Vincent Pastore, Big Pussy from ‘The Sopranos,’ celebrated 80th birthday in good health weeks before dying: friend

Actor Vincent Pastore, hailed for his penchant for becoming family to nearly everyone he knew, had recently celebrated his 80th birthday in apparent impeccable health when he died in his Bronx home Saturday, his longtime pal and driver told the Daily News.

Pastore had been attending closely to his health and fitness. He had dropped weight from his signature bulky mobster-invoking frame to fit more in line with his 5-foot-10-inch height, Stephen Villano, Pastore’s self-described “right-hand man,” said outside the City Island home where the actor was discovered dead by a neighbor conducting a welfare check.

“He was fine,” a perplexed Villano said. “He just went for his checkups. He was good … He was taking care of himself. He was walking. He was exercising. You know, he was realizing, ‘Hey, I’m getting older.’ You know, so he was really, you know, taking care of himself.”

Pastore had been brimming with plans at his birthday celebration about two weeks earlier, including premieres he planned to attend and work with the band he played in, Big Pussy and the Gangster Squad, his bereft friend said.

“He absolutely loved music,” Villano said. “His knowledge of music was incredible. He could tell you the label, who wrote it, who sang it, what number it hit on the chart … He just loved music, which is why he had a band and he would travel around singing.”

Nonetheless, Villano believes the man who had gone from employer to friend to virtual family member who “walked my mother down the aisle for my brother’s wedding” died of natural causes in his sleep. Pastore’s official cause of death has not yet been released.

The prolific actor had just a two-season run as Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero on HBO hit “The Sopranos” before being killed off in a hail of his fellow mobsters’ gunfire in the season finale. He admitted it “was tough,” even though he could see where the character’s arc was headed even before the show’s creators broke the news to him, he said on “The Howard Stern Show” in 2000.

Big Pussy’s onscreen death proved something of a watershed moment for both Pastore and the show, Villano noted. “The Sopranos” was one of the first shows to kill off a main character onscreen, he explained, making the character’s jarring exit a pioneering moment for the mob drama. And it helped propel Pastore’s career.

“He felt that that was a launching pad,” Villano explained of Pastore’s ultimate attitude to the role. “So, to him, it moved him forward, and he started getting movie offers and things.”

The departed character appeared throughout the show’s run in flashbacks and dream sequences, maintaining Big Pussy’s presence and Pastore’s cast connection.

“Listen, he was grateful to ‘The Sopranos.’ He was grateful to the cast. He loved everybody,” Villano said. “He was actually very close with all of them. Those are people that he spoke to all the time. That’s a family.”

Pastore was vibrant and engaged with life, playing in his band and avidly soaking up the news via New York City’s storied tabloids, Villano said.

“There’s these two big newspapers in New York, that he liked,” Villano said. “One started with a P and one started with a D. He bought them every day.”

Over the 28 years they worked together, Pastore became family to Villano, who was initially hired to drive him around to everything from medical appointments to acting shoots.

“I was his driver and over time we became like great friends,” Villano said. “And then he became family. And then he started coming to family functions and doing things.”

Pastore had been drawn to City Island about 25 years ago because childhood friends lived there, Villano said.

“He always liked City Island,” Villano said. “There was something special about it.”

The “Big Pussy” moniker trailed Pastore throughout his career, but he eventually got used to it, Villano said. And it never took away from who he was.

“Vincent was a person who was an actor. He portrayed a character in ‘The Sopranos.’ He was an amazing individual, and he loved his craft,” Villano said. “He enjoyed what he did, and that’s the person that he was. He just played characters.”

Unlike his best-known TV counterpart, Pastore was a good neighbor. He cared about everything and had generosity to match, especially for veterans’ causes, having fought in the Vietnam War.

“He used to go up to the veterans in the Bronx, and he used to go there and donate his time and try and do play music for them,” Villano said. “He would go to Walter Reed. He would go down into Washington. He supported the troops. He supported the police department. He supported charities.”

Pastore had brought a warrior spirit to his prostate cancer fight as well, Villano noted.

“He was a cancer survivor. He fought, battled, and won,” he said. “He would never turn his fans away. He was all about the fans.”