Paul Ben-Victor

Paul Ben-Victor (born July 24, 1965) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Greek mobster Spiros "Vondas" Vondopoulos on the HBO drama series The Wire, Alan Gray in Entourage (2005–2008), and Ray in Body Parts (1991).

Paul Ben-Victor
Ben-Victor in 2016
Born	Paul Friedman (1965-07-24) July 24, 1965 (age 59) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1974–present
Spouse	Cali Senkpiel ​ (m. 2020)​

Early life

Ben-Victor was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Leah Kornfeld, a playwright, and Victor Friedman. He attended Midwood High School, graduating in 1983.^[1]

Career

Ben-Victor debuted on the small screen in 1987 in the television film Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife and on an episode of Cagney & Lacey.

Ben-Victor has been featured on many television cop dramas like FBI, Monk and CSI, and also had a recurring role as two-bit con man Steve Richards on three episodes of NYPD Blue from 1994 to 1997. He also appeared as Steve Richards on a 1998 episode of the short-lived police drama Brooklyn South.^[2]

Ben-Victor had a starring role in the Sci-Fi Channel television show The Invisible Man, alongside Vincent Ventresca. The two later guest starred together on the hit TV show Las Vegas. They were reunited again on an episode of the new USA Network series In Plain Sight ("Hoosier Daddy"), on which Ben-Victor has a supporting role.

He was cast in important roles on HBO dramas The Wire (as mobster Spiros "Vondas" Vondopoulos) and Entourage, as well as making a 2006 appearance as Coach Lou on My Name Is Earl. He portrayed Moe Howard in the 2000 television film The Three Stooges.^[3]

Ben-Victor has roles in the films The Irishman (2019), The Banker (2020), and Last Looks (2022).^[2]

He has co-written stage plays with his mother, including Club Soda and The Good Steno.^[4]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Blood Vows: The Story of a Mafia Wife	-	TV movie
	Pass the Ammo	Eddie DePaul
1988	Assault of the Killer Bimbos	Customer
1989	Wired	Tom Perino
1990	Streets	Officer #2
	After the Shock	Dr. Steven Brattesani	TV movie
	The Rookie	Felix 'Little Felix'
1991	Body Parts	Ray Kolberg
	Alone	Al	Short
1992	Cool World	Valet
	Midnight Heat	New Yorker	TV movie
	Eyes of the Beholder	Dr. Medaris
	Soulmates	Driver
1993	Trouble Bound	Zand
	Extreme Justice	Councilman Joe Taylor
	True Romance	Luca
	The Last Outlaw	Posseman Grubb	TV movie
	Dream Lover	Clown
	Tombstone	Florentino 'Indian Charlie' Cruz
1994	State of Emergency	Trevor Jacobs	TV movie
	Web of Deception	Detective Fracinetti	TV movie
	Red Scorpion 2	Vince D'Angelo
1995	Houseguest	Pauly Gasperini
	Toughguy	Sol Lipsteiger
	Bushwhacked	Dana's Father
	The Fifteen Minute Hamlet	Various Roles	Short
1996	Firestorm	Duran
	Maximum Risk	FBI Agent Pellman
1997	Ed McBain's 87th Precinct: Heatwave	Det. Meyer	TV movie
	Metro	Clarence Teal
	The 6th Man	Bernie
1998	Standoff	Hank McGill
	Tempting Fate	Police Officer	TV movie
	Point Blank	Howard
	Heist	Abbie
	A Civil Action	Bobby Pasqueriella
1999	The Corruptor	FBI Agent Pete Schabacker
	Crazy in Alabama	Mackie
	Kiss Toledo Goodbye	Vince
2000	Drowning Mona	Deputy Tony Carlucci
	The David Cassidy Story	Wes Farrell	TV movie
	Gun Shy	Howard
	The Three Stooges	Moe Howard	TV movie
	Very Mean Men	Jimmy D.
2001	The Cure for Boredom	Rudy
	Choosing Matthias	Chase
2002	Niche	Spike	Short
2003	Daredevil	Jose Quesada
2004	Woman at the Beach	Pablo	Short
2006	Push	Toni
2007	Randy and The Mob	Franco
	Naked Under Heaven	Ben
2008	On the Doll	Jimmy Sours
	Joe Mover	The Boss	Short
	Player 5150	Jimmy
	Ten: Thirty One	Gerry	Short
	Coma	-	Short
2009	Anytown	Principal Wheeler
	This Monday	Tony	Short
	Clear Lake, WI	Sheriff Joe Dietzer
2010	A Reuben by Any Other Name	Max	Short
	Venus & Vegas	Carlo
	The Blue Wall	Charlie Sullivan	Short
2011	Video Girl	Jermaine Stanford
	Poolboy: Drowning Out the Fury	Kip Tippington
2012	FDR: American Badass!	Mussolini
	The Carrier	Vlade	Short
	Should've Been Romeo	Joey
	Mighty Fine	Bobby
	Desperate Endeavors	Bill Loney
2013	Don Jon	Priest
	Empire State	Tommy
	Once Upon a Time in Queens	Vinnie Nero
	Grudge Match	Lou Camare
2014	By the Gun	Vincent Tortano
	Friends and Romans	Dennis Socio
2015	Get Hard	Gayle
	Any Day	William
2016	Love Is All You Need?	Principal Birdsell
	Goliath	Cleft Chin	Short
	Blowtorch	Blackie
2017	Camera Store	Mr. Bibideaux
	His Lover	Scotty Davidson Jr.	Short
	A Crooked Somebody	Detective Zimmer
	The Super	Mr. Johnson
2018	Monster	Anthony Petrocelli
	Feast of the Seven Fishes	Johnny
	The Amityville Murders	Ronnie DeFeo, Sr.
2019	The Irishman	Jake Gottlieb
	Adventure Force 5	Executive Victor
2020	The Banker	Donald Silverthorne
	Allagash	Bill
	My Brothers' Crossing	Officer Byrd
2021	On Our Way	Mr. Adler	[5]
2022	Last Looks	Lieutenant Pete Conady
	Collide	Clyde
	Emancipation	Major G. Halstead
2023	Plane	Hampton
	The Collective	Miro Lindell
2024	Murder at Hollow Creek	Jeff Rhodes

