Tony Ganios Dies: ‘Porky’s’, ‘The Wanderers’ Actor Was 64
deadline.comTony Ganios, the actor who made his film debut in Philip Kaufman’s 1979 coming-of-age comedy-drama The Wanderers and played audience favorite Anthony ‘Meat’ Tuperello in the 1980s Porky’s sex comedy franchise, died Sunday following surgery at a hospital in New York.
He was 64. His death was announced on social media by his fiancée, Amanda Serrano-Ganios, who said that the actor fell ill last week, was hospitalized Saturday with a spinal cord infection, and passed away Sunday of heart failure.
Cast as one of the Bronx Italian-American street toughs in the 1963-set The Wanderers, based on the novel by Richard Price, Ganios became, for much of the ’80s, a go-to actor for directors looking for a touch of East Coast flavor.
Ganios re-teamed with his Wanderers co-star Ken Wahl for a recurring role as a mob lawyer on Wahl’s 1987-90 crime series Wiseguy.
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