The Sopranos/Characters

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Character Sheet for The Sopranos.

The Soprano Family

Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini)

Capo(and later Acting Boss) of the DiMeo Crime Family., Tony Soprano has to juggle between the mounting pressure of running a crime organization and everyday problems with his family. After suffering a panic attack and collapsing on his son's birthday, Tony has no choice but to see a psychiatrist.

• Anti-Hero or Anti-Villain: He's a brutal enforcer in the Italian Mafia, but he loves his family and has a soft spot for animals.
• Berserk Button: Tony really hates it when people abuse animals. Ralphie found that out the hard way when he had Tony's beloved race horse killed for the insurance money.
• Childhood Friends: With Artie Bucco
• Chick Magnet: Despite being fat and sloppy, his reputation as the head of a Mafia family, makes him quite popular with the ladies. He often cheats on his wife, whom got with him for that reason, herself.
• Fat Bastard: Gets fatter as the series goes on, in fact.
• The Gambling Addict: Gets progressively worse towards the end of the series. At one point he tries to get Carmela to use the profits off a house sale to bet on the Jets.
• Jerkass: Seemed to have improved after being shot by Junior, however he eventually sinks back into Jerkass mode by the end of the series.
• Large and In Charge
• Papa Wolf: Tony pistol whips and curbstomps New York mobster Coco after he finds out that he made some drunken vile sexual insults towards his daughter.
• Pet the Dog: A number of moments with his children as well as his love of animals.
• Really Gets Around
  • Kavorka Man : Has plenty of mistresses and one-night stands in spite of the fact that he's not exactly catwalk material.
• Sad Clown: He even refers to himself in this manner.
• Tragic Hero: Tries to do right by his friends and family but his sociopathic tendencies put a damper on this.
• Villain Protagonist: Increasingly so as he becomes less sympathetic with each passing season.
• Would Hit a Girl

Carmela Soprano (Edie Falco)

Wife of Tony Soprano. Enjoys the lifestyle that Tony's money brings in but struggles with his infidelity and the dirtier aspects to his profession.

• Stepford Smiler
• All Girls Want Bad Boys

Meadow Soprano (Jamie-Lynn Sigler)

• Improbable Parking Skills: Subverted
• You Are What You Hate: During most of the series, Meadow rebels against her father and his lifestyle. But by the end of the series, she ends up defending her father's lifestyle and even embraces the role of crime family wife, being engaged to a mafia family attorney.
• Like Father, Like Son: In this case, like mother like daughter. Meadow becomes just like her mother by the end of the series.

Anthony "AJ" Soprano Jr. (Robert Iler)

• Conspiracy Theorist: AJ had a phase towards the end where he was obsessed with the government's involvement in Iraq, among other things.
• Follow in My Footsteps: Averted. Tony is more than aware that AJ is not mentally able to do what he does for a living.
• It Runs in The Family: Panic Attacks and Depression
• Lazy Bum
• Properly Paranoid: At least his paranoia about the presence of terrorists on America is confirmed on Season 6, episode 21 as Agent Harris mentions constantly dealing with those kind of schemes. Tony is annoyed and concerned when he realizes how bad things are, since he thought until that point AJ was exaggerating things.

Corrado "Junior" Soprano (Dominic Chianese)

• Authority in Name Only: Junior is made de facto boss of the Di Meo family, and actually keeps the title for a few seasons despite the obvious fact that Tony is in charge.
• Bad Boss: Junior starts abusing his new power as boss almost immediately, taxing Tony's friend Hesh at the suggestion of Livia
• Deadpan Snarker
• Grumpy Old Man: A fairly obvious example. In an early episode Tony jokes about giving him his DVD player so he watch Grumpy Old Men. This just annoys him further.
• Nerd Glasses: Dominic Chianese has said the trademark oversized glasses are the character and he would even wear them in all the rehearsals.

