Richie Stephens, the actor who was once a legit gangster, has snagged a role on season 4 of the Paramount+ mafia crime drama “Tulsa King.”
Stephens will play English Dan, a midlevel crime boss and rival supplier to Sylvester Stallone’s Dwight “The General” Manfredi, Deadline first reported. “Tulsa King” centers on a New York capo (Stallone) who gets out of prison after 25 years, only to be packed off to Oklahoma by his boss to foment more mafia mayhem.
It’s the type of role that comes naturally to Stephens, who for years was an Irish gangster before discovering acting and easing out of the life, and now tends to play mobsters, villains and other nefarious characters. For “Tulsa,” Stephens is re-teaming with Taylor Sheridan, after having played Russian villain Dmitri in Sheridan’s “Mayor of Kingstown.” He joins series newcomers Gretchen Mol as Tulsa politician Amanda Clark, and Flula Borg, who will have a recurring role as tech billionaire Bradley Van Heusen, according to Deadline.
Stephens has guested on such series as “NCIS,” “Blue Bloods,” “Criminal Minds” and “MacGyver,” and was a recurring character for seven episodes of “Days of Our Lives.” He has appeared in nearly 60 movies.
The actor bared (almost) all in his 2022 memoir, “The Gangster’s Guide to Sobriety: My Life in 12 Steps,” which details his previous life as a “drug trafficker, kidnapper, drug addict, alcoholic and all-around criminal” by way of describing his redemption, per the book’s description. Stephens collaborated on the tome with John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky, the co-creators of “Silicon Valley,” and they are currently turning “The Gangster’s Guide” into a TV series.
