Robert Pastorelli

The problem with some accents is that they feel very much of a specific time and place. There’s good reason for that; accents do change, after all. As different groups interact, the way they speak intermingles, and accents that didn’t exist come into existence and ones that do exist die off. Some last longer than others. But people from New Brunswick, New Jersey, sound weird in a Western. He played a lot of guys with Italian names in a lot of crime dramas and sitcoms. But he sounded weird in Dances With Wolves.

Robert Pastorelli was quite the actor, though. He started out to be a boxer, but he suffered a near-fatal car accident that left him with career-ending injuries. In fact, he claimed to have had a near-death experience. Some time in his twenties, he picked up a heroin habit. He also picked up the acting bug, supporting himself by working as a bartender—and an exotic dancer. In the ‘80s, he moved from New York to Los Angeles. He played a ton of bit parts, starting with a 1982 episode of Barney Miller.

For the next six years, he had the sort of bit-part career that so many other actors did. In 1988, he got what would prove to be the role of his lifetime. He was hired to play Eldin Bernecky. Eldin was a house painter. He was hired by one Murphy Brown to paint her Georgetown house and worked there for the next four years. Eventually he became a nanny to her child, then he left to follow his muse. He was also Murphy’s friend, occasional conscience, Lamaze coach, and whatever else she needed him to be. It was a fantastic role.

He tried a few shows of his own, but they didn’t quite take off. Murphy Brown producer Diane English worked with him to produce one-season wonder Double Rush, about bike messengers. He also appeared in the American remake of Cracker, the Robbie Coltrane cop show. That one likewise lasted a single season. Though with one hell of a cast—not just Pastorelli but Carolyn McCormick, Josh Hartnett, and R. Lee Ermey, not to mention a ton of wild guest stars.

The roles dried up. This appears to be in no small part because his girlfriend died violently—she was shot in the head in what is officially undetermined circumstances. It was investigated as either accident or suicide, but he was there at the time. He managed to befriend Meryl Streep, who was helping him get back. Unfortunately, the heroin habit came back, too. Impossible to say where he could’ve gone if he’d kept away. Instead, he died. He was only a year older than I am now.