Acting Pastore has made a career of portraying Italian-American gangsters in film and television. He began with small parts in the late 1980s and early 1990s,
The Last Don II, ''Johnny Slade's Greatest Hits'', and
Guy Ritchie's
Revolver. He served as associate producer of the film
Doughboys. Pastore's other television credits include
Grounded for Life, character Vinnie Fellachio in
Son of the Beach,
Law & Order (various roles from 1992 to 1996), the soap opera
One Life to Live, host of
Repo-Men/Stealing for a Living,
Ed,
Queens Supreme,
Vegas,
Everybody Hates Chris,
The Making of the Mob: New York,
Blue Bloods,
The Making of the Mob: Chicago, and an uncredited voice role in the television program
Aqua Teen Hunger Force as Terry. In 2007, Pastore starred in the independent feature film
P.J.: A Journey of the Heart. In 2008, he joined the cast of
General Hospital as Maximus Giambetti, father of two characters on the show; he once again plays a mobster. He had roles in 2008's
College Road Trip and
Our Last Days as Children. He also starred in the 2008 film
Dough Boys. In 2009, Pastore starred in Pavaline Studio's debut short film, "Alienated". In 2010, he starred in the award-winning indie mob-comedy
Pizza with Bullets. Pastore played Mayor Avenoso in the 2012 indie feature
Surviving Family. He appears in the 2013 film ''
I'm in Love with a Church Girl. In 2014, he appeared in the Broadway musical Bullets Over Broadway'' as Nick Valenti.
Reality shows Pastore lost 29 lb on the fourth season of the
VH1 reality show Celebrity Fit Club, which ran from August 6 to October 1, 2006. On February 20, 2007,
ABC announced that Pastore would participate in the
fourth season of the American version of the competitive dance series
Dancing with the Stars. He withdrew from the competition after only one week. Pastore said that he found the necessary training and preparation too physically demanding.
John Ratzenberger took his place in the competition. Pastore was featured as a contestant on the January 2008 edition of
Celebrity Apprentice. In the second week, he participated in raising $52,286 by selling hot dogs on a Manhattan street for the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Research. In a task of selling Broadway show tickets, with Pastore as project manager, he led his team to raise $33,300 for charity. In the fifth week, he got into a faked, blow-out conflict with the project manager of the task,
Piers Morgan, to see if he could get the women to let him on their team to spy on them. The episode had played out like an episode of
The Sopranos, with Pastore switching allegiances multiple times. Pastore was deliberately "ratted out" to the women by Morgan in the end, to make Pastore look bad to the women. While Pastore and the men then lost their task, before Trump even lifted a finger to fire anyone that week, Pastore resigned from the show and Trump eventually accepted Pastore's resignation after trying to convince him to stay. The show ended with a sequence based on the series finale of
The Sopranos, ending abruptly before Pastore could give the customary end-of-show interview in the cab. The week-6 episode begins with Pastore meeting his ex-wife Nancy in a restaurant and presenting her the check he received for being project manager for $50,000, in memory of her husband, Mitchell Burke's memorial fund with the Lustgarden Foundation. On July 1, 2008, Pastore appeared on
NBC's new show,
Celebrity Family Feud, as part of a family team trying to win $50,000 for their favorite charity. He first competed, with his friends and family, against the cast of
The Girls Next Door. Then, Pastore's team made it to the finals against
Kathie Lee Gifford's family, but did not win. Pastore and his team picked up a $10,000 consolation prize for their charity, though, which is researching a cure for
pancreatic cancer. On April 8, 2011, Pastore and a business partner appeared on
Shark Tank for an investment in "Broccoli Wad", a product that holds money. All the "Sharks" wanted out, and
Barbara Corcoran said, "this is one of the dumbest things I've ever seen on this show". She later had the idea of putting Pastore's face and name on the box, and labeling it "Vinnie's Wad". She offered $50,000 for a 40% stake in the company, and would give half of her ownership to Pastore in exchange for his name and face on the packaging; Pastore and his partner agreed. A year later, Pastore made an appearance on an episode of
truTV's ''
World's Smartest Inventions'' after his commercial for "the Broccoli Wad" aired on the show. As of July 10, 2011, he appeared on the VH1 Marc Cronin-produced reality show
Famous Food. In the show, contestants are assigned the task of opening a restaurant on the
Sunset Strip. He appeared with
Joseph R. Gannascoli on ''
Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back'' on January 21, 2020.
Radio and podcast Pastore previously hosted
The Wiseguy Show on
Sirius Satellite Radio on the now defunct Raw Dog channel 104. Described as a "weekly three-hour celebration of Italian-American culture." Produced by
Sopranos co-star
Steven Van Zandt, it aired on Wednesdays from 6–9 pm ET. He has also had stints as a radio host on the
New Rochelle, New York, station
WVOX in 2004 and 2012, with guest appearances in between. In September 2020, Pastore started a
podcast with Goumba Johnny called
Fuhgeddaboudit with Vinny Pastore.
Vincent Pastore's Italian Sauce In 2019, Pastore launched a tomato sauce business under the name of Vincent Pastore's Italian Sauce. The sauce is made with
San Marzano tomatoes, is not
GMO, and has no added sugar. ==Personal life==