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| John Costelloe |
John Costelloe, an actor best known to viewers of “The Sopranos” for his role as the homosexual lover of a mobster, killed himself the week before Christmas.
Costelloe, 47, was found dead in his Brooklyn home Dec. 18. A former New York City firefighter, he was cast in the role as a short-order cook, Jim Witowski, known as Johnny Cakes, in 2006. His character was involved with Joseph Gannascoli, who played Vito Spatafore, a mob henchman seeking to keep his homosexual life secret.
The front door to John Costelloe’s Sunset Park home was still sealed with police stickers yesterday, more than a week after the actor committed suicide.
Costelloe shot himself in the head in his basement bedroom on Dec. 16, police said.
“I was shocked when I heard, and it still hasn’t really sunk in,” Gannascoli told the New York Post. “I never detected anything troubling about him. I enjoyed all the time I ever spent with him.”
“It’s beyond me. This is too much for me to handle right now,” said the actor’s dad, Michael Costelloe, 77.
In real life, Costelloe worked 11 years at Ladder Cos. 109 and 110 in Brooklyn before retiring in 1998.
A funeral Mass was held for Costelloe Tuesday.
“Sopranos” actors Steve Buscemi and Gannascoli attended the wake and funeral. Buscemi and Costelloe were friends dating back to their pre-acting days in the New York Fire Department.
Costelloe killed himself in the middle of a run in the off-off-Broadway ensemble play “Gang of Seven,” which had received sterling reviews – including two printed the day after he died.
“This part he had, I really wrote it for him,” said “Gang of Seven” playwright Jim Neu, who cast Costelloe as a fast-talking hustler.
Neu said Costelloe’s timing was off in his final shows. But when Neu and the director gently quizzed Costelloe about what was bothering him, the actor didn’t open up.
“He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would reach out,” Neu said. “There couldn’t have been a more supportive and friendly group. If he wanted to reach out to people, we were right in front of him. I wish he did.”