Livia Soprano (Nancy Marchand)

• Evil Matriarch
• Killed Off for Real
• Meaningful Name: Not for nothing does she share a name with a Roman ancestor.
• My Beloved Smother
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Nancy Marchand's death caused the writers to have to kill off Livia and restructure the third season and many of David Chase's plans for future seasons considerably.

Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli)

• The Apprentice
• Jerkass Woobie: Constantly fluctuates between the two.
• Kick the Dog: A more literal example. Chris manages to kill Adriana's small dog when he sits on it while high on heroin.
• Most Writers Are Writers
• Plot Magnet: So much of the plot revolves around Chris that a new viewer might almost believe the show is about him. His best friend is shot in the eye. He is shot in the spleen. He one of only two people show being made during the series. His heroin addiction. His girlfriend flips and is murdered. He's even eventually murdered at the hand of Tony himself. Also, throughout the entire series there is an overlying plot involving him wanting to get into showbiz. This even takes up a good chunk of season 6 when he produces Cleaver.
• Villain Protagonist
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Paulie Walnuts

Anthony "Tony" Blundetto (Steve Buscemi)

• Chekhov's Gunman: Tony B's return and murders of Joey Peeps and Billy Leotardo would end up being the snowball that caused the avalanche of the New York - New Jersey war.
• Nice Guy: At first. This persona gradually falls apart over the course of Season 5.
• Retirony: Subverted. After getting out of jail, he wants to leave the Mafia and set up a massage parlor. Rather than dying, he realizes he just doesn't have the patience for an honest life and throws these plans down the drain, returning to the fold. Soon afterwards he gets caught up in a minor mob war with the Lupertazzi family and Tony S is forced to kill him.

John "Johnny Boy" Soprano (Joseph Siravo)

• Posthumous Character

Barbara Soprano Giglione

• Hufflepuff House: The most inconsequential member of the Soprano family. After season 2 she tends to only show up at funerals.

Soprano Crime Family Members

Silvio Dante (Steve Van Zandt)

• The Ace
• The Dragon: To Tony.
• Hidden Depths: In season 6 he's shown to have a lot of anxiety about taking over the family from Tony if he ever needed to and mentions in season 1 that he once saw a therapist.

Paulie Gualtieri (Tony Sirico)

• Blue and Orange Morality: There's no telling what really goes on inside Paulie's head.
• Cloudcuckoolander
• Karma Houdini: Arguably the most despicable character on the show, to the point of absurdity, he never really gets any kind of comeuppance.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Christopher

Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero (Vincent Pastore)

• Anti-Villain
• The Big Guy
• Heroic BSOD: At the end of "D Girl" at AJ's Communion party.
• The Mole
• Killed Off for Real

Bobby Baccalieri (Steve Schirripa)

• Ascended Extra
• Anti-Villain: The most sympathetic and most innocent mobster in the series by a wide margin.
• Butt Monkey: Early on, Bobby was the butt of many of Tony's jokes. Tony nearly falls over laughing at Bobby when he showed up in full hunting gear to help him rescue Christopher and Paulie.
• Killed Off for Real
• Took a Level in Badass: Went from being one of the biggest teddy bears in the family to marrying Tony's sister and skyrocketing up to #3 in the pecking order by the end.
• Villain Out Shopping: Has a toy train hobby whenever he's not doing things for the family.
• Your Cheating Heart: Notably averted, other than Johnny Sack, Bobby is the only mobster on the show to not take a mistress.

