Tony 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.
Ganios’ other credits include Continental Divide (1981) starring John Belushi, and episodes of ’80s series Scarecrow and Mrs. King and The Equalizer.
In 1990’s Die Hard 2, Ganios played a killer who meets a memorably gruesome end when Bruce Willis’ John McClane stabs him in the eye with an icicle.
Ganios found his signature role when he was cast by director Bob Clark in what would become a surprise hit in 1981, the teen sex comedy Porky’s, about a group of high school boys looking to lose their virginity in 1950s-era Florida. Though savaged by critics, the film would go on to be the fifth highest-grossing movie of 1982, spawning two sequels.
Ganios would re-team with his friend Wahl in 1991’s The Taking of Beverly Hills, and, in what would be his final credit before largely retiring from acting, with The Wanderers‘ director Kaufman for 1993’s Rising Sun starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes.