Most realistic mafia character on the Sopranos

What character do you think comes off as most like a real life gangster on the show? For me it is Patsy Parisi, he doesn't spend all of his time drinking, sleeping with women that are not his wife, partaking in mindless violence, etc. He seems to be a normal and level headed guy for the most part, he can get violent when it is called for, like the time he almost went at it with Christopher at the construction site, but he doesn't beat up waiters for bringing out a cold dish of pasta alla norma.

Not all mobsters are similar. for example a guy Like Joe Armone who was a high ranking mobster never cursed, Paul castellano was the boss of bosses and he was never a violent guy at least in person. So Patsy is a good one since he is not the stereotypical mobster that most movies portray.

In my opinion, its Richie Aprile. Psychopathic, paranoid and ruthless.

Paulie Walnuts for me.In fact I think he is the character that best illustrates your average mobster,as well as the whole Cosa Nostra,its fickle nature,as well as its decline.

He was once young,very tough,very strong and very feared.Now he is old,he retains some of the fierceness he had,but not all of it.He is street smart and sometimes cunning.At the same time he can be petty,narrow-minded,and set in his ways.He is sometimes shown to be very competent.Other times he is a barely functioning idiot,or at best a child.At times he shows fierce loyalty to Tony and the crew,other times he is disillusioned and sells him out.

There are a few for me.

Chrissy: He represents the modern day up and coming wiseguy. Has the hot girl, nice cars, completely ruthless and a drug addict. That role was VERY realistic

Pauly: Old timer still looking for the respect he has never gotten.

Joey Peeps: Again like Chrissy, a young enforcer and collector for his capos. Portrayed it so well that I have researched to see if he was connected in real life.

Layy berese: Well, the guy just got pinched for being a loanshark for the Gambinos, how much more realistic do you need?

Carmine Lupertazzi: GREAT depiction of a boss in my opinion

Least realistic:

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

Silvio: Probably my favorite character, but just not real life material in my eyes.

totally agree with everything u just said. But you forgot Feech LeManna. Perfect examample of how egotistical some of these guys are . Alot of times guys like feech just disappear.

But if i had to choose one it wud b Christopher

i think for me it would be christopher and richie aprile. chris with the money hungrey and wanting to do things fast and hard and everything at once. in the first season he would tell tony shit that no one else would like questioning his leadership. richie was just an arrogant not give a shit slime ball killer. for what he did to beansie was just cold. then when the other guys reamed him out about it he didn't care he was only concerned with what was good for him. i didn't care for the way he died tho. janis shooting him over one punch.....i don't agree with him punching janis but she was so in love w/him why did they have to make it over something menial?

i agree the way richie died was totally ridiculous. I also think the way they killed Christopher off was a disgrace. First off i dont think tony shud have ever killed Chrissy . And second the way he did ??? FORGET ABOUT IT!!!

yeah i didn't care for the way it went down...then everyone speculated that chris was a rat. i don't think he was. i realize that christopher had to go but in that way....fugetaboutit

I wish I could participate in this discussion, but the thing is, I don't know any wiseguys. Nice to see you do.

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.

You need less internet, and more of getting out of the house then.

The Tony Soprano character does seem quite over the top for being a boss. He killed his top earner capo in a fist fight over a horse for christsake! Notice how he was never investigated for Ralph being missing either, despite having his car parked outside Ralph's house for hours when he went missing, and the house being a mess from the fight, and blood evidence from the fight and mutilation that followed.

Are you serious? Which wiseguy do you know? I'd love to hear this. Feel free to pm me.

me and nino gaggi were real close, our relationship started strain when he wouldnt shut his mouth about trying to give me the hucklebuck at the end of the bar one night....

Hesh resembled a real person according to some NJ wise guys.

Most realistic characters. Uncle Junior, except for his ridiculous singing. And Obviously, Pualie because Junior was real life wanna be wiseguy with the Franzese crew.

I agree with the above statements. Its hard to say because its not like an exact profile for a mobster. There have been some real creeps in the mob, and some real nice guys. Its all different. But I'd say paulie fits the profile the best. Not really a "honor" ridden guy. Just a guy thats been around the block a few times. Doing anything to make a quick buck. Typically a real ass hole but respectable.

Though not a major character, Rusty Milio comes to mind

Carlo perhaps if I'm thikning of the right guy...

