Rolling Stone40%
Vincent Pastore, Actor Who Played 'Big Pussy' on 'The Sopranos,' Dead at 80 17%
By Daniel Kreps37%
8/1/2026, 2:33:49 PM
Topics: Obituary
BS Summary: This article contains 11 faulty reasoning types, including Halo Effect, Availability Heuristic, and Recency Bias, with Post Hoc (False Cause) as the most egregious example at 28.9% saturation with 92 hits. Analysis detected 539 faulty-reasoning hits from 318 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 28% and a BS Rank of 17% (21,020 of 25,180 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 83.50% of the article peer group.
Vincent Pastore, the actor who portrayed mobster "Big Pussy" on 'The Sopranos,' has died at the age of 80.
Pastore’s death was confirmed by the actor’s friend Steve Villano, who told *the Hollywood Reporter* that Pastore died in his sleep at his Bronx, New York home on Saturday.
Pastore, who claimed to be the son of a real-life wiseguy, entered the film industry in the late 1980s, landing small roles as a mob heavy in films like Martin Scorsese’s 1990 classic *Goodfellas*, 1991’s *New Jack City*, 1993’s *Who's the Man?
*, Woody Allen’s *Manhattan Murder Mystery*, alongside Al Pacino in 1993’s *Carlito's Way*, and 1995’s *The Jerky Boys: The Movie*, as well as multiple appearances on *Law & Order* as a mobbed-up character.
In 1996, Pastore was cast as Gambino crime family mobster in the HBO biopic *Gotti*; that TV film — which also starred future *Sopranos* cast mates Tony Sirico, Frank Vincent, and Dominic Chianese — led to Pastore getting cast in the role of Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on *The Sopranos*.
Pastore’s “Big Pussy” played a central role in *The Sopranos*’ first two seasons, as the character transformed from Tony Soprano’s trusted righthand man to FBI informant.
The fan favorite character was ultimately gunned down on a boat and dumped at sea in the Season 2 finale, though Big Pussy reappeared a few more times over the course of the series in Tony Soprano’s dreams.
The actor, who racked up nearly 200 on-screen roles despite his late start to acting in his forties, would later appeared in similarly mob heavy roles in films like *Made*, *Mickey Blue Eyes*, and *Revolver*, as well as on TV shows like *Blue Bloods*, *Wu-Tang: An American Saga*, and *Hawaii Five-0*.
One of his final roles as an as-himself appearance on Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’s *The Curse*.
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