Tony Soprano
Tony Soprano, the New Jersey mob boss at the center of the HBO series The Sopranos, was nearly named Tommy. In the pilot, the name honored Tom Powers, the gangster James Cagney played in The Public Enemy. Clearance to call the character Tom was never given. The show's creator, David Chase, took the final name from a family friend called Toby Soprano.
The man who carried that name, played by James Gandolfini, is often cited as one of the greatest and most influential characters in television history. He kills with his own hands. He suffers panic attacks. He loves his children, betrays his wife, and sits down with a psychiatrist to talk about ducks.
How did the producers settle on Gandolfini for the part? What did Tony do to climb his crime family, and what did it cost him? And why do critics trace so much of modern television back to this one character?
A short clip from the 1993 film True Romance changed the course of the casting. Casting director Susan Fitzgerald saw it and invited James Gandolfini to audition. He won the role ahead of several other actors because of his large physical presence and his acting ability.
Anthony LaPaglia had shown early interest. A Broadway production and the decision not to go with Fox meant he was not considered further.
David Chase also invited Steven Van Zandt, a guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, to try out for Tony. Van Zandt had never acted and felt the part belonged to an experienced actor. Chase answered by writing a role that did not yet exist, Silvio Dante. Michael Rispoli came very close to being cast as Tony and later played Jackie Aprile.
Gandolfini had unusual methods for summoning Tony's anger. He would deliberately hit himself on the head, stay awake all night, or drink several cups of coffee. Sometimes he walked around with a rock in his shoe.
The character itself was stitched together from real life. Chase drew loosely on stories about New Jersey mobsters, including Ruggerio "Richie the Boot" Boiardo of the Genovese family's New Jersey faction. Another source was Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, a former caporegime and de facto boss of the DeCavalcante family, along with the family's boss Sam DeCavalcante.
Chase also reached into his own life. The psychiatrist who treats Tony, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, was modeled on Chase's own psychiatrist.
In the series, Tony was born in 1959, though the prequel film The Many Saints of Newark moves that year to 1955. He was the second child and only son of Livia and Johnny Soprano. Johnny was a caporegime in the DiMeo crime family, and the household sat in the old First Ward of Newark, New Jersey. Tony had two sisters, Janice and Barbara.
His grandfather Corrado Soprano came from Avellino, Italy, and immigrated to the United States in 1911. A master stonemason, he helped build a church in the neighborhood.
Home was not warm. Asked in therapy for a happy memory of his mother, Tony struggles to find one. He later describes Livia as a cruel, joyless woman who wore his father down "to a little nub". Johnny, meanwhile, used Janice as cover when he went to meetings with criminal associates at a children's amusement park.
In high school Tony met his future wife, Carmela DeAngelis, and befriended Artie Bucco and Davey Scatino. His maternal cousin Tony Blundetto was closer still. Relatives called the two boys Tony-Uncle-Al and Tony-Uncle-Johnny after their fathers, and friends shortened Blundetto to "Tony B".
When the cousins were in their early twenties, Blundetto was arrested over a hijacking that Tony was meant to join. Tony never showed up. An argument with his mother brought on a panic attack, and he blacked out and hurt his head. For years he blamed the injury on a mugging, a story that eased his guilt.
Tony lasted a semester and a half at Seton Hall University before dropping out to pursue crime. He ran with Silvio Dante and Jackie Aprile, Sr. Tony and Jackie earned notoriety in the family by robbing a card game run by Feech La Manna.
Johnny died of emphysema in 1986. His brother Junior became Tony's mentor, while Paulie and Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero passed their loyalty to Tony. Tony became acting capo of his father's old crew, and the post eventually became permanent.
The real test came in 1995, when Ercole "Eckley" DiMeo went to prison and Jackie became acting boss. The family prospered until Jackie was diagnosed with intestinal cancer in 1998. When he died in mid-1998, a succession crisis between Tony and Junior brought the family to the edge of war.
Tony ended it by endorsing Junior as the official boss. In secret, he made a deal with the rest of the family to be the true boss. Junior believed he held power and served as a distraction for the FBI. That arrangement kept Junior as acting boss until early in the sixth season.
