By Matthew Schwartz
Leave the gun, take the cannoli.
That classic line from The Godfather could be changed to “Leave the show, take up pickleball” for Joe Gannascoli.
Joe’s character on The Sopranos was secretly gay. He’s seated here with series star James Gandolfini (right) and Michael Imperioli.
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The actor gained fame from his role on the iconic HBO series, The Sopranos, which he appeared on from 1999-2007. Joe’s first role was a bit part as a customer in a bakery. “I thought it would be a quick, one scene in a new TV show. No one had any idea it would blow up the way it did,” he says.
The series honchos saw something in Gannascoli and liked the storyline he pitched in which a mob guy is a closeted gay man. Thus was born Vito Spatafore. Vito’s secret life was discovered by fellow mobsters, who tracked him down and brutally murdered him. The killing scene is too gruesome to describe here. Let’s just say a pool cue was involved.
Gannascoli wasn’t bummed out that his days on The Sopranos were over. “I went from one scene in the bakery to Vito and having a whole season in 2006 dedicated to my character,” he says.
Although Joe’s character was killed off the show, these days you won’t be able to get him off a pickleball court.
“I started playing pickleball last year and loved it immediately,” the 66-year-old Brooklyn native tells me during a wide-ranging phone interview. The guy is down to earth, a “regular Joe,” and makes me feel like an old friend although we have never met (he said he remembered me from my 20 years on TV news in New York, which he may have said to be nice). We spoke while Joe was sitting in his car parked next to pickleball courts. It was drizzling and he was deciding whether to wait it out or drive to indoor courts. He is obsessed with the sport.
“I Iike the strategy involved in pickleball,” Joe says. “The finesse, the power, touch, setting up your opponents. It’s like chess.
“I like my serve. It’s hard and fast but sometimes I use a lob serve and also a spin serve that’s hard to return.” He says his rating is 3.5.
Joe has lost 100 pounds and wants to lose 40 more.
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Joe is built like a fullback, 5’8” tall and 250 pounds. He had lap band surgery in 2000 and has since lost 100 pounds. “I want to lose another 40,” he says. “But my reflexes are still sharp now. I do make stupid mistakes when I should know better but continue to do. That pisses me off. I can’t control my temper at times.” Not unlike the mobsters in The Sopranos.
Joe has loved sports since he was a kid. “I played a lot of sports and stayed out of trouble,” he says. After high school he attended St. John’s University in Néw York but dropped out. “It wasn’t for me.”
He worked in a French restaurant doing prep work, learned French cooking and became an accomplished chef. Meanwhile, a friend had an off-Broadway theatre and thought Joe could be a terrific actor. He took acting lessons and to pay the bills sold ice cream from a cart on Wall Street. “I was tired of being broke,” he says.
He had worked for decades in the food industry at restaurants in New York and New Orleans, founding one in Brooklyn. He sold his stake in 1990 and later moved to Los Angeles.
Joe got his big break from the Academy Award-winning actor and producer Benicio del Toro, whom he met on the set of the1993 film, Money for Nothing. He landed a role in the 1999 hit, Mickey Blue Eyes. Del Toro had introduced him to the casting directors for The Sopranos and he would soon land the role that changed his life.
Joe grew up in Brooklyn’s tough Gravesend section. “Playing a wise guy was easy for me,” he says.
Joe says that when the star of The Sopranos, James Gandolfini, died in 2013 at age 51 from a heart attack, “I was stunned and sad. Such a great talent gone. And he was a new father. It was tragic.”
Although it’s been 18 years since Joe left The Sopranos, people on the street and pickleball players on the court often recognize him. And not just from The Sopranos or those two aforementioned movies. He’s had parts in numerous films and guest roles on several TV shows, including the long-running hit, Law and Order. But when you’re a regular on arguably the greatest TV dramatic series ever, you get recognized most often for that. Joe will always be Vito to a lot of Sopranos fans.
“It’s very humbling,” Joe says of his Sopranos fame. “I always say I’m truly blessed and got lucky, but I also made my own breaks. I had no agent. I did it all on my own.”
