The Sopranos - Pantoliano Lobbies For Mentally Ill At Republican Convention

THE SOPRANOS actor JOE PANTOLIANO headed to the Republican National Convention in Minnesota this week (begs01Sep08) to lobby politicians on behalf of the mentally ill.

The star, who suffers from clinical depression, runs the No Kidding charity, an organisation which aims to remove the stigma surrounding brain disease.

Pantoliano campaigned outside the U.S. Republican Party's annual event - during which Senator John MCCain formally accepted his party's nomination to run for presidency - in a bid to raise awareness and defend sufferers of the illness.

He tells the New York Post's PageSix, "My mum was bi-polar, and it runs in my family.

"We want to take the sting out of mental illness, so it's like having diabetes or asthma, so the all-American brain gets the same constitutional privileges as our gallbladder."