Tony Sirico aka Paulie Walnuts. I met this great actor in real life in SoHo, New York and he is the real deal. Funny with a sense of style and was a mobster before becoming an actor.
"Before turning to acting, Sirico was reportedly a fast-rising mob associate of the Colombo crime family serving under Carmine "Junior" Persico and had been arrested twenty-eight times. "
Paulie Walnuts is a great character, but not very realistic imo. It has to be Richie Aprile and Johnny Sacrimoni for me. Richie reminds me of your everyday tough NY Capo while Johnny Sacrimoni reminds me of John Gotti (the expensive cars, volcanic temper, and his expensive suits).
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: jvanley]
#628885 01/11/1202:48 PM01/11/1202:48 PM
Tony: James did a superb job playing the role, the writers are to blame here. No way does a real life boss do the things he did. I.E. be involved in every racket personally, be a lonashark, kill a capo in his own crew with his bare hands, etc
While I agree that most of the stuff Tony did on that show was something a boss would never do, him killing Ralphie was more spontaneous than anything. It wasn't planned, and remember Ralphie said to him: "What, are you a vegetarian? You eat sausage and beef by the carload", and Tony hit him. One thing lead to another... I mean, it wasn't THAT unrealistic. If Tony planned it on the other hand, that's something a boss would do, but he'd send his soldiers instead.
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: LCN1987]
#628900 01/11/1203:29 PM01/11/1203:29 PM
lol I love when Ralphie says that .. Tony's face is like your a fuckin dead man.. He couldnt have really sent any a soldier to handle that because you can't kill a guy over "a fucking horse", he could have got doped up Chrissy to do it ..I think it was more of a spontaneous thing where ralphie as we had always seen can't keep his fucking mouth shut, even when talking to a boss.... I liked ralphie a little lol, he was a "funny guy" , not when he beat that girl to death or was in bed with Janice, that was sick
From now on, nothing goes down unless I'm involved. No blackjack no dope deals, no nothing. A nickel bag gets sold in the park, I want in. You guys got fat while everybody starved on the street. Now it's my turn. -Frank White
You say your 72, if they come back and tell me to give you a message - and if you want to defy it ... I assure you that you will never reach 73 - Joey "the clown" Lombardo
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: gemini_killer]
#628901 01/11/1203:33 PM01/11/1203:33 PM
most realistic I think is Silvio .. he's got that big straight face and looks like a mean MF'er, most of the seasons he's all business .. cool as fuck man
From now on, nothing goes down unless I'm involved. No blackjack no dope deals, no nothing. A nickel bag gets sold in the park, I want in. You guys got fat while everybody starved on the street. Now it's my turn. -Frank White
You say your 72, if they come back and tell me to give you a message - and if you want to defy it ... I assure you that you will never reach 73 - Joey "the clown" Lombardo
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: gemini_killer]
#628911 01/11/1204:34 PM01/11/1204:34 PM
most realistic I think is Silvio .. he's got that big straight face and looks like a mean MF'er, most of the seasons he's all business .. cool as fuck man
He looks and acts a lot like the NJ Lucchese Capo turned informant Tommy Ricciardi, according the to the FBI.
He appears @ the 4.00 mark.
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#634417 02/12/1205:12 AM02/12/1205:12 AM
They were all great actors. The real question is who was the most realistic according to the script writers. Tony Soprano played the role very well but some of the things he did were ridiculous for a real life Mafia Boss. Again, not his fault but the fault of the writers in the show who overall did a pretty good job but had some obvious things they wrote into the script that were unrealistic but made good viewing for television. The best character who was the most realistic from acting and from script was Carmine Lupertazzi. No question.
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: LCN1987]
#634503 02/12/1204:20 PM02/12/1204:20 PM
most realistic I think is Silvio .. he's got that big straight face and looks like a mean MF'er, most of the seasons he's all business .. cool as fuck man
He looks and acts a lot like the NJ Lucchese Capo turned informant Tommy Ricciardi, according the to the FBI.
yeah I thought that ... Ricciardi became an informant because Vic and Gas were gonna kill him ... felt kinda sorry for him cause he seems like he would never turn and as if he feels kinda bad that he done it ...but to be fair Vic and Gas were not following the rules either ...
From now on, nothing goes down unless I'm involved. No blackjack no dope deals, no nothing. A nickel bag gets sold in the park, I want in. You guys got fat while everybody starved on the street. Now it's my turn. -Frank White
You say your 72, if they come back and tell me to give you a message - and if you want to defy it ... I assure you that you will never reach 73 - Joey "the clown" Lombardo
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#634556 02/12/1208:54 PM02/12/1208:54 PM
Phil Leotardo Reasons: •When Santoro took his food Phil took disrespect from this also when Santoro had his Protege killed •Represents an old guy who wanted to finish what he started from when he was young from the moment he got out of the can •Had loyalty to no one
That sums a great Mafiosi up
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#708282 04/04/1312:15 PM04/04/1312:15 PM
All mobsters are different, but an ideal mobster is usually a psychopath and still follows the rules of La Cosa Nostra. Richie Aprile and Phil Leotardo both come to mind.
