A 47-year-old actor who starred as the gay firefighter lover of a closeted mobster on the hit show The Sopranos was found dead of an apparent suicide after family members were unable to contact him.

John Costelloe, who played the hunky short-order cook Johnny Cakes on four episodes of the series, was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Brooklyn, New York home on December 18, police spokesman Lieutenant John Grimpel said.

Costelloe gained a measure of fame in 2006 when he was cast as Jim "Johnny Cakes" Witowski opposite his old friend, actor Joseph Gannascoli, who played gay mob capo Vito Spatafore.