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	L.A. Law	Sgt. Costellano	Episode: "The Princess and the Wiener King"
1987	Cagney & Lacey	Trucker #2	Episode: "Waste Deep"
1988	Ohara	Billy	Episode: "They Shoot Witnesses, Don't They?"
	China Beach	Lazaro	Episode: "Chao Ong"
	Freddy's Nightmares	Paul	Episode: "Mother's Day"
1990	1st & Ten	Rocko	Episode: "Who Stole Johnny Gunn?"
	Dragnet	Jack Middleton	Episode: "Parachute to Death"
	Hunter	Loan Shark	Episode: "This Is My Gun"
	Doogie Howser, M.D.	Karl	Episode: "TV or Not TV"
	The New Adam-12	Gregory Smith	Episode: "Escapees"
1991	Father Dowling Mysteries	Security Guard	Episode: "The Fugitive Priest Mystery
	The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage	Charlie Dilwig	Episode: "For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll"
	The Trials of Rosie O'Neill	Vinnie	Episode: "Knock, Knock"
1992	The Commish	Benny Gorzo	Episode: "Sex, Lies and Kerosene"
	Sibs	Lance	Episode: "If I Only Had a Dad"
1994	L.A. Law	Bowles' Atty. Peters	Episode: "Age of Insolence"
	The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.	Joey Tataglia	Episode: "Wild Card"
	The X-Files	Dr. Aaron Monte	Episode: "Tooms"
1995	Sweet Justice	Terry Phillips	Episode: "Clouds of Glory"
1996	Aaahh!!! Real Monsters	Carney/Man on Stilts (voice)	Episode: "Baby It's You/Monsters Are Fun"
1994-97	NYPD Blue	Steve Richards	Guest Cast: Season 2-3 & 5
1997	The Practice	Benny Small	Episode: "Search and Seizure" & "Save the Mule"
1998	Brooklyn South	Steve Richards	Episode: "Skel in a Cell"
1998-99	Rude Awakening	Carl	Guest Cast: Season 1-2
1999	Early Edition	Elliot Rosenfield	Episode: "Funny Valentine"
	L.A. Doctors	-	Episode: "Forty-Eight Minutes"
2000	The Invisible Man	Robert Albert Hobbes	Main Cast
2002	Crossing Jordan	Theo	Episode: "Someone to Count On"
2003	Fastlane	Marty	Episode: "Strap On"
	Las Vegas	Michael	Episode: "Pros and Cons"
2003-08	The Wire	Spiros 'Vondas' Vondopoulos	Main Cast: Season 2, Guest: Season 4, Recurring Cast: Season 5
2004	Strong Medicine	Frank	Episode: "Body Mass Increase"
2005	Alias	Carter	Episode: "Another Mister Sloane"
	Monk	Al Nicoletto	Episode: "Mr. Monk Gets Drunk"
	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Ticket Scalper	Episode: "The Larry David Sandwich"
2005-08	Entourage	Alan Gray	Guest: Season 2, Recurring Cast: Season 3 & 5
2006	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Joey	Episode: "Killer"
	The Shield	Detective Paul Reyes	Episode: "Man Inside"
	My Name Is Earl	Coach Lou	Episode: "Sticks & Stones"
2007	John from Cincinnati	Palaka	Main Cast
	Shark	Ricky Rago	Episode: "For Whom the Skel Rolls"
2008-12	In Plain Sight	Marshal Stan McQueen	Main Cast
2009	Everybody Hates Chris	Coach Thurman	Recurring Cast: Season 4
2010	The Mentalist	Noah Landau	Episode: "Redline"