Not many people call him Junior, but you're absolutely correct. Tony Sirico used to do muscle work for Sonny Franzese.

I think Richie Aprile and Carlo Gervasi appear as the most authentic mafia characters. But Mickey Palmice and Patsy Parisi also seem to be pretty realistic.

For me the most unrealistic are Paulie Gualtieri and Silvio Dante, who appear too much like 'comic book' characters.

johnny sack for many reasons especially the always smoking i always thought he looked like frank locascio and frank was called frankie loc wich rings like johnny sac

johnny sac always reminded me of gotti. the fine suits the hair the expensive cars. the flaming temper. wanting to kill people over off color remarks.....

Gotti would never cry in public its not cosa nostra

He'd be crying now if he saw how his grandsons turned out.

He would give the order to whack them.

And He tried hard to set those boys straight in there formative years http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSFydrV9dN0
all for nothing

Add Sacrimoni.
Silvio was just painful to watch. Funny but painful.

the 2 bareses, carlo, bobby sr, murph, mikey palmice, ray curto

johnny fuckin sack

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).

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.

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

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.

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.

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 ...

Another great actor on the Sopranos who had a good script and was very realistic was Frank Vincent who played Phil Leotardo. Very realistic.

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

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.

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.

John & Phil were untouchable. Bobby had potential.

off the top of my head i'm gonna have to go with gigi

Tony Sirico (Paulie) has to be the most realistic. He was a mobster in RL. He didn't really act, he was just being himself.

How about Big pussy and Phil Leotardo

Silvio and Paulie Walnuts were my 2 favorites. Tony Sirico was involved with the Maifa before he became an actor.

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.

Sirico did a few burglaries, knew a few mafia guys from the neighborhood, but wasn't "involved."

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.

Carmine Lupertazzi Senior always came across to me as a very realistic old school mob boss..

I enjoyed every scene the man was in..


RIP Tony Lip

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.

Butchie the little guy Phil's adviser & Richie aprile I like that he collected throphies of the people he fucked up.

There are others.

The NY old don they said he walked through kings plaza here in Brooklyn. I did that to in the 70s. I did a lot in Kings plaza.

Now it's a zoo.

if everyone is similar it becomes a social reality that behaviour is the point of reference

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

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

Cha cha had a place on Coney Island.

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.

I liked the guy that killed parisi's twin brother. You know the guy that had a heart attack on the crapper.

Carmine Lupartazzi.

Richie Aprile.


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".

One of the better scenes on the show was when the fat homo was forced to kill Jackie Jr the order given by Joey pants to appease Tony.

Being forced to kill friends and others that you like is the real part of that show.

Gigi Cestone, not sure why they decided to kill him off especially while he was on the toilet.. He was a decent Captain..

I think the actor was a pain to work with so they wrote him out. Don't quote me on that.

Actually they did not pay much for new characters on that show. But if they liked you. You can be a recurring character. It give the actor a lot exposur to other things.

Because they did not pay well for a new character my friend never went out for a part. It was a mistake as he told me later.

He lived through the 70's by the skin of his teeth while the Colombos were going at it.

Most realistic:

Pussy (reminds me a lot of Angie Ruggiero)
Butchie
Phil Leotardo
John Sacrimoni
Richie Aprile
Jackie Aprile, Sr.
Carmine Lupertazzi
Gigi Cestone
Patsy Parisi
Hesh
Johnny Boy Soprano
Junior Soprano
Mikey Palmice
Furio
Larry Barese
Albert Barese
Ray Curto
Bobby Bacala, Sr.
Uncle Pat
Brendan Filone (as an example of the fuckups coming up now)
Murf Lupo (as an old timer)
Carlo Gervasi

Most unrealistic:
Tony Soprano
Silvio Dante
Christopher Moltisani
Benny Fazio
Ralphie Cifaretto
Tony Blundetto
Bobby Bacala, Jr. (too nice)
Vito Spatafore
Matt Bevilaqua
Sean Gismonte
Gerry Torciano
Little Carmine Lupertazzi
Little Paulie Germani

Feech LaManna, Richie Aprile, Johnny Sac, Paulie, Carmine, Junior and Johnny Boy.

Richie, Feech and the entire cast did a great job. I thought Patsy was very authentic.