Frank Vincent, who has died at the age of 80, was an Italian-American actor best known for playing psychotic killers and mobsters.
He played many tough-guy roles for Martin Scorsese, starring alongside Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in Raging Bull (1980), Casino (1995) and Goodfellas (1990).
To TV viewers, however, he became familiar as Phil "The Hair Do" Leotardo, the silver-coiffed nemesis of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) in the hit HBO series The Sopranos. The character first appeared in 2004 and lasted more than 30 episodes before meeting a grisly end at a gas station where, after he is shot in the head by a member of a rival gang, his wife's SUV, with the grandchildren in the back, idles forward and crushes his skull.
He was born Frank Vincent Gattuso in North Adams, Massachusetts, on April 15 1937. After leaving school aged 16, he picked up work as a drummer, playing in nightclubs and as a session musician.
Finally he formed the Arist-o-cats, a trio with a bass player and a guitarist from Newark named Joe Pesci. In between songs, Vincent and Pesci would trade jokey insults; eventually they became a comedy team, playing tiny North Jersey clubs.
Vincent and Pesci made their film debut in 1976 in the low-budget gangster movie Death Collector, which caught the eye of Scorsese, who cast them in Raging Bull, Vincent as a henchman who gets beaten up by Pesci.
Some former associates were not impressed, Vincent recalled. "They didn't like it when Joe beat me up. 'Why'd you let that little guy beat you up?'
"And this one guy, Blackie something, I don't remember his name, but I remember him saying: 'What is it with the f *****g language in that picture?'
"And I thought, this guy's killed nine guys and he's concerned about the language?"
1937-2017..