Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#3437
of 909177 performers
Top 1%
Vincent Pastore represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 34 years in, and Vincent is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Vincent Pastore appears in 18 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Vincent. GoodFellas is the clearest case: a film rated 8.7 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are versatility, transformation, quiet performance. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for comedy, crime, drama. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Luc Besson, Guy Ritchie, Bibo Bergeron and others, Vincent Pastore helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
GoodFellas (1990) as Man with Coatrack · Awakenings (1990) as Ward #5 Patient #6 · The Hurricane (1999) as Alfred Bello
Career snapshot
Ranked #3437 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
18
1990–2024
Career length
34 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
8.7
GoodFellas
Average Nutevio score
6.2
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
8.4
GoodFellas
Most frequent director
Penny Marshall
2 films together
Longest collaboration
2×
With Penny Marshall
Most common genre
Drama
12 titles
Average runtime
1h 47m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.6
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1990s
7.3 average MV
The 1990s are where the work and the material meet. The Hurricane, The Basketball Diaries, Money Train — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1990s
7.3
Across 7 catalogue films in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1990s
7.2
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1990s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Hurricane, The Basketball Diaries, Money Train.
Most productive era
1990s
7 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1990s | 2000s | 2010s | 2020s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | 7.56 films | 6.33 films | 5.61 film | 5.52 films |
| Action | 5.91 film | 6.21 film | 6.41 film | — |
| Thriller | 7.01 film | 6.41 film | — | 5.11 film |
| Comedy | 6.32 films | 6.14 films | 6.41 film | 5.61 film |
| Crime | 7.34 films | 6.12 films | 6.02 films | 5.32 films |
| Romance | 6.71 film | — | — | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance · Career peak
1990GoodFellas
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Man with Coatrack. 8.7 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer. Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2024Chuck Zito: An American Story
The current state of the argument, as Self.
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
18 of 18 films
as Man with Coatrack
Directed by Martin Scorsese
as Ward #5 Patient #6
Directed by Penny Marshall
as Alfred Bello
Directed by Norman Jewison
as Zach
Directed by Guy Ritchie
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
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The defining work
#1
Man with Coatrack
GoodFellas (1990)
Performance score8.4
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Man with Coatrack gives Vincent Pastore a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Ward #5 Patient #6
Awakenings (1990)
Performance score7.6
Awakenings asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Ward #5 Patient #6 is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Alfred Bello
The Hurricane (1999)
Performance score7.2
The Hurricane asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Alfred Bello is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Construction Worker
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Performance score7.2
The Basketball Diaries asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Construction Worker is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Man with Coatrack
Start here. GoodFellas is the clearest statement of what Vincent Pastore does — accessible, 145 minutes, and rated 8.7 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Vincent at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
Awakenings (1990)
Keeps the drama register of GoodFellas but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Basketball Diaries (1995)
Keeps the drama register of Awakenings but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Hurricane (1999)
Keeps the drama register of The Basketball Diaries but asks for a colder reading of it.
Revolver (2005)
Keeps the drama register of The Hurricane but asks for a colder reading of it.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Penny Marshall
Director
2 films together
Notably Awakenings
Phil Joanou
Director
1 film together
Notably State of Grace
Martin Scorsese
Director
1 film together
Notably GoodFellas
Andrew Bergman
Director
1 film together
Notably It Could Happen to You
Norman Jewison
Director
1 film together
Notably The Hurricane
Jon Favreau
Director
1 film together
Notably Made
Reginald Hudlin
Director
1 film together
Notably Serving Sara
Bibo Bergeron
Director
1 film together
Notably Shark Tale
Guy Ritchie
Director
1 film together
Notably Revolver
Luc Besson
Director
1 film together
Notably The Family
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Penny Marshall
Director
2 films together · 7.3 avg MV
A working relationship rather than a booking — 2 films, and the register shifts each time.
Best film together
AwakeningsMartin Scorsese
Director
1 film together · 8.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
GoodFellasNorman Jewison
Director
1 film together · 7.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The HurricanePhil Joanou
Director
1 film together · 7.0 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
State of GraceAndrew Bergman
Director
1 film together · 6.7 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
It Could Happen to YouLuc Besson
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The FamilyGuy Ritchie
Director
1 film together · 6.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
RevolverBibo Bergeron
Director
1 film together · 6.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Shark TaleJon Favreau
Director
1 film together · 5.8 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
MadeReginald Hudlin
Director
1 film together · 5.4 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Serving SaraSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
GoodFellas
as Man with Coatrack
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Spinning Gold
as Big Joey
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
GoodFellas
as Man with Coatrack
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
GoodFellas
as Man with Coatrack
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
GoodFellas
as Man with Coatrack
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Vincent Pastore has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
34 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
Modern Classic Performer
Awarded
Defining performances delivered inside the last twenty-five years, in films already being taught rather than merely remembered.
Drama Legend
Awarded
12 catalogue titles in drama, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
GoodFellas
as Man with Coatrack
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
GoodFellas
as Man with Coatrack
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Spinning Gold
as Big Joey
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Revolver
as Zach
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
GoodFellas
as Man with Coatrack
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Money Train
as Gambler
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
It Could Happen to You
as Bowling Team Member
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
GoodFellas
as Man with Coatrack
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
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Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
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Have your say
Community
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Reference
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