Tony personally committed eight murders during the series, and every one is shown on screen. The first came in 1982, in the episode "Remember When". Guided by Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri, a friend of his father's, Tony shot a small-time bookie named Willie Overall. The killing was meant to make his bones, the step toward becoming a made man. Paulie then became his mentor and eventually his own capo.
Two more men died by his hand in 1999. Fabian "Febby" Petrulio was strangled in "College" after informing on members of Paulie and Pussy's crew and joining the witness protection program. Tony felt contempt that Petrulio had initially walked away free. Chucky Signore was shot in "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano" for conspiring with Junior to kill Tony.
In 2000, Tony and Big Pussy killed Matthew Bevilaqua, who had tried to kill Christopher Moltisanti, Tony's protege and cousin-in-law. A witness came forward and then withdrew on learning that Tony was a mafioso, which made this the closest Tony came to trouble with the authorities. Bevilaqua's youth bothered him, and so did his dying word, "mommy". Afterward Tony spent more time with his own son.
Later that year came the death that weighed most on him. After the family discovered that Big Pussy was an FBI informant, Tony, Silvio and Paulie executed him on a yacht in "Funhouse". Tony was tempted to spare his old friend and lingered in denial. In the years that followed, all three men had haunting dreams of the killing.
In 2002, in "Whoever Did This", Tony beat Ralph Cifaretto to death. Their prize-winning racehorse, Pie-O-My, had died in a fire. No solid proof showed arson, yet Tony was convinced, and Ralph's open disdain for the horse's death pushed him over the edge. His outburst may also have echoed anger over Ralph's earlier killing of a stripper named Tracee.
The killing in 2004 was of his own cousin. In "All Due Respect", Tony shot Tony Blundetto with a shotgun after Blundetto's unauthorized murders of Joe Peeps and Billy Leotardo. The act spared Blundetto from torture at the hands of Phil Leotardo, who wanted revenge for his brother. It also protected Tony's reputation as a boss and shielded his crew from retaliation.
The last came in 2007 in "Kennedy and Heidi". After a major car accident, Christopher, who was driving, admitted he was still using drugs and feared going to the hospital. He told Tony he would "never pass a drug test" and asked for a taxi instead of an ambulance. Tony looked at the destroyed baby seat in the back of the SUV, closed his phone, and suffocated Christopher by holding his nose shut.
Afterward he felt a rush of relief at being rid of a man he no longer trusted. He still had to show the sad face while the family grieved. Nobody ever suspected him, but a dream in that same episode would show what his conscience made of it.
North Caldwell, New Jersey, is where Tony lives with his wife Carmela and their two children, Meadow and Anthony Jr., known as A.J. He also treats Christopher, his wife's first cousin once removed, as a son in many ways.
Tony is often portrayed as a loving father who attends his children's sporting events and hopes both will escape the criminal life. In the first season he is moved to tears by Meadow's performance at a choir recital. He often tells people she wants to become a pediatrician. He has tried to hide his work from his children, but Meadow saw through him early.
His protectiveness has a harder edge. When Meadow's first college boyfriend, Noah Tannenbaum, turned out to be of black and Jewish ancestry, Tony tried to drive him away. Meadow found out and stopped speaking to her father for several months. They reconciled at Christmas in 2001.
Her next boyfriend, Jackie Aprile Jr., was the son of Tony's late friend. Tony had promised the elder Jackie that he would keep the boy out of the Mafia. When Tony saw him at strip clubs and a casino, he beat him up and confiscated his gun. Jackie was later killed by Vito after a robbery at Christopher and Furio's executive card game.
Another threat to Meadow came from a New York mob member, Salvatore "Coco" Cogliano. At a restaurant, Coco made a crude remark about her looks. Tony called him harmless in front of his daughter, then tracked him down at John's Restaurant on East 12th Street in Manhattan. There he pistol-whipped Coco and broke some of his teeth.
With A.J., the worry runs the other way. Tony told Dr. Melfi early on that his son "would never make it" in the Mafia, and A.J. kept proving him right. Tony says he is proud that A.J. is gentle and kind. But A.J. flunked out of Ramapo State, worked briefly at Blockbuster, and then took a construction job his father arranged. Tony fears A.J. inherited the "rotten putrid Soprano gene" of depression.
