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Tony Soprano
Anthony John Soprano, portrayed by James Gandolfini, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the HBO crime drama television series ''The Sopranos''. He is a member of the American Mafia, Italian-American Mafia and, later in the series, becomes the boss of the fictional DiMeo crime family of North Jersey. The character was conceived by ''Sopranos'' creator and showrunner David Chase, who was also largely responsible for the character's story arc throughout the series. Gandolfini was cast in the role ahead of other actors, including Steven Van Zandt and Michael Rispoli. The character is loosely based on stories from and about an assortment of real-life Mafia figures, including New Jersey mobsters Richard Boiardo, Ruggerio "Richie the Boot" Boiardo, boss of the North Jersey faction of the Genovese crime family, and Vincent Palermo, Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, a former ''caporegime'' and ''de facto'' boss of the DeCavalcante crime family. Bobby Boriello and Mark Damiano ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sopranos
''The Sopranos'' is an American Crime film#Crime drama, crime drama television series created by David Chase. The series follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey American Mafia, Mafia boss who suffers from panic attacks. He reluctantly begins seeing a psychiatrist, Jennifer Melfi, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco), who encourages him to open up about his difficulties balancing his family life with his criminal life. List of The Sopranos characters, Other important characters include Tony's family, Mafia colleagues, and rivals, most notably his wife Carmela Soprano, Carmela (Edie Falco) and his protégé and distant cousin Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli). Having been Greenlight, greenlit in 1997, the series was broadcast on HBO from January 10, 1999, to June 10, 2007, spanning six seasons and List of The Sopranos episodes, 86 episodes. Broadcast syndication followed in the United States and internationally. ''The Sopranos'' was produced by HBO, Chase Films, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protagonist
A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a story contains a subplot, or is a narrative made up of several stories, then each subplot may have its own protagonist. The protagonist is the character whose fate is most closely followed by the reader or audience, and who is opposed by the antagonist. The antagonist provides obstacles and complications and creates conflicts that test the protagonist, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist's character, and having the protagonist develop as a result. A particularly noble, virtuous, or accomplished protagonist is commonly called a ''hero,'' though the terms are not synonyms. Etymology The term ''protagonist'' comes , combined of (, 'first') and (, 'actor, competitor'), which stems from (, 'contest') via (, 'I conten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caporegime
A ''caporegime'' or ''capodecina'', usually shortened to ''capo'' or informally referred to as "captain", "skipper" or "lieutenant", is a leadership position in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia). A ''capo'' is a "made man, made member" of an Italian crime family who heads a ''regime'' or "crew" of soldato, soldiers and has major status and influence in the organization. ''Caporegime'' is an Italian word, used to signify the head of a family in Sicily. In general, the term indicates the head of a branch of an organized crime syndicate who commands a crew of soldiers and reports directly to the don (Crime boss, boss) or an underboss or street boss. The shortened version "''capo''" has also been used to refer to certain high-ranking members of Latin American drug cartels. Sources * Capeci, Jerry. ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia''. Indianapolis: Alpha Books, 2002. . * Pistone, Joseph D. ''Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia''. Pan Bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vincent Palermo
Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo (born June 4, 1944) is an Italian-American former mobster who was the '' de facto'' boss of the DeCavalcante crime family of North Jersey before becoming a government witness in 1999. Fictional mob boss Tony Soprano, the protagonist of the HBO series ''The Sopranos'', is said to be based upon Palermo. Similar to how Soprano worked from the fictional Bada Bing! strip club owned by Silvio Dante on the show, Palermo owned a strip club called Wiggles. Background Vincent Palermo was born in New York City on June 4, 1944, and raised in a traditional Italian-American family in Brooklyn. He was an in-law by marriage to Nicholas Delmore, the former head of the New Jersey crime family, whose nephew was Simone DeCavalcante, also a New Jersey mob boss whose daughter he married. Palermo has five sisters, including Claire and Nancy, and two brothers. His father was an Italian immigrant who moved to New York when he was a teenager. Palermo came from a close-knit fam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genovese Crime Family
The Genovese crime family (), also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian Americans, Italian American American Mafia, Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American Mafia. The Genovese family has generally maintained a varying degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia crime family, Philadelphia, Cleveland crime family, Cleveland, Patriarca crime family, Patriarca, and Buffalo crime family, Buffalo crime families. The modern family was founded by Lucky Luciano, Charles "Lucky" Luciano and was known as the Luciano crime family from 1931 to 1957, when Vito Genovese became crime boss, boss. Genovese was head of the family during the McClellan hearings in 1963, which gave the Five Families their current names. Originally in control of the waterfront on the West Side (Manhattan), West Side of Manhattan as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Boiardo
