Police say the actor who portrayed the gay lover of a closeted mobster on “The Sopranos” has died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in New York.
Police spokesman Lt. John Grimpel says John Costelloe was found dead in an apparent suicide at his Brooklyn home on Dec. 18.
The front door to John Costelloe’s Sunset Park home was still sealed with police stickers yesterday, more than a week after the rugged 47-year-old actor committed suicide.
Costelloe, a former FDNY firefighter, shot himself in the head in his basement bedroom on Dec. 16, according to cops and pals.
Police were called to his residence after family members were unable to reach him.
The 47-year-old former New York City firefighter gained fame in 2006 when he was cast as short-order cook Jim “Johnny Cakes” Witowski opposite Joseph Gannascoli, who played gay mobster Vito Spatafore on the hit HBO show.
Costelloe was performing as a hustler in a theater production of “Gang of Seven” at the time of his death.
In the hit HBO series, actor Joseph Gannascoli, who is a longtime friend of Costelloe’s revealed: “I was shocked when I heard, and it still hasn’t really sunk in. I never detected anything troubling about him. I enjoyed all the time I ever spent with him.”