A.J. later returned to college at Rutgers University, where he sank back into depression after watching new friends attack a Somali student on a bike. He tried to drown himself in a swimming pool, then changed his mind and could not climb out. Tony heard his cries and pulled him from the water. Afterward, Tony and Carmela talked him out of joining the Army.
Marriage was the other strain. Tony was a serial adulterer, and Carmela tacitly knew. His longest relationships were with Irina Peltsin, Gloria Trillo, Valentina La Paz, Svetlana Kirilenko and Julianna Skiff.
Gloria, a Mercedes-Benz saleswoman he met at Dr. Melfi's office, began stalking him. After Patsy Parisi warned her off, she hanged herself, and Tony blamed himself and Melfi. Svetlana, who had lost a leg to bone cancer as a child, was the cousin of Irina. When Irina learned that Tony had slept with Svetlana, she phoned Carmela in a jealous rage. At the end of the fourth season, Carmela threw Tony out and began divorce proceedings.
A flashback in the pilot shows Tony's first on-screen panic attack. He was cooking sausages at his son's birthday party when he lost consciousness and dropped a bottle of lighter fluid onto the coals, causing a small explosion. Tony described the sensation as "ginger ale in his skull". An MRI scan and blood work found no physical cause, so Dr. Cusamano sent him to Dr. Jennifer Melfi.
Tony resisted from the start. He resented being in therapy and refused the neurologists' diagnosis of panic attacks. Once Melfi explained doctor-patient confidentiality, he began to talk. He told her about a family of ducks landing in his pool. By the end of that first session he had admitted to feeling depressed, then stormed out when she pressed him about the ducks.
A second panic attack followed a visit to Green Grove, a retirement community where Tony hoped to place his mother. Melfi prescribed Prozac. She later suggested that the ducks' departure from the pool had set off his panic through a deep fear of losing his own family. The idea brought Tony to tears, to his own annoyance.
Melfi pulled other threads. In "Fortunate Son", Tony remembered seeing his father and uncle mutilate Mr. Satriale, the local butcher. He later fainted at a family dinner made with free meat from the shop, and Melfi linked meat to his panic attacks. Under lithium in "Isabella", Tony sank into depression and saw a beautiful Italian woman in his neighbor's garden who never existed. Melfi theorized that she was an idealized mother.
He came to feel more comfortable with Melfi than with anyone else, even his wife, and developed something of a crush. Yet her probing made him sarcastic and hostile. Fans and critics have described these sessions as a Greek chorus and a key for viewers to understand the character.
The partnership ended in the penultimate episode, "The Blue Comet". Melfi read research suggesting that sociopaths can use talk therapy to sharpen their skill at manipulating others. Earlier, in "The Second Coming", her own therapist had warned that she might be enabling Tony's sociopathic tendencies. She cut him off.
Tony's dreams opened another window. In the pilot, he tells Melfi a dream in which a duck swoops down and snatches away a piece of him that has fallen off. In "Funhouse", an extended dream shows him dousing himself in gasoline and lighting a fire, and shooting Paulie Walnuts at a card game.
In "Calling All Cars", a caterpillar crawls on Ralph Cifaretto's head and turns into a butterfly. Melfi reads it as a sign that Ralph and Carmela are changing, with Carmela taking control, which Tony dislikes. In "Everybody Hurts", he dreams of Gloria Trillo in a black scarf soon after learning of her death.
The longest dream began with a gunshot. In the sixth-season premiere, "Members Only", Junior, suffering from dementia, mistook Tony for Gennaro "Little Pussy" Malanga and shot him in the abdomen. In "Join the Club", Tony lies in a medically induced coma and imagines himself as a law-abiding salesman who has grabbed another man's briefcase. The briefcase belongs to Kevin Finnerty, and Tony spends the dream trying to learn who he is.
After waking, Tony told Phil Leotardo, in the episode "Kaisha", that in the coma he had gone to a place he never wants to see again.
Ducks landing in his backyard pool are among Tony's gentlest pleasures, and he enjoys feeding them. The loss of his childhood dog, Tippy, traumatized him, as the episode "In Camelot" reveals. When Angie Bonpensiero walks her poodle, the dog greets him in a friendly way, and he answers in kind. He is furious when he learns that Christopher accidentally suffocated Adriana's dog.
