Paulie Gualtieri Paulie Gualtieri Peter Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri is a fictional character portrayed by Tony Sirico on the HBO series "The Sopranos". Paulie begins the series as a soldier, and later becomes a caporegime and eventually underboss of the DiMeo crime family. According to "The Sopranos: A Family History", Peter Paul "Paulie" Gualtieri, son of Gennaro Gualtieri (although Paulie's biological father was later revealed to be a World War II soldier named "Russ"), has been a troubled street kid in Roseville, Newark from the age of nine. He dropped out of school after the ninth grade and spent time in and
Paulie Gualtieri out of juvenile correctional facilities during his early youth. When he was seventeen, he officially became an enforcer/bodyguard for Johnny Soprano, Tony's father and captain in the DiMeo crime family. His mother, later discovered to be his aunt, worked at a Kresge's department store during Paulie's childhood and early adulthood, but has since retired. Paulie's grandfather, who emigrated to the United States in 1910, is from Ariano Irpino, a municipality in the province of Avellino, in Italy's Campania region. Paulie's grandfather and Tony's paternal grandparents were from the same province in Italy. Paulie spent four years in the U.S. Army