Vincent Pastore, 'Sopranos' Tough Guy Who Stole Scenes as Big Pussy, Dies at 80
The actor built a career playing wiseguys and became one of the most recognizable faces of the mob drama that changed television.
By Roxanne "Flashbulb" Starr
Vincent Pastore, the veteran character actor best known for playing mobster Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero on "The Sopranos," has died at 80, ABC News reports.
Pastore spent decades making a living off a face and a voice built for tough guys — hoods, bouncers, wiseguys, the kind of men who filled the edges of New York crime stories long before he became part of one of the most acclaimed dramas ever made. On "The Sopranos," he played Big Pussy, a made man and FBI informant whose divided loyalties became one of the show's early, defining tragedies.
Details on the cause and circumstances of his death have not yet been released, according to ABC News, which broke the news of his passing.
Pastore's career stretched well beyond HBO's mob drama, but it was Big Pussy — gruff, funny, doomed — that made him a household name to a generation of viewers who came to know the Bada Bing crew as well as their own neighbors. "The Sopranos" reshaped what television drama could be, and Pastore's performance was part of the ensemble that made the show's Jersey underworld feel lived-in and real.
[Further details on survivors, funeral arrangements, and additional career credits were not available in the source material at time of publication and should be confirmed before further reporting.]
Hollywood tonight is remembering a guy who never had to raise his voice to be the most dangerous man in the room.
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— Compiled from reporting by ABC News.
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