Hesh Rabkin, a friend who owns a stable, drew Tony into horse racing and the investment in Pie-O-My. When Carmela told him a black bear had been foraging in the backyard during their separation in the fifth season, he reacted with interest rather than fear. In the hospital after his shooting, he reads a book about dinosaurs that Carmela gave him. In the finale, he finds a stray cat at a safe house during the war with New York. He carries it to Satriale's, where it stares at Christopher's photograph, to Paulie's dismay.
Fishing is another habit, in both fresh water and salt water. In the second season he gives A.J. a Fenwick rod and a Penn International reel, both very high-quality gear. In the sixth season he rents a sport fishing boat while in Florida with Paulie. A Big Mouth Billy Bass novelty singing fish disturbs him because it recalls his nightmares of Big Pussy as a fish.
Tony owns two motor yachts, Stugots and Stugots II, and several of his deals take place aboard them. The name comes from an Italian phrase with a crude meaning. He loves sports, particularly baseball, football, basketball, golf and horse racing. He played baseball and football at West Essex High School and follows the New York Yankees and New York Jets. He plays golf with Johnny Sack at Upper Montclair Country Club. A large share of his income comes from illegal sports betting.
History holds his attention, especially World War II. In the fourth and fifth seasons he watches Vietnam War documentaries. He owns a captain's sailor hat once worn by President John F. Kennedy, which he won at an auction. On the History Channel, he watches programs about George S. Patton, Erwin Rommel and Winston Churchill. He reads Sun Tzu's The Art of War, which Paulie Walnuts often quotes.
He also watches classic mob films. The Public Enemy plays throughout the episode "Proshai, Livushka", which deals with his mother's death. He loves The Godfather series and wonders what went wrong with the third film, though he laughs when Silvio does an Al Pacino impression from it. His taste in music runs to classic and progressive rock and pop of the 1960s and 1970s, including AC/DC, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, The Clash and Van Morrison.
His cars follow the same loyalties as the other mobsters, who prefer Cadillac and Lincoln. For the first four seasons he drives a burgundy 1999 Chevrolet Suburban LT 4x4. In the fifth season he switches to a black Cadillac Escalade ESV, which is totaled in an accident. A white Escalade ESV replaces it, and he keeps that one to the end of the series.
Playwright Craig Wright once described the strange comfort of The Sopranos, saying that behind it lies an unspoken assumption that "even the most monstrous people are haunted by the same concerns we're haunted by." The character is credited with popularizing the antihero on television. Tony quickly became a pop culture icon during the show's run.
Chris Lee of the Los Angeles Times called him a "cultural sensation" and the "unlikeliest of sex symbols". The Globe and Mail wrote that women found him an unlikely sex symbol and men found him no less seductive. It argued that viewers felt a conflicted pull toward a life of taking whatever one wants.
Gandolfini's work earned three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and three Screen Actors Guild Awards. He also won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama. The Sopranos is often cited as the starting point for the second golden age of television.
The finale, "Made in America", ended with an abrupt cut to black and several seconds of silence. Many viewers first believed their cable or DVR had failed at a crucial moment. Opposing theories soon formed about whether Tony was killed or survived, and Chase consistently refused definitive answers. In a November 2021 interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Chase made comments that seemed to confirm Tony was killed.
Gandolfini died on the 19th of June 2013, and tributes stressed how many characters followed Tony. TV Guide columnist Matt Roush said that without Tony there would be no Vic Mackey of The Shield, no Al Swearengen of Deadwood, and no Don Draper of Mad Men. Draper's creator, Matthew Weiner, had honed his craft as a writer on The Sopranos. Bryan Cranston said his Breaking Bad character, Walter White, would not have existed without Tony Soprano.
Mark Lawson of The Guardian pointed to the "towering central performance" at the show's core. He argued that the range of Gandolfini's portrayal helped end television's remaining inferiority complex next to film.
In 2019, Gandolfini's son Michael was cast as the teenage Tony in the 2021 prequel film The Many Saints of Newark. William Ludwig played the character as a child. Michael had never watched The Sopranos, so he watched the whole series to prepare. He described that as an intense process.