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#708346 04/04/1303:31 PM04/04/1303:31 PM
I think Patsy is extremely underrated in that regard. Would love to see more of him and Albert Barese in the series. Richie was very realistic imo. He was real old school. David Proval did a great job portraying him. Albie Cianfalone played by Cha Cha Ciarcia is very realistic too. Reminds me of an old-time Gambino Capo.
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#711820 04/20/1312:02 PM04/20/1312:02 PM
most realistic I think is Silvio .. he's got that big straight face and looks like a mean MF'er, most of the seasons he's all business .. cool as fuck man
He looks and acts a lot like the NJ Lucchese Capo turned informant Tommy Ricciardi, according the to the FBI.
yeah I thought that ... Ricciardi became an informant because Vic and Gas were gonna kill him ... felt kinda sorry for him cause he seems like he would never turn and as if he feels kinda bad that he done it ...but to be fair Vic and Gas were not following the rules either ...
yeah I just finished reading up the Lucchese era of Amuso and Casso / Al D'Arco. They killed a lot of guys that had done pretty much nothing.
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: jace]
#749948 11/23/1302:09 PM11/23/1302:09 PM
i think a good portion of these characters were real. i mean nobody in the real world is the same. yea though i agree with most tony,silvio wouldn't be real but alot of the rest would.
ma tongue hold life my belt hold death. make em bite the dust when they hit the floor. 4-5 to there chest us folk from gangsterbb aint playing. we smoke everyone in this b word like a hookah now. stupid steve hit the corner shooting.
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#865699 11/05/1511:53 AM11/05/1511:53 AM
I think there are a lot of great examples. For old school, definitely Carmine Lupertazzi and Richie Aprile, and for modern day, I would say Patsy and of course Christopher represented how the mafia has failed today. Paulie was perfect in my opinion as well.
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#865745 11/05/1509:15 PM11/05/1509:15 PM
In my opinion, its Richie Aprile. Psychopathic, paranoid and ruthless.
Yep. A number of of the shows viewers who have known real mob guys, including ones who post on other forums, have agreed that Richie Aprile is the most authentic representative of what real mobsters are like. They also thought Patsy Parisi was rather true to life.
if everyone is similar it becomes a social reality that behaviour is the point of reference
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#868352 11/30/1508:52 AM11/30/1508:52 AM
Cha Cha passed away this week. He played Albie , Phil's guy. Owned Cha cha's on mulberry. Great guy. Everytime me and my lady go to mulberry we would stop in there for a drink. Especially in the warmer months we would sit outside in the back and drink. Just another MAJOR piece of little Italy to die off. RIP Cha Cha
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#868353 11/30/1508:53 AM11/30/1508:53 AM
Cha Cha passed away this week. He played Albie , Phil's guy. Owned Cha cha's on mulberry. Great guy. Everytime me and my lady go to mulberry we would stop in there for a drink. Especially in the warmer months we would sit outside in the back and drink. Just another MAJOR piece of little Italy to die off. RIP Cha Cha
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#868354 11/30/1509:15 AM11/30/1509:15 AM
He used to be on the Wiseguy radio show on Sirius the main buy was big pussy. Guest host was the guy that played Phil Leonardo.
Pesce and Phil are long time friends and we're both in the movie death collecter starring the very under rated Joe cortèse.
Pesce told me when they were shooting that movie he and cortèse had a real fist fight on the set. Cortèse is 6'3" Pesce is 5'5" Joe Pesce said he was kicking his ass before the crew pulled him off him.
On the radio show Phil what ever his name really is said he did not know about it. He was obviously lying. I met cortèse good guy, but I never asked him about it. I did post somewhere on it cortèse said it did not happen. But one of the crew on the set said it did the way Pesci said it happened.
only the unloved hate
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#868355 11/30/1509:21 AM11/30/1509:21 AM
Larry Boy Barese...The guy was indicted in real life for collecting mob debts.
Another underrated realistic character in my mind, is Jackie Sr. we only saw a little bit of him, but in the scenes that we did see him in, it was always obvious that he'd rather be anything else but the boss of a family. But did it anyway out of loyalty to "the life".
Re: Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos
[Re: GerryLang]
#868413 11/30/1506:28 PM11/30/1506:28 PM