Vella book a labor of love for author

Even if you don’t know the late character actor Vinny Vella’s name, you almost certainly know his face and his work on screen in “Casino,” “The Irishman,” “The Sopranos,” “Law and Order” and more than 100 other movies, television shows and commercials.

If you know Bayside native Gary Morgan, you know it is only natural that he will be discussing his new book about his friend Vella’s life, career, “adventures and misadventures” in a free event at the Windsor Park Library in Bayside at 2 p.m. in March 22.

“Who’s Better Than You! Vinny Vella Life Stories” is what Morgan, a Florida resident since 2017, calls a labor of love about a friend he met as he himself got into acting after retiring from the New York City Housing Authority in 2002.

The Windsor Park Library is the place where Morgan as a boy was able to indulge his love of reading and learning practically without limits.

“After I retired from the Housing Authority in 2002, I sat there and thought, ‘What do I want to do next?’” Morgan told the Chronicle. “So I took some acting classes. I subsequently got a number of parts, too.”

In 2009, a friend told Morgan that there was an actors’ networking gathering at a restaurant in Greenwich Village, and invited him along.

Vella turned out to be the host.

“Vinny was holding court, talking to actors about the business,” Morgan said. The chance encounter became a strong friendship.

In 2012, while producing a play, Morgan and others were looking for a name actor for a role. Vella obliged.

“During rehearsals, all the actors and actresses would be around Vinny. He was telling stories about his life.” Each story had the cast enthralled and in stitches with laughter.

He eventually convinced Vella that his life was worth a memoir, and the two spent “weeks and weeks and weeks” in a Mulberry Street restaurant recording Vella’s stories. The project stalled until Vella’s health took a turn for the worse. He died in 2019 at age 72.

The book took a year to write.

Morgan, who grew up in Bell Park Gardens and comes up to visit family often, knew he wanted to reach out the Windsor Park Library officials.

“It was the library I grew up in,” Morgan said. “My story was there were two levels at the library. The downstairs was for kids. I would ask ‘When do you get to go upstairs?’ They said ‘You’ve got to be in seventh grade.’ I went to heaven in seventh grade.”

The book is available on Amazon for $22.40. The Windsor Park Library is located at 79-50 Bell Blvd. in Bayside.