Ruggiero Boiardo (December 8, 1890 – October 29, 1984), also known as "the Boot", was an Italian-American mobster and powerful Caporegime in the New Jersey faction of the Genovese crime family. He was named Capo after Willie Moretti was promoted to the position of underboss by Frank Costello. Richie the Boot ruled the greater Newark and North Jersey gang territories for over three decades. Early life Boiardo was born on December 8, 1890, in Naples, and was raised in the town of Marigliano. He was placed in an orphanage as a child. He later claimed that he was the illegitimate son of an Italian nobleman who was a descendant of Matteo Maria Boiardo. Boiardo later became known as "The Boot", a nickname which he developed in his youth, had been said to have derived from the heavy footed way he disposed of his gangland foes. He immigrated to the United States in 1901. Criminal career In the early 1930s, Boiardo was ambushed and seriously wounded with 12 buckshot pellet wounds. He s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeast megalopolis, it is bordered to the northwest, north, and northeast by New York (state), New York State; on its east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on its west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on its southwest by Delaware Bay and Delaware. At , New Jersey is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, fifth-smallest state in land area. According to a 2024 United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau estimate, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 11th-most populous state, with over 9.5 million residents, its highest estimated count ever. The state capital is Trenton, New Jersey, Trenton, and the state's most populous city is Newark, New Jersey, Newark. New Jersey is the only U.S. stat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Rispoli
Michael Rispoli (born November 27, 1960) is an American character actor. He was a contender for the role of Tony Soprano in the HBO television series ''The Sopranos,'' but was ultimately cast as Jackie Aprile Sr., Jackie Aprile, a recurring character in the show's first season. Rispoli reunited with ''Sopranos'' co-star James Gandolfini in the 2009 thriller ''The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009 film), The Taking of Pelham 123''. He was a series regular on the HBO series ''The Deuce (TV series), The Deuce.'' Early life and education Rispoli, a second-generation Italian American, was raised in Tappan, New York, one of eight children, and attended Tappan Zee High School, where he played football.Rodriguez, Justin"Actor trades Hollywood glitz for life in Pine Bush" ''Times Herald-Record'', July 26, 2014. Accessed October 27, 2018. "Rispoli actually first heard of Pine Bush as a senior at Tappan Zee High School in 1977.... Michael Rispoli fell in love with Pine Bush. It reminded him of h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Van Zandt
Steven Van Zandt (né Lento; born November 22, 1950), also known as Little Steven or Miami Steve, is an American musician and actor. He is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin. He has appeared in several television drama series, including as Silvio Dante in ''The Sopranos'' (1999–2007) and as Frank Tagliano/Giovanni 'Johnny' Henriksen in '' Lilyhammer'' (2012–2014). Van Zandt has his own solo band called Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul, intermittently active since the 1980s. In 2014, Van Zandt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band. Van Zandt has produced music, written songs, and had his own songs covered by Springsteen, Meat Loaf, Darlene Love, Ronnie Spector, Nancy Sinatra, Pearl Jam, Southside Johnny, Artists United Against Apartheid, and the Iron City Houserockers, among others. Early life Van Zandt was born Steven Lento on November 22, 1950, in Winthrop, Massac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Jersey
North Jersey, also known as Northern New Jersey, comprises the northern portions of the U.S. state of New Jersey between the upper Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. As a distinct toponym, North Jersey is a colloquial one rather than an administrative one, reflecting geographical and perceived cultural and other differences between it and the southern part of the state.("Of course, part of the problem with understanding New Jersey's enduring regional tension is that few residents can agree on where the northern half of the state end and the southern half begins.") North Jersey is characterized by its position, both geographically and culturally, within the greater New York City metropolitan area, as well as its high economic output, including its regional economic engines of Paramus in Bergen County, which had $6 billion in annual retail sales as of 2018 and Jersey City, whose financial district has been nicknamed " Wall Street West", Newark Liberty International Airport ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DiMeo Crime Family
This is a list of characters from the HBO series ''The Sopranos'', and its prequel film ''The Many Saints of Newark.'' Main characters Cast table Main character biographies Tony Soprano Jennifer Melfi Carmela Soprano Christopher Moltisanti Corrado "Junior" Soprano Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero is portrayed by Vincent Pastore. Big Pussy was a longtime close friend and mob enforcer for Tony Soprano, and was also shown to be close friends with fellow DiMeo crime family mobsters Paulie "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri and Silvio Dante, and was once a close friend to Tony's uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano. In the tie-in video game it is revealed he has an illegitimate son named Joey LaRocca. Samson Moeakiola portrays a young Bonpensiero in the 2021 prequel film, ''The Many Saints of Newark''. The son of Lino Bonpensiero, Salvatore Bonpensiero started out as a cat burglar, and was affectionately known as Pussy, in reference to those talent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
