Tony Ganios—the actor best known for playing Meat in the ‘80s sex comedy series Porky’s—died Sunday following surgery for a spinal infection in a New York City hospital, according to People. He was 64.
The news was confirmed on Twitter/X by Ganios’ fiancée, Amanda Serrano-Ganios. “The last words we said to each other were ‘I love you,’” she wrote. “Love is an understatement. You are everything to me. My heart, my soul and my best friend.” In a separate post, she wrote: “[I]t’s just unreal to me right now. It was so fast. He hadn’t felt well and hid it from me for days. When he finally told me, and was taken to the hospital, his spinal cord was severely infected. They did surgery, next morning, his heart stopped. I’m crushed.”
Ganios primarily appeared in action movies and raunchy teen comedies in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. Born in Brooklyn in 1959, he initially aspired to be a comic book or commercial artist before a snafu in the Manhattan School of Visual Arts’ admissions process delayed his acceptance. Soon after, he was presented with the opportunity to play gangster Perry LaGuardia in Philip Kaufman’s 1979 coming-of-age film The Wanderers, and “never looked back” (via Cult Faction). Ganios starred alongside Ken Wahl in that film and reunited with the actor for both Wiseguy (1987-1990) and The Taking Of Beverly Hills (1991). “Rest In Peace, Buddy ..... I love you,” Wahl posted on X on Monday.
After The Wanderers, Ganios went on to star in three films in 1981 alone—Back Roads, Continental Divide, and Porky’s. In the latter and most famous, a film about a group of high school boys who try to exact revenge on a strip club owner. Ganios played fan-favorite character Anthony “Meat” Tuperello. While critically panned, the film went on to become the sixth highest-grossing movie of 1982 (via Variety) and generated two sequels in 1983 and 1985, which also featured Ganios.
Ganios’ other credits include Die Hard 2 (1990), a 1988 episode of The Equalizer, Scarecrow and Mrs. King (1987), and Ring Of The Musketeers (1992). His last acting role was in the 1993 film Rising Sun, before he left the industry for other pursuits.