Richard Foronjy

Richard Edward Foronjy (August 3, 1937, Brooklyn, New York - May 19, 2024) was an American character actor of Armenian descent who became known for portraying police officers and criminal figures in film and television. Before his acting career he worked as a butcher, and an earlier period of his life included a conviction for armed robbery that led to an eight-and-a-half-year sentence served at Sing Sing and Attica prisons. He was released at age 32 and eventually found his way into acting.

In Ghostbusters II (1989), Foronjy played Con Ed Supervisor Fianella, an official from Consolidated Edison who investigates disturbances connected to the slime river flowing beneath the city.

Foronjy established himself as a character actor through repeated collaborations with director Sidney Lumet, including a small role in Serpico (1973) and the more substantial part of Detective Joe Marinaro in Prince of the City (1981). He is perhaps best remembered for his role as the mobster Tony Darvo in Midnight Run (1988) opposite Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin, and for playing Peter Amadesso in Carlito's Way (1993). In later years he published a memoir about his path from crime to Hollywood under the pen name Richie Salerno, titled From the Mob to the Movies: How I Escaped the Mafia and Landed in Hollywood (2020).