Everyone knows the Brooklyn-born babe John Costelloe for his brief but memorable role as Jim “Johnny Cakes” Witowski, the gay lover of a closeted mobster on the critically-acclaimed crime drama series The Sopranos. Even though John was only on four episodes of the HBO show, he left a lasting image in our minds, especially when he showed off his hairy chest while getting sexy with his lover on season six, episode ten. Before he was hanging out with gangsters on the boob tube, the skillful actor was serving his community as a Brooklyn firefighter for eleven years. And we all know that all firefighters are hunks! Once he put down the hose, he headed to the world of entertainment, scoring gigs in the films Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Die Hard 2 (1990), Kiss of Death (1995), and Crooked Lines (2003). Unfortunately for us, John’s star burnt out too quickly when he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in January 2009. It’s difficult to make sense of John’s tragic demise, but all we can do is look at the bright side and enjoy John’s shirtless contribution over and over again. Rest in peace, John.