In season 6 of The Sopranos, Joe’s character is shown limping and often talks about how he is going to have hip surgery. In real life, Joe had double hip replacement surgery shortly after the end of that season.
Joe says when playing pickleball, “I make stupid mistakes when I should know better. That pisses me off. I can’t control my temper at times.”
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Joe says the money he made from being on The Sopranos didn’t set him up for life but has led to other financial opportunities. He has been running a business that combines his love of cooking and schmoozing with fans. He will come to your house or wherever with the high-quality food he cooks and host a party. It sometimes has a Sopranos theme if requested. Joe will happily host a question and answer session with party guests.
“I do serious food and it’s very unique,” Joe says. “I’ve done over 100 of them and the guests rave about it.”
Joe requires a minimum of 16 people for his party gigs. “It’s not cheap but well worth it for a unique experience for a special occasion,” he says. He can be contacted through his Instagram account.
Since Joe is serious about losing another 40 pounds, when he’s hosting a party, he tries to avoid taking the cannolis.
Thoughts of the week, not all pickleball
· Last week’s blog was about how several pickleball players accounts were claimed by one particular player and DUPR’s previously lax security procedures. The day after the blog was published DUPR CEO Tito Machado sent me an email with the subject line, “Not happy.” He thought the piece made DUPR’s response seem like it was too little, too late. However, as I replied to him, the piece did note that DUPR conducted “a swift review.” I also quoted DUPR’s spokesperson extensively on the action DUPR took against the alleged account stealer, and wrote about the tighter security measures DUPR has added.
· Another great American newspaper announced it will no longer have a print edition. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will stop publishing a printed paper at the end of the year. The AJC has published in print since 1868. Its president and publisher said printing papers, putting them on trucks and delivering them
“has not been the most effective way to distribute the news in a very long time.” The AJC will devote its resources to its digital news operation. Approximately a third of the country’s more than 1,000 remaining daily newspapers still print seven days a week, according to a 2024 report by Northwestern University. The same study found that roughly 180 newspapers that once printed daily put out newspapers fewer than three days a week. I used to love getting newspapers delivered and holding the hard copies but I understand the reasons for the change to online papers. The death of the printed newspaper is always sad to me. In this case, 30 AJC staff members will lose their jobs.
· You don’t have to be Jewish to love the 2024 film, Bad Shabbos. It’s a dark comedy about what happens on the night the parents of an engaged, interfaith couple meet for the first time, and it’s hilarious. It’s streaming on Hulu and is in select theatres.
· In its heyday, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson averaged 11 million viewers a night. The number of nightly viewers now for Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon typically total less than six million. Yes there are a million more channels and streaming services. But Carson was the best late-night host ever, a master at what he did. Many of his classic moments are on YouTube. “Carnac the Magnificent” always cracks me up. And Carson’s set-ups for the great comedian Rodney Dangerfield were perfect.
· College football’s opening weekend saw a couple of great games but also had its share of the annual, boring lopsided affairs in which a small school gets clobbered by a powerhouse. Some examples:
BYU 69
Portland St. 0
Texas Tech 67
Arkansas Pine-Bluff 7
Mississippi 63
Georgia St. 7
USC 73
Missouri St. 13
The small schools receive as much as $2 million to get slaughtered. That money can cover much of the school’s entire athletic department budget for the year. That’s fine but I won’t watch a second of any of those games and hope none of the kids on the small school team suffers a serious injury.
· The ABC/ESPN play-by-play man Sean McDonough is underrated. The guy is terrific and unafraid to criticize a player or coach in subtle ways. During the Notre Dame-Miami game, the Fighting Irish’s All-American running back Jeremiyah Love was for some dumb reason getting hardly any carries. When Love was handed the ball in the 3rd quarter, McDonough says, “Handoff to Jeremiyah Love, who’s out of the witness protection program.” Beautiful.
· I’m ready for some football but won’t give it my full attention until baseball’s playoffs are over.
· Playing pickleball every day has caught up with me. At 71, I just get too sore playing that often, especially my upper back, where I have many knots. I’ve taken a week off and may rest another week. When I return I’ll cut back to five days a week. I’m trying not to be cranky on the days I don’t play. It’s not easy.
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