Born on June 21, 1954 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Pastorelli had dreams of becoming a boxer, but when he was just 19, he was involved in a near fatal car accident that forced him to choose another career. By the late '70s, he chose acting. After doing some theater in New York, Pastorelli found work on both television: Barney Miller, Cagney & Lacey, Hill Street Blues; and film: Outrageous Fortune, Beverly Hills Cop II (both 1987), where his beefy frame and Runyonesque demeanor almost always had him play thugs and hoodlums.
In 1988, he found fame when he was cast opposite Candice Bergen as Eldin, the house painter who could never quite finish the job in Murphy Brown. Pastorelli's likable raffishness countered well with Bergen's icy charms, and he stayed on for six seasons.
After Murphy Brown, Pastorelli continued to play variations of the streetwise character, but this time to considerable comic effect in films like: Sister Act 2 (1994), Eraser, and Michael (both 1996). He returned to television impressively when he starred in the short-lived, but critically lauded Americanized version of the British Television hit Cracker. Pastorelli had just completed work on the Get Shorty (1995) sequel Be Cool with John Travolta, which is scheduled for release later this year. He is survived by a daughter.
by Michael T. Toole