Vincent Pastore, The Sopranos And Gotti Actor, Dead At 80

"The Sopranos" has lost another member of the family. Per the Hollywood Reporter, Vincent Pastore, who played Salvatore Bonpensiero, was found dead in his Bronx home on Saturday, August 1. His body was discovered by his neighbor and friend, Steve Villano, who said that Pastore appeared to have died in his sleep. The actor had recently turned 80. 

Pastore was born in the Bronx on July 14, 1946. His acting career didn't kick off until he was in his 40s, and came about while he was working as a limo driver for actors Matt and Kevin Dillon. "I told them about my dreams of becoming an actor," Pastore told Edge Magazine. "They ended up seeing me at this community theater I was doing, and Kevin helped me out." His early screen appearances were mainly limited to background roles (including "Man with Coatrack" in "Goodfellas" and "Copa Wiseguy" in Carlito's Way"), but after a few years he began to land more significant parts. His thick accent and Italian-American background meant he was a perfect fit for the popular genre of New York mob movies.

Among Pastore's first major roles was playing real-life gangster Angelo Ruggiero in the 1996 TV movie "Gotti," which was released just a few short years after John Gotti's conviction and imprisonment (and is certainly one of the better movies about John Gotti). A couple of years later, Pastore landed the biggest role of his career when "The Sopranos" creator David Chase tapped him to play Sal Bonpensiero, an old friend of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) who turned FBI informant and was memorably killed off in Season 2.

Playing characters like Angelo Ruggiero and Sal Bonpensiero came naturally to Vincent Pastore. In the Edge Magazine interview, he compares those parts to his more recent role in the drama film "Surviving Family," where he played a mayor character. "In 'Surviving Family' I am acting, whereas those other characters are closer to who I am," he explained.

Pastore was quick to clarify, though, that this doesn't mean he was ever in the mafia, or that he came from a mafia family, no matter how authentic his performances might seem:

"A lot of people think I grew up with those kinds of people. The truth is that I grew up in a pure Italian-American home. Tradition. We lived in New Rochelle in an Italian neighborhood. I can still smell the pizza! ... We saw bookies and loan sharks. But to play these roles you don't rely on memories. You use your own personality and come up with a great character. And for the record, I never knew any rats."

In a GQ retrospective on "Goodfellas," Pastore explained that this authenticity was key to the casting of the film. "[Director Martin Scorsese] saw something in us," he said. "Something like forty-five guys in 'GoodFellas' got union cards because he wanted real people."

Despite his TV stardom, Pastore never lost his love of theatre. Together with Maureen Van Zandt, who played Gabriella on "The Sopranos," he co-founded a theatre group, Renegade Theatre NYC, which mounted productions of both classic and original plays.

He is survived by his daughter, Renee.