2011	CSI: NY	Carmen Enzo	Episode: "Party Down"
	Childrens Hospital	Spiros	Episode: "Father's Day"
2012	Are We There Yet?	Mr. Parker	Recurring Cast: Season 3
2013	Vegas	Barry Silver	Recurring Cast
	Person of Interest	Detective Cameron	Episode: "Reasonable Doubts"
	Hawaii Five-0	Agent Devin Campbell	Episode: "Hau'oli La Ho'omoaika'i"
	Mob City	Jack Dragna	Recurring Cast
2014	True Detective	Major Leroy Salter	Episode: "Haunted Houses"
	Matador	Gene Balasco	Recurring Cast
	Castle	Dino Scarpella	Episode: "Bad Santa"
2015	Allegiance	Special Agent Faber	Recurring Cast
2016	Vinyl	Maury Gold	Main Cast
	Kingdom	Bob	Recurring Cast: Season 2
	Chicago Med	Mr. McGregor	Episode: "Win Loss"
2017	The Mick	Jerry Berlin	Recurring Cast: Season 1
	Preacher	Viktor Kruglov	Recurring Cast: Season 2
	Lethal Weapon	Frank Truno	Episode: "Fork-Getta-Bout-It"
2018	The Resident	Edmund Carver	Episode: "No Matter the Cost"
	Santa Clarita Diet	Mark	Recurring Cast: Season 2
	The Neighborhood	Matty 'Cigars'	Main Cast
2018-19	Goliath	Cleft Chin	Recurring Cast: Season 2, Guest: Season 3
2019	Bull	Ryan Vance	Episode: "Split Hairs"
	The Village	Angelo Napolitano	Recurring Cast
	FBI	Mark Krawley	Episode: "Appearances"
	Will & Grace	Mario	Episode: "Pappa Mia"
2019-20	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Counselor Peter Abrams	Recurring Cast: Season 21
2020	The Baker and the Beauty	Contractor	Episode: "Side Effects"
2020-23	Gravesend	Matty 'Cigars'	Main Cast: Season 1, Guest: Season 2
2022	Pam & Tommy	Richard Alden	Recurring Cast
	FBI: Most Wanted	Jackie 'The Fox' Bianchi	Episode: "Greatest Hits"
2023	Paul T. Goldman	Mob Boss	Recurring Cast
2024	The Chosen	Herod Antipas	Recurring Cast: Season 4
	Diarra from Detroit	Zervas	Recurring Cast
	Everybody Still Hates Chris	-	Episode: "Everybody Still Hates the GED"
	Nobody Wants This	Ilan Roklov	Recurring Cast

References

1. midwoodargus (April 20, 2016). "Ex-Sing Commissioner, Actor Shares Insight With Hornets". Midwoodargus.org. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
2. "In Character: The Cast of The Irishman | And So It Begins". Andsoitbeginsfilms.com. December 20, 2019. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
3. "Profile: An actor with Island roots | Shelter Island Reporter". Shelterislandreporter.timesreview.com. May 30, 2014. Retrieved December 28, 2019.
4. "Paul Ben-Victor". Biography. TVGuide.com. Retrieved June 27, 2013.
5. Complex, Valerie (March 22, 2023). "Gravitas Ventures Acquires Sophie Lane Curtis Drama 'On Our Way' Starring Micheál Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave And Jordana Brewster". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved March 23, 2023.

External links

• Paul Ben-Victor at IMDb
• Paul Ben-Victor at AllMovie