Richie Aprile (David Proval)

• Ax Crazy
• Bait and Switch: It looks like his growing conflict with Tony will come to a head by the end of Season 2. Instead, he is abruptly taken out of the picture when his wife, Tony's sister Janice, shoots him dead after a domestic argument.
• Big Bad: For season 2.
• Killed Off for Real
• The Napoleon: -->Junior: He's got tremendous moxie for a guy his size.
• We Hardly Knew Ye

Furio Giunta (Federico Castelluccio)

• Badass Long Hair
• Beware the Quiet Ones
• The Big Guy: The tallest and easily the fittest of Tony's crew.
• Bruiser with a Soft Center
• Hidden Depths: His feelings for Carmela.
• Put on a Bus: Or rather a plane, back to Italy, when his and Carmela's feelings for each other become too strong to ignore (and before Tony finds out)

Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano)

• Asshole Victim
• Combat Pragmatist: Wasn't above spraying Tony in the eyes while fighting (and eventually losing) for his life.
• Hidden Depths
• Jerkass
• Killed Off for Real
• Redemption Equals Death: To a certain degree. He starts to become a better person when his son is injured but is killed by Tony before it can really go anywhere.

Vito Spatafore (Joseph R. Gannascoli)

• Armored Closet Gay: Shows signs of this a couple times.
• Ascended Extra
• Bury Your Gays
• Driven to Suicide: Subverted, after going on the run once he's discovered to be gay the camera focuses on him and his gun many times but he never kills himself.
• Ho Yay: With "Johnny Cakes" in season 6 and the security guard in season 5
• Killed Off for Real

Eugene Pontecorvo (Robert Funero)

• Ascended Extra
• A Death in the Limelight
• Despair Event Horizon: His realization in "Member's Only" that he'll never be able to leave the mob and move with his family down to Florida.
• Driven to Suicide
• Killed Off for Real
• The Mole
• Out of Focus: Listed in the main cast of season 3 but mostly amounts to being a background character until the premiere of season 6 and then he dies.

Carlo Gervasi (Arthur J. Nascarella)

• Minor Major Character: Despite having relatively few lines in the entire series, it's implied that him turning government witness may end being the thing that will eventually bury Tony. If Tony's still alive, of course.

Lupertazzi Crime Family Members

Carmine Lupertazzi (Tony Lip)

• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Asks his middle-aged son Carmine Jr. if he's put his sun block on, in front of Johnny Sack.
• The Don

John "Johnny Sack" Sacramoni (Vincent Curatola)

• Berserk Button: Normally one of the coolest and level-headed characters in the show. But don't EVER insult his wife.
• Big Bad: Built up as this for a while, up through the end of Season 5, when he resolves his conflict with Tony, and is arrested moments later.

Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent)

• Big Bad: During the final season.
• Conflict Killer: Tony had more than a few disagreements with Johnny Sack, but that was nothing compared to when Phil took over.
• The Don: Acting Boss after Johnny Sack is arrested, official Boss after Johnny pleads guilty and subsequently dies of cancer
• Jerkass
• Politically-Incorrect Villain: Orders Vito Spatafore killed for being gay.

FBI

Special Agent Dwight Harris (Matt Servitto)

• Anti-Hero: Though he gets a bit too cozy with Tony, untimely he makes deals with him because he needs Tony's help to grab bigger fish and has no selfish needs in mind.
• Enemy Mine: His final scene in the series is him celebrating the death of Phil Leotardo.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Agent Harris isn't above enjoying a sandwich and a chat with Tony at Satriale's from time to time.

Civilian Characters

Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco)

• Day in The Limelight: "Employee of the Month"
• Out of Focus: Starts off as a vital part of the series but gradually becomes less important in the scheme of things despite appearing in every season.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: It becomes such a problem, Jennifer ends up seeing her own head doctor to deal with her growing attraction to Tony. Finally, she admits to her problem and is able to strongly refuse Tony's advances by the end of the series.

Adriana La Cerva (Drea de Matteo)

• Ascended Extra: Quite literally, in the very first episode she appears for a few seconds as a hostess at Artie's restaurant before getting a name in episode 2 and finally getting storylines in the seasons after that.
• Killed Off for Real
• Living Emotional Crutch
• The Mole
• Ms. Fanservice

Artie Bucco (John Ventimiglia)

• Butt Monkey
• Henpecked Husband
• Morality Pet: One of the few people who Tony seems to be genuinely concerned as to the well being of.

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