann, and Sidney Lumet, ensuring a continuous elevation of the art of storytelling in his chosen projects.
Despite having received a modest number of wins, Pacino’s impact on the silver screen remains immeasurable,...
- 5/31/2023
- by Dee Gambit
- buddytv.com
“Violent Night” villain John Leguizamo has a retroactive bone to pick with Italian-American Al Pacino being cast as Puerto Rican and Cuban characters in “Carlito’s Way” and “Scarface,” respectively, saying that despite his super star status, the decision by director Brian De Palma was “odd.”
Leguizamo, who costarred as Benny Blanco in “Carlito’s Way,” told Insider this week that Pacino was “kind of doing like a Cuban/Mexican accent. I know he’s trying and he’s a great actor, so brilliant, he was my hero.”
“But it was odd, man,” the actor added. “It’s an odd experience to be a Latin man in a Latin story written by a Latin man and the lead guy’s a white guy pretending to be Puerto Rican. I’m not going to lie, it’s surreal. It was surreal. I turned the part down a few times and then eventually I decided to do it.
Leguizamo, who costarred as Benny Blanco in “Carlito’s Way,” told Insider this week that Pacino was “kind of doing like a Cuban/Mexican accent. I know he’s trying and he’s a great actor, so brilliant, he was my hero.”
“But it was odd, man,” the actor added. “It’s an odd experience to be a Latin man in a Latin story written by a Latin man and the lead guy’s a white guy pretending to be Puerto Rican. I’m not going to lie, it’s surreal. It was surreal. I turned the part down a few times and then eventually I decided to do it.
- 12/3/2022
- by Sharon Knolle
- The Wrap
For John Leguizamo, 1993 was a breakthrough year thanks to back-to-back releases “Super Mario Bros.” and “Carlito’s Way.” In the latter Brian De Palma-directed film, the actor starred as the up-and-coming gangster Benny Blanco opposite Al Pacino as Carlito Brigante, a Puerto Rican criminal who is dragged back into a life of crime. The only problem is that Al Pacino is not Puerto Rican, which is why the set was so “odd” and “surreal” for Leguizamo.
“You know, it was a thing of the times. Before then he played a Cuban,” Leguizamo recently told Insider, referring to Pacino’s iconic “Scarface” role as Tony Montana. “Yeah, in that he’s kind of doing like a Cuban/Mexican accent.”
“I know he’s trying and he’s a great actor, so brilliant, he was my hero. But it was odd, man,” Leguizamo continued about the “Carlito’s Way” set. “It’s an...
“You know, it was a thing of the times. Before then he played a Cuban,” Leguizamo recently told Insider, referring to Pacino’s iconic “Scarface” role as Tony Montana. “Yeah, in that he’s kind of doing like a Cuban/Mexican accent.”
“I know he’s trying and he’s a great actor, so brilliant, he was my hero. But it was odd, man,” Leguizamo continued about the “Carlito’s Way” set. “It’s an...
- 12/2/2022
- by Zack Sharf
- Variety Film + TV
From portraying a mob don and an AIDS-stricken attorney to a comic strip villain and a Nazi hunter, Al Pacino has done it all. In honor of his long and distinguished career (and his 80th birthday), we offer up this retrospect that showcases his expansive diversity.
N.Y.P.D (1968) • A then 28-year-old Pacino made his TV debut on this ABC police procedural plan the victim of a shooting.
Me, Natalie (1971) • Pacino had a small role in this film starring Patty Duke about a girl who struggles with her appearance.
The Panic in Needle Park (1971) • Pacino played a small-town crook leading a woman down a path of heroin addiction. His work in this film caught the eye of director Francis Ford Coppola
The Godfather (1971) • And then came “The Godfather” and his first Academy Award nomination. Need we say more?
Serpico (1973) • Pacino earned his second Oscar nomination playing New York City policeman Frank Serpico,...
N.Y.P.D (1968) • A then 28-year-old Pacino made his TV debut on this ABC police procedural plan the victim of a shooting.
Me, Natalie (1971) • Pacino had a small role in this film starring Patty Duke about a girl who struggles with her appearance.
The Panic in Needle Park (1971) • Pacino played a small-town crook leading a woman down a path of heroin addiction. His work in this film caught the eye of director Francis Ford Coppola
The Godfather (1971) • And then came “The Godfather” and his first Academy Award nomination. Need we say more?
Serpico (1973) • Pacino earned his second Oscar nomination playing New York City policeman Frank Serpico,...
- 4/25/2020
- by Rosemary Rossi
- The Wrap
The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Fernando F. Croce, Kelley Dong, and editor Daniel Kasman.WavesDear Danny and Fern, Maybe I should admit now that this year's festival has been fully filtered through the fact that only a day before it began, I finally saw Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way (1993). The Bronx-set film, which follows reformed gangster Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) and his dream of love and freedom, is a wrenching double exposure: Thrashing scenes of gunfights and shady deals lose their opacity beneath the romance of Carlito and his lover Gail (Penelope Ann Miller), who are saving up to afford a future together. But soon worlds clash, and a decision must be made fast; between the two frames, one of love and another of death, where shall Carlito go? How kind it is that De Palma takes the position of a real friend,...
- 9/15/2019
- MUBI
Welcome to The Best Movie You Never Saw, a column dedicated to examining films that have flown under the radar or gained traction throughout the years, earning them a place as a cult classic or underrated gem that was either before it’s time and/or has aged like a fine wine. This week we’ll be looking at Carlito’S Way! The Story: Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) is a former New York City drug kingpin…...
- 5/17/2019
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
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