RIP: Frank Vincent(GoodFellas, Casino, The Sopranos)
Today, at 78. During heart surgery after a heart attack.
As the character Phil Leotardo on The Sopranos, Frank Vincent suffered a fictional heart attack, but survived it to rise again as a fierce and merciless mob competitor to Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano(who survived HIS stomach wound from being shot by his senile Uncle.) Alas, Tony Soprano(James Gandolfini, the real actor) died way too young a few years ago. Frank Vincent lived longer, but...its still sad.
Phil Leotardo -- white of hair and called "The Shah of Iran" by the other mobsters on the show for his spiked-hair look -- was the last and most formidable of Tony Sopranos foes, and rose slowly to that top slot. It was a great performance polished over about three seasons by Leotardo.
But before Frank Vincent was Phil Leotardo, he was that Mafioso just sprung from the slammer in "GoodFellas"(1990) who makes the mistake of reminding mob psycho Joe Pesci -- over and over and over -- that the killer was once a poor kid who shined shoes.
Vincent: I didn't mean nothing by it. I was just bustin your balls.
(Pesci relaxes, nods)
Vincent: So go get your f'in shoebox!
Pesci: (Enraged) You blanking blankerblanker!
We all know what happens next, don't we?
Between GoodFellas and The Sopranos, Frank Vincent was great in Scorsese's "semi-GoodFellas remake": Casino. He plays Pesci's loyal mob lieutenant but here's what I love: at film's end, on their bosses orders, Vincent TURNS on Pesci and beats him to near-death with a baseball bat, burying him alive next to his similarly treated brother. A lesson: don't always think your lieutenant is THAT loyal...he may have hated your guts all along.
Frank Vincent was in Raging Bull too, so he was a Scorsese regular.
But anyway:
My favorite movie of 1990 is GoodFellas
My favorite movie of 1995 is Casino
My favorite series of the 00's was The Sopranos.
...and Frank Vincent was a big, unforgettable part of all three.
RIP Frank...
..I'll go get my shoebox.
PS. A great Phil Leotardo line "My scrapbook is all out of scraps."