James Russo plays tough guy Paulie in Donnie Brasco, one of the key members of Sonny Black's crew.

I recently found out that one of his first movie
roles was as the character Bugsy in Once Upon A Time in America. Do you remember that guy? He is in the early 1920's scenes when Young Noodles and Young Max meet up. Bugsy and his crew beat up
Noodles and Max and murder the smallest guy,
Dominic. So Noodles sticks a knife into Bugsy
and goes to prison for a while.

Anyway, it just proves how even the lesser known actors in this genre of movie turn up here and there, just as Frank Sivero and Bruno Kirby mentioned in my earlier post.