On Monday Frank Albanese died at the age of 84, while under hospice care on Staten Island, New York.
According to his friend Eddie Canlon, Albanese lost his battle to metastatic prostate cancer. His death was confirmed by a local mortuary.
He started out as a boxer and then turned to Hollywood to work as an actor in films. Albanese managed to star in two of HBO's biggest mafia series, The Sopranos which aired from 1999 to 2007 as well as Martin Scorsese's epic 1990 drama, the GoodFellas.
In 2004 he played Tony Soprano’s Patrizio 'Uncle Pat' Blundetto, a retired gangster who owned a farm on The Sopranos. In the series Tony buried dead bodies on his property. His role as Pat returned for two more episodes during the series’ final season in 2007.
On the other hand, in GoodFellas he had scenes with Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci while playing a mob attorney.
Albanese was a protege of former middleweight champ Rocky Graziano. His career was cut short however after he had a brain injury. He had been in more than a dozen fights.
His first film was the 1968 Kirk Douglas mafia picture The Brotherhood. He had only a bit part but it led to other roles. In 1971 he appeared in Neil Simon's comedy Plaza Suite. While in 1989 he was in a re-enactment for a 1989 episode of America’s Most Wanted playing Gambino crime boss Paul Castellano.
Frank also had a bit part in the 1995 thriller Dead Presidents with Larenz Tate. Dead Presidents is a 1995 American crime film written by Michael Henry Brown, also written, produced and directed by the Hughes brothers Albert and Allen Hughes.
The film chronicles the life of Anthony Curtis, focused on his teenage years as a high school graduate and his experiences during the Vietnam War. It was based partly on the real life experience of Haywood T. Kirkland, whose true story was detailed in the book Bloods. An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans by Wallace Terry.
