Frank Vincent, a veteran character actor known for playing Lupertazzi family crime boss Phil Leotardo on HBO’s The Sopranos, has died at the age of 78.
According to TMZ, Vincent recently suffered a heart attack and died of complications from heart surgery on Wednesday.
Vincent and fellow Italian actor Joe Pesci starred in the low-budget 1976 gangster film The Death Collector. After seeing the film, Robert De Niro told Martin Scorsese about both actors, who subsequently cast them alongside De Niro in Raging Bull. Vincent went on to appear in several other Scorsese movies, including Goodfellas and Casino, and later reprised his Casino character for Nas’ “Street Dreams” video. Younger audiences may know Vincent for his voicing Mafia boss Salvatore Leone in Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
