Vincent Pastore, who played Tony Soprano’s best friend-turned-informant on HBO’s mob drama “The Sopranos,” has died, a representative confirmed Saturday. He was 80.
Manager Robert Attermann said Pastore, a longtime resident of the Bronx borough of New York City, died at home. He confirmed that friends found his body Saturday.
The New York Police Department confirmed that officers responded to a 911 call around 2:30 p.m. and reported an “unconscious and unresponsive” 80-year-old man.
He was pronounced dead on scene, and no arrests were made, the police spokesperson said.
“To the world, he will always be remembered as the unforgettable ‘Big Pussy,’” he said, using the nickname of Pastore’s “Sopranos” character, Salvatore Bonpensiero, “but to those of us who knew him, he was so much more.”
A longtime actor who plied his trade within the sordid and violent narratives of the Italian American mob, Pastore became a household face in 1999 when he was cast as Bonpensiero, mob boss Tony Soprano’s best friend, a family enforcer and ultimately an FBI informant who threatened to upend the New Jersey mob’s enterprise on the acclaimed drama.
