Biography
John Ciarcia, also known by his nickname "Cha Cha," was an Italian-American actor who was best known for his role as the tough-as-nails mobster Albie Cianflone on HBO's "The Sopranos" (1999-2007). Born in Brooklyn, New York, Ciarcia had a number of different careers prior to becoming an actor. He initially worked as a boxing promoter, where one of his fighters was a young Tony Danza. In the late '80s, however, when director Martin Scorsese was looking for non-actors to fill in the various uncredited gangster roles of his mob movie "Goodfellas" (1990), Ciarcia was hired as one of the thugs of Billy Batts, played by Frank Vincent. The thrill of acting in a movie proved to be very intoxicating for Ciarcia, and over the next few years he played mostly mobsters and tough guys in a number of films, including "Who Do I Gotta Kill?" (1994), "A Brooklyn State of Mind" (1998), and "New Rose Hotel" (1998). He also landed a small role in the 2002 dark comedy "Death to Smoochy." Ciarcia's big break, however, came in 2006 when he was cast in the HBO mob drama "The Sopranos." Ciarcia played mobster Albie Cianflone on 13 episodes of the series, thus becoming somewhat of a household name to the show's obsessive fans. When "The Sopranos" ended in 2007, Ciarcia landed a few more film roles, including "Grand Slammed" (2010) and "Spy" (2011), although these roles never matched the success of his time on "The Sopranos." Ciarcia died on November 21, 2015 at the age of 75. His last film role was in "Miami or Bust: A Hoboken Bet," which came out in 2015.
