"Sopranos" actor bows out of TV dance contest

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - He swam with the fishes for snitching on "The Sopranos." Now the rigors of ballroom dancing have proven too much for actor Vincent Pastore, who played a gangster named "Big Pussy" on HBO's mob drama.

After a week of intense training for the ABC hit show "Dancing with the Stars," the heavy-set, 60-year-old actor said on Friday he is bowing out of the celebrity hoofing contest.

"I didn't realize just how physically demanding it would be for me," Pastore, who underwent heart bypass surgery in 2005, said in a statement released by ABC. "Unable to put forth my best effort, I felt it appropriate to step aside and give someone else the opportunity."

Pastore appeared during the first and second seasons of "The Sopranos" as a wise guy named Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero, a confidant and hit man for mob boss Tony Soprano who was whacked by his gangster peers after agreeing to wear a wire as an FBI informant.

Replacing Pastore on ABC's hit dance competition will be actor John Ratzenberger, best known as the affable, beer-quaffing mailman Cliff Clavin on the long-running hit comedy "Cheers."

Ratzenberger was previously invited to join the "Dancing" cast but declined due to a scheduling conflict, the Walt Disney Co.-owned network said.

The upcoming fourth season of "Dancing with the Stars" premieres March 19. During its fall 2006 run, "Dancing" ranked as the most watched unscripted show in U.S. prime time, and No. 2 overall, averaging 20.7 million viewers a week.

The lineup for the show's next installment includes Heather Mills, the estranged wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney, as well as world female boxing champion Laila Ali, country music star Billy Ray Cyrus, former 'N Sync boy-band member Joey Fatone, Olympic speed-skater Apolo Anton Ohno, former basketball star Clyde Drexler and TV-radio host Leeza Gibbons.