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

"The Sopranos" has lost another of the family. Deadline reports that Vincent Pastore, who played Salvatore Bonpensiero, was found dead in his Bronx home on August 1, after he had not been heard from for three days. The actor had recently turned 80. The cause of death is not yet known, but the circumstances are being investigated.

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 mafia 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. A couple of years later, he 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.