- Was once a case worker for the New York City Department of Welfare before becoming perhaps the most successful "voice-over" actor in the history of the profession. His voice has been heard in scores of adverts since the 1960's and one cannot listen to a radio or watch a television in a major market without hearing his distinctive voice.
- Attended Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and earned a scholarship to Columbia University.He graduated in 1951, and, after a 15-month stint serving in the Korean War, Sirola was working as a sales promotion manager at Kimberly-Clark. At the age of 28, he took acting classes at Hunter College.
- A son of Croatian immigrants, his father was a carpenter and his mother ran a boarding house.
- Was Yugoslavian-American and spoke the language.
- Sirola turned to producing Broadway and off-Broadway productions in recent years. He won a Tony Award as one of the producers of "A Genteman's Guide to Love and Murder". He is also among the producers of the acclaimed off-Broadway production of "Cagney: The Musical" starring Robert Creighton as James Cagney. Producing "Cagney" was personally meaningful to Sirola, since he co-starred with James Cagney in his last filmed appearance, the 1984 television movie "Terrible Joe Moran".
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