"The Sopranos" went off the air in 2007, and a lot of time has passed since then. Many of the
actors in the show have passed on, including Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini. These
are the actors from the show who've passed away that you may not have heard about.
"No doubt about it, the cartel had him whacked.”
Denise Borino-Quinn, who had no acting experience when she turned up at an open
casting call for The Sopranos but went on to become a fan favorite on the show,
died in November 2010. The cause of death was liver cancer. She was 46.
According to The New York Times, Borino-Quinn wasn't feeling overly confident when she
attended that fateful casting call. She tagged along so she could offer support
to a friend who was auditioning for a role, but decided that, since the call was open,
she would try out herself. To her sheer disbelief, she was offered a callback and auditioned for the
part of Ginny Sacrimoni , the wife of John "Johnny Sack" Sacrimoni, played by Vincent Curatola.
A former professional dancer, Ginny went up several dress sizes after having children,
the subject of one Season 4 episode. In "The Weight," Johnny orders a hit on
Ralph Cifaretto, played by Joe Pantoliano for cruelly poking fun at his other half,
putting him on a collision course with Tony Soprano.
Tony can't stand the obnoxious Ralph, but he's one of his men and a good earner to boot,
so he has no choice but to put a hit out on Johnny in retaliation. Bloodshed is
narrowly avoided when Ginny is caught snacking by her husband, and they have a heart-to-heart
moment. Borino-Quinn quit acting after The Sopranos, working for a law firm instead.
Former New York firefighter John A. Costelloe, who appeared as Jim "Johnny
Cakes" Witowski during a memorable Season 6 arc of The Sopranos, died in December 2008.
At the time of his son's death, Costelloe's father, Michael, told the New York Post,
"The rugged 47-year-old actor committed suicide. It's beyond me."
Costelloe's character entered the show when gay mob boss Vito Spatafore,
played by Joseph Gannascoli, was forced to swap New Jersey for New Hampshire,
fearing what would happen to him since his secret was out in the open. While laying low,
he meets short-order cook Johnny Cakes and quickly falls for him.
"What's good?"
"First time here? Try the Johnny Cakes."
He wasn't around for long, but Costelloe made a big impression, both on-screen and behind the
scenes. Co-star Joseph Gannascoli told the Post that he was, quote,
"shocked" when he learned what had happened to his friend. Gannascoli went on to tell the newspaper:
"It still hasn't really sunk in. I never detected anything troubling
about him. I enjoyed all the time I ever spent with him."
Gannascoli attended the funeral, as did fellow Sopranos alum Steve Buscemi,
who had previously worked alongside Costelloe in the FDNY.
Costelloe was performing in a well-received Off-Off-Broadway play at the time of his death.
Best known for playing Kevin's father, Peter McCallister, in the first two Home Alone movies,
John Heard died after undergoing back surgery in 2017. He was discovered in a California hotel,
where he had been recuperating. The cause was a sudden cardiac death due to atherosclerotic
and hypertensive heart disease, according to the coroner of Santa Clara County. He was 71.
Heard made his onscreen debut in the 1975 TV movie Valley Forge and appeared
in a number of romantic dramas and comedies during the remainder of the decade. He had
a recurring role on Tender is the Night in 1985, and he played the rival to Tom
Hanks' grown-up Josh in Big in 1988. By 1990, he had aged into dad roles,
and he went down in pop culture history playing the father of Macaulay Culkin.
In The Sopranos, Heard played Vin Makazian, a corrupt New Jersey cop on Tony's payroll. Tony
used him to get information about psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi, which led to Makazian beating
up a male friend of the doctor. He got nominated for an Emmy for his turn as the dirty officer.
Academy Award nominee Robert Loggia, who played Michele "Feech" La Manna in The Sopranos,
died in 2015. The cause was Alzheimer's Disease, his wife of 33 years told Variety. He was 85.
Loggia famously played a crime boss in Brian De Palma's Scarface,
but he was more than a gangster for hire. He got his Oscar nod for his turn as
private detective Sam Ransom in the Glenn Close/Jeff Bridges thriller Jagged Edge,
and would appear as equally gritty characters in a number of other pictures. Among his credits are
films like Prizzi's Honor, Independence Day, and, perhaps most memorably, the Tom Hanks hit
Big — it's Loggia that performs alongside Hanks on the giant foot-operated toy store piano.
In The Sopranos, Loggia played an old school mob boss who was made in Sicily.
Feech La Manna came up alongside the likes of Tony Soprano's dad, "Johnny Boy" Soprano,
and his uncle, "Junior" Soprano, and, like the latter, he spent a long time behind bars.
He still sees Tony as a kid when he eventually gets out and fails to show him the proper respect.
"There he is! The man, the legend! Feech LaManna."
"Hey, my god, look at you, you big galut."
However, not wanting to cause waves by having the old-timer killed,
Tony sets him up to get arrested and sent back to prison.
Actor Frank Vincent, who played hard men and mobsters in Martin Scorsese films Raging Bull,
Goodfellas, and Casino, died of complications from heart surgery in 2017. He was 80. Vincent
was already well known for playing Mafia types when he landed the role of New York
crime boss Phil Leotardo in The Sopranos, but his work on the HBO show was widely
recognized as some of his best. Phil Leotardo had some memorable clashes with Tony Soprano,
who he viewed as an upstart from out of town. Vincent told Broadway World in 2011:
"Phil was serious. He had a job to do and he thought, you know,
'This Soprano guy is from Jersey, what does that mean? We are New Yorkers! The
Jersey mob is nothing [...] Some of the writing for Phil was just brilliant."
