Vincent Pastore, arrives at the Asbury Park Conventional Hall during red carpet arrivals prior to the New Jersey Hall of Fame inductions, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014, in Asbury Park, N.J. (AP Photo\/Julio Cortez,File)<\/small><\/p>\n
2026-08-01T22:12:15Z<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Vincent Pastore, a veteran actor who played mobsters and tough guys, and was best known for playing Salvatore \u201cBig Pussy\u201d Bonpensiero on \u201cThe Sopranos,\u201d has died. He was 80.<\/p>\n
Bob McGowan, who had managed Pastore since his run on \u201cThe Sopranos,\u201d told The Associated Press that he learned of his death Saturday from another client and actor on the show, Vincent Curatola.<\/p>\n
He said that he had been found in his home on New York\u2019s City Island after not being heard from for a few days.<\/p>\n
McGowan said he\u2019d been trying to reach Pastore about a possible job.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the most loyal client and he always gave to charity,\u201d McGowan said, \u201cand he was the kind of guy who would help anybody, which is rare in my business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pastore appeared in movies dating back to the 1980s and had roles in big movies including \u201cGoodfellas\u201d and \u201cAwakenings,\u201d both in 1990.<\/p>\n
He often played gangsters. And it was one of those roles he\u2019s best known for: his 30-episode run as Salvatore \u201cBig Pussy\u201d Bonpensiero, the friend of Tony Soprano who becomes an FBI informant in \u201cThe Sopranos.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was born in the Bronx and grew up in suburban New Rochelle, New York. He enlisted in the Navy during the Vietnam War and later attended Pace University, according to his biography on IMDb.<\/p>\n
He has a daughter, Renee Pastore.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Vincent Pastore, arrives at the Asbury Park Conventional Hall during red carpet arrivals prior to the New Jersey Hall of Fame inductions, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014, in Asbury Park, N.J. (AP Photo\/Julio Cortez,File) 2026-08-01T22:12:15Z NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Vincent Pastore, a veteran actor who played mobsters and tough guys, and was best known for playing… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uscnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}