Frank Pesce, a character actor whose many credits include “Top Gun,” “Beverly Hills Cop” and “Midnight Run,” has died of complications from dementia, his girlfriend, Tammy Scher confirmed to TheWrap on Wednesday. He was 75.
“It’s very sad. He was loved by so many and had more friends than anyone I’ve ever known in my life. He was larger than life,” she said.
Pesce was in a hospital for the final three weeks of his life. He died Feb. 6.
“We walked into his room and everyone knew his name,” Scher said.
Pesce was born in New York in 1946 and began as an extra in “The Godfather Part II,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. He was also a stand-in for Robert DeNiro in “Taxi Driver” and Frank Sinatra in “The First Deadly Sin.”
He had a small part in the first “Rocky” movie and formed a lifelong friendship with Sylvester Stallone.
In 1991, he wrote the screenplay for the movie “29th Street,” about an Italian-American who wins more than $6 million in the first New York State Lottery, which he claimed was autobiographical. Danny Aiello starred as Frank Pesce Sr, with Anthony LaPaglia as Frank Pesce Jr, and Pesce himself as Vito Pesce.
Filmmaker Elle Schneider remembered chatting with him and director William Lustig about the 1979 Lee Majors piranha horror film “Killer Fish.” She tweeted, “This is a huge bummer. Frank Pesce was a real one. I only met him a few times, but I’ll never forget the most memorable special feature I ever shot: Frank and @william_lustig chatting KILLER FISH over a nice pasta dinner. #RIP”
A private family service will be held in New York on Friday and a private celebration of life will take place on Feb. 23 in Los Angeles, Scher told TheWrap.