List of The Sopranos characters

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

Jennifer Melfi

Carmela Soprano

Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero

Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero is portrayed by Vincent Pastore. Big Pussy was a longtime close friend and mob enforcer to Tony Soprano, and is also shown to be close friends with fellow DiMeo crime family mobsters Paulie "Paulie Walnuts" Gualtieri and Silvio Dante. He 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 is affectionately known as Pussy in reference to those talents. He is called "Big Pussy" to distinguish him from Gennaro "Little Pussy" Malanga. Sal has a wife, Angie, and three children. He operates an auto body shop with his brother Edward "Duke" Bonpensiero. Sal is a soldier in the Soprano crew, and he backed "Johnny Boy" Soprano's wishes to have Tony Soprano become capo following Johnny's death in 1986.
In order to put his children through college, he deals heroin on the side. Sometime between 1995 and 1998, Sal was caught by the FBI and decided to inform against the Soprano crew in order to avoid the possibility of life in prison. He was assigned Agent Skip Lipari as his handler. He is revealed as an informant in the episode "Do Not Resuscitate". In flashbacks to 1995, it is shown that Sal was instrumental in organizing a sit-down between high-ranking capo Junior Soprano and acting boss Jackie Aprile Sr. He traveled to Boca Raton to persuade Junior to return to New Jersey and settle a trucking dispute with Aprile. However, Sal was suspiciously late for the sit-down and blamed the health problems of his comare's mother.
In 1998, he is arrested at a card game run by Soprano family capo Jimmy Altieri. He tries to escape but throws his back out and is caught. He is quickly bailed out, but is confined to his home due to injury. Dirty cop Vin Makazian tells Tony he has a rat in his organization and points the finger at Sal. Tony assigns Paulie Gualtieri to investigate and to kill Sal, but only if he sees explicit proof. At a bathhouse with Paulie, Sal refuses to undress, blaming high blood pressure and alleging it would be bad for his back, but implying it could be because he is wearing a wire.
The bathhouse incident further raises the crew's suspicions, especially when Sal disappears soon afterwards. Paulie takes over his collections, and the crew kills Altieri, whