Woodbury native gets part in 'The Sopranos'

By Germain Lussier Times Herald-Record glussier@th-record.com The next season of HBO's "The Sopranos," rumored to be the last of the series, doesn't start until March but a new cast member has already made a bold statement. "It's going to be the ultimate season in everybody's eyes, the culmination of the entire show," said Louis Gross, a 23-year-old Woodbury native who has been cast as Tony's new bodyguard. "Basically, Tony kind of takes me on, and I get to drive him and look out for him and stuff like that. That's about as much as I can say," he said. "There's a lot of dialogue and quite a few scenes, so it's going pretty well." Growing up on the Woodbury-Cornwall line right off Route 32, Gross went to Cornwall schools before transferring to Newburgh Free Academy his senior year. After graduating in 2000, he pursued a career as a fitness model until he decided he wanted to be an actor. "The acting side of the business is where the longevity is," Gross said. "I didn't want to just be another flash in the pan, in and out type of model." So he studied acting in New York and Cambridge, Mass. It paid off because after doing a couple of commercials, it only took three auditions to land the role on "The Sopranos." His good fortune is "a complete 180," from how this year began. Gross' older brother, Anthony, died of respiratory failure, and he himself was in a near fatal motorcycle accident. "Before that I didn't quite appreciate things as much," Gross said. "It's given me the incentive to go after my dreams." Gross is going to be in at least one episode of the show, directed by Steve Buscemi, with the promise of more. He's also auditioned for a role in "Fast and the Furious 3."