20 Movie Talents We Lost In 2017

Though probably best known for his two-season stint playing merciless mob boss Phil Leotardo on The Sopranos, Italian-American actor Frank Vincent played many a mobster over his decades-long career.

His big break came in 1976 when he starred alongside Joe Pesci in low budget gangster flick The Death Collector – a performance that caught the eye of Robert De Niro who suggested director friend Martin Scorsese cast him in future films. This led to a three-movie collaboration with Scorsese, including playing Frank Marino in Casino and Billy ‘Now go home and get your f**ckin’ shinebox’ Batts in Goodfellas.

Vincent also worked with director Spike Lee twice after scoring small roles in Do the Right Thing and Jungle Fever and voiced mob boss Salvatore Leone in three instalments of the Grand Theft Auto game series.