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Common questions
Who plays Tony Soprano in The Sopranos?
James Gandolfini plays Tony Soprano, the protagonist of the HBO crime drama The Sopranos. In the 2021 prequel film The Many Saints of Newark, his son Michael Gandolfini plays the teenage Tony.
How was James Gandolfini cast as Tony Soprano?
Casting director Susan Fitzgerald saw a short clip of Gandolfini in the 1993 film True Romance and invited him to audition. He won the part over several actors because of his large physical presence and his acting ability.
Where does the name Tony Soprano come from?
The name came from Toby Soprano, a family friend of series creator David Chase. In the pilot the character was named Tommy, an homage to Tom Powers, played by James Cagney in The Public Enemy.
Is Tony Soprano based on a real person?
Tony Soprano is loosely based on stories about several real New Jersey mobsters. These include Ruggerio "Richie the Boot" Boiardo, Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo and Sam DeCavalcante.
How many people does Tony Soprano personally kill in The Sopranos?
Tony Soprano personally commits eight murders, all shown on screen. They run from Willie Overall in 1982 to Christopher Moltisanti in 2007, and as boss he is also responsible for killings ordered by him.
Why does Tony Soprano go to therapy with Dr. Melfi?
Tony begins seeing Dr. Jennifer Melfi after panic attacks that sometimes make him lose consciousness. Doctors found no physical cause, so his physician referred him to her, and he remained in therapy on and off until the penultimate episode.
What awards did James Gandolfini win for playing Tony Soprano?
Gandolfini won three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He also won three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama.
What happens to Tony Soprano in the final episode of The Sopranos?
The final scene of "Made in America" ends with an abrupt cut to black and silence. David Chase refused definitive answers, though in a November 2021 Hollywood Reporter interview he made comments that seemed to confirm Tony was killed.
All sources
29 references cited across the entry
- 2Who was the 'real' Tony Soprano? Here are three possibilitiesJim Beckerman — The North Jersey Record — 27 September 2021
- 3Magazine"Sopranos" Creator Shoots StraightWill Dana — March 10, 2006
- 5JournalAn American FamilyPeter Biskind — April 2007
- 6David Chase & 'The Sopranos' Gang Look Back 20 Years Later: Part IDeadline Hollywood — January 10, 2019
- 7MagazineThe Family Hour: An Oral History of The SopranosSam Kashner — April 2012
- 8NewsA Hit Man In More Ways Than OneCBS News — March 18, 2007
- 10NewsOne Final Whack at That HBO MobBill Carter — June 10, 2007
- 11BookThe Sopranos (SM): Selected Scripts from Three SeasonsDavid Chase — Grand Central — 2009
- 12News'Awards Chatter' Podcast: 'Sopranos' Creator David Chase Finally Reveals What Happened to TonyFeinberg, Scott — November 2, 2021
- 13NewsJames Gandolfini Is Dead at 51; a Complex Mob Boss in 'The Sopranos'Dave Itzkoff — June 19, 2013
- 18The Challenges Of Dramas With Antihero Lead On Broadcast TVDeadline Hollywood — February 10, 2014
- 19Excerpt: Why we love antiheroes like Tony Sopranotheglobeandmail.com — July 3, 2013
- 20James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano was a cultural sensationJune 21, 2013
- 21MagazineGangsters' ParadiseSteve Daly — 2008-11-14
- 22NewsDid The Sopranos creator just confirm that Tony dies at the end?Davies, Megan — January 10, 2019
- 23NewsSopranos ending splits fansJocelyn Noveck — 2007-06-12
- 24NewsDavid Chase speaks!Alan Sepinwall — 2007-06-11
- 25NewsSopranos rub-out theory gains credenceSteve Gorman — 2007-06-15
- 26Roush, Matt (July 1, 2013). "A Soprano's Swan Song". TV Guide. pp. 18–21.
- 27How James Gandolfini reinvented the gangster for The SopranosMark Lawson — June 20, 2013
- 29Michael Gandolfini Opens Up About the Difficult Decision to Portray Tony SopranoMichael Hainey — August 13, 2019