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NEW YORK (WCBS) — “The Sopranos” actor Vincent Pastore is being remembered as a fixture in his Bronx community.
He was found dead inside his City Island home Saturday morning.
Friends tell CBS News New York that Pastore had been under the weather the past couple of weeks, even canceling an 80th birthday celebration last month, and they hadn’t heard from him in recent days.
Pastore was raised in New Rochelle, but he was born in the Bronx and returned there even after making it big in Hollywood.
Aspiring actor Rob Becerra met Pastore when he signed on to become his acting coach nearly a decade ago.
“He always said, listen, you know, if you got talent, you got it. And he’s like, and you’ve got it and I’m going to help you out,” Becerra said.
The veteran actor even agreed to appear in a scene on Becerra’s film reel, lifting young talent while never asking for a dime.
“Everyone he met, he touched. He was such a positive person, such a happy person,” Becerra said. “He said the biggest thing, ‘Never give up.’ And that always stuck with me in anything I ever did.”
Pastore became a regular at some of the small businesses along Arthur Avenue in the borough and often highlighted them on podcasts and during interviews.
Pastore was 80 years old. A cause of death has not yet been released.
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