Vincent was also a voice actor and was known to step out of the crime genre on occasion,
voicing Uncle Albert in the Netflix anime Neo Yokio.
Award-winning actor Nancy Marchand, who played Tony Soprano's proud and
stubborn mother Livia Soprano, died in 2000. At the time of Marchand's death,
The New York Times reported that no specific cause of death was announced,
but Marchand had spent years suffering from both chronic pulmonary disease and lung cancer.
She was 71. A star of the stage as well as the screen, Marchand tread the boards alongside
her husband, Paul Sparer, in the likes of A Phoenix Too Frequent, Delicate Balance,
and Love Letters. She became known as what the New York Times described as a "player of imperious
roles," though she wasn't a domineering person in real life. Marchand once told The New York Times:
"I'm always very uncomfortable with people. But
I love people. And when I'm on the stage, I can embrace people and still feel safe."
Marchand was nominated for five Emmys during her run as Margaret Pynchon on the CBS drama
series Lou Grant, winning four of them. She later won a Golden Globe for her work on The Sopranos,
though, sadly, she didn't get to finish her arc – her final appearances were achieved
with the help of CGI, which caused controversy at the time. David Chase defended the decision,
claiming that Livia was vital to the story. Chase told the Chicago Tribune:
"I thought that was needed."
He appeared in over a dozen Broadway shows during his lengthy career,
but David Margulies is perhaps best known for his turn as the Mayor of New York in
the original Ghostbusters films. The actor, who later played an attorney on The Sopranos,
died from cancer in 2016, his sister told The New York Times. He was 78.
Born in Manhattan, the Jewish actor got his first taste of the stage as a teenager, starring in a
show he auditioned for during a family vacation in Westchester. He made his Off-Broadway bow
in 1958 when he appeared in a production called Golden 6, and would progress to Broadway proper
in the early 1970s. Around the same time, he started landing movie roles. His very
first feature film was the 1971 comedy A New Leaf. He went on to play Walter Mitty in another comedy,
Scarecrow in a Garden of Cucumbers, and by the end of the decade, he was in high demand.
Margulies debuted as his most famous character, Mayor Lenny, in 1984's Ghostbusters, and reprised
the role in the 1989 follow-up, Ghostbusters 2. In later years he became best known for playing
Tony Soprano's attorney Neil Mink on The Sopranos, appearing in eight episodes of the HBO juggernaut.
Brooklyn-born actor Joe Santos, best known for his run on The Rockford Files,
died in a Santa Monica hospital in 2016. He was on life support following a heart attack,
his son told TMZ. He was 84. Santos played Angelo Garepe on The Sopranos, appearing in
seven episodes as Carmine Lupertazzi's former consigliere. He spent 20 years behind bars and
was one of a number of mobsters released in what became known as "The Class of 2004."
When Carmine died, Angelo was one of several men touted to replace him, but infighting
among the Lupertazzi family erupted. Tony Soprano attempted to play peacekeeper,
but Angelo was ultimately bumped off and a war between the New York and New Jersey factions
seemed likely as a result. The conflict was still looming large when the series came to a close.
Tom Aldredge was a veteran of the stage and screen who was ever-present on Broadway. He later played
Carmela Soprano's father Hugh DeAngelis in The Sopranos, and died of lymphoma in 2011. He was 83.
Aldredge began acting in the 1950s and was still active in the industry at the time of his death.
He made his Broadway bow in 1959's The Nervous Set and would eventually establish himself as a
go-to actor for curmudgeonly types. In 1978, Aldredge scooped an Emmy Award for his turn
as William Shakespeare in the CBS special Henry Winkler Meets William Shakespeare.
In later years, he became known for his role as Tony Soprano's father-in-law in
The Sopranos. He also later drew acclaim in Boardwalk Empire, another HBO hit. He won
praise for his turn as Ethan Thompson, the father of Steve Buscemi's Nucky Thompson.
Much like Tony Soprano's mom, the "mother" of Peter Paul "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri,
who's actually his biological aunt, became a firm favorite among fans of The Sopranos.
Nucci Gualtieri was portrayed by Frances Esemplare, who was best known for her time
on the HBO show. Her family remembered her for her "wit" and her "sarcasm" in
an obituary printed in the Staten Island Advance. She died in 2017 at the age of 83.
Esemplare was late to the game, earning her first onscreen credit in the 1997 film Sue.
She appeared as a patron at a New York diner in the movie, which follows a struggling young
woman's attempts to make it in the big city. She landed the role of Nucci shortly after
and would play Paulie's mother/aunt in eight episodes between 2001 and 2007.
It's revealed that she decided to take Paulie in as her own when her sister,
Dottie, had an affair with a soldier during World War II. Dottie was training to become
a nun at the time, and this was the best way to avoid a scandal.
"It was you. You're my son."
Paulie was furious when he discovered the truth, but the pair reconciled before her death. The
Staten Island native only had two other acting credits to her name: she played mothers in the
2006 movie The Immaculate Misconception and the 2007 short film The Hit, her final appearance.
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