Vincent Pastore, the veteran character actor best known for playing doomed mobster Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on The Sopranos, has died at the age of 80.
Pastore was found dead inside his Bronx home on Saturday, according to his longtime manager, Robert Attermann. Friends reportedly discovered his body.
The tall, tough-looking actor spent decades playing mob enforcers, capos and streetwise wiseguys, but it was his unforgettable role on HBO’s The Sopranos that made him a television legend.
Pastore played Big Pussy, a longtime member of Tony Soprano’s criminal crew who was secretly working as an informant for the FBI.
Despite the character’s nickname, there was nothing obscene behind it. Bonpensiero had reportedly started his criminal career as a cat burglar. His friends called him “Big Pussy” to distinguish him from another mobster known as “Little Pussy.”
Big Pussy initially appeared to be one of Tony’s most loyal and trusted friends. But beneath the surface, he was trapped between his allegiance to Tony, played by the late James Gandolfini, and his secret relationship with federal agents.
That betrayal became one of the biggest storylines during the show’s first two seasons.
When Big Pussy suddenly disappeared early in the series, millions of fans were left wondering what had happened to him. The mystery helped fuel one of The Sopranos’ first major cliffhangers.
The truth was eventually revealed, and the character’s fate was sealed.
During the season two finale, Tony, Paulie Gualtieri and Silvio Dante confronted Big Pussy aboard a boat after confirming that he had been informing on the family. They shot him to death before dumping his body into the ocean.
The brutal scene remains one of the most memorable and heartbreaking moments in the show’s six-season run.
“Nobody wanted him to go because Vinny brought true nobility to his role,” Sopranos creator David Chase said.
Pastore once explained that he deliberately played Big Pussy as more than a cold-blooded criminal.
“I saw Big Pussy as a man with a big heart, and that was my choice of how I played that role,” he told Edge Magazine.
Long Before ‘The Sopranos’
Pastore did not become an actor until later in life.
Before Hollywood came calling, he spent more than 20 years working as a nightclub bouncer, limousine driver and club manager. He eventually became the owner of a nightclub in New Rochelle, New York.
Actors Matt Dillon and Kevin Dillon were reportedly among the club’s regular customers. They knew Pastore from his chauffeur days and were impressed by his larger-than-life personality.
The brothers encouraged him to study acting and begin auditioning for theater roles around New York.
Pastore quickly found success, landing parts in television shows, independent films and some of Hollywood’s most famous mob movies.
He appeared in small roles in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas in 1990 and Brian De Palma’s Carlito’s Way in 1993.
His first major film role came in the 1995 comedy The Jerky Boys, in which he played the right-hand man of a mob boss portrayed by Alan Arkin.
More gangster roles followed in Night Falls on Manhattan, Gotti and Mickey Blue Eyes. Many of those projects placed him alongside Italian American actors who would later become his co-stars on The Sopranos.
“It’s easier for me to play a tough guy than it is to play the good guy,” Pastore told the New York Daily News in 2000.
“I grew up in a tough neighborhood. I didn’t study the classics. I’m a street actor. A lot of my training was on the set.”
An Italian American Upbringing
Vincent Dominic Pastore was born in the Bronx on July 14, 1946, and grew up in New Rochelle, a suburb in Westchester County.
His father, John Pastore, worked as a school custodian. His mother, Natalie Santadonato Pastore, managed the household.
Pastore frequently spoke fondly about growing up in a traditional Italian American neighborhood surrounded by memorable local characters.
“I grew up in a pure Italian American home,” he once said.
“Tradition. We lived in New Rochelle in an Italian neighborhood. I can still smell the pizza! Roller skating every Friday night at the Boys’ Club. Great memories. We saw bookies and loan sharks.”
He enlisted in the Navy during the Vietnam War before studying drama at Pace University.
Life After Big Pussy
Although Big Pussy was killed off in 2000, Pastore later returned to The Sopranos for occasional flashbacks and dream sequences.
He also appeared on several reality television programs, including Celebrity Apprentice, Celebrity Family Feud and Dancing With the Stars.
Pastore capitalized on his fame by launching his own brand of pasta sauce. He also appeared in the 2014 Broadway musical Bullets Over Broadway, Woody Allen’s stage adaptation of his 1994 movie.
In 2024, he joined other cast members for a celebration marking the 25th anniversary of The Sopranos.
Pastore’s marriage to Nancy Berke ended in divorce. He is survived by his daughter, Renee Pastore, a granddaughter, his sister, Sally Molloy, and his brother, John Pastore Jr.
In 2005, Pastore was charged with assaulting his then-fiancée, Lisa Regina. He later reached a plea agreement, admitting guilt to attempted assault in exchange for completing 10 days of community service.
‘A Rat Is a Rat’
Even after becoming famous, Pastore remained closely connected to the Italian American communities of the Bronx and Westchester.
He regularly visited a social club in the Pelham Bay neighborhood, where the owners proudly displayed his photograph after he joined The Sopranos.
But when it was revealed that Big Pussy was secretly an FBI informant, the picture came down.
“To that crew, it doesn’t matter to them that I was only acting on TV,” Pastore told The New York Times in 2000.
“A rat is a rat is a rat.”
Once Big Pussy was killed, however, the photograph was returned to its place on the wall.
“I’ve been forgiven,” Pastore joked. “At least, my picture is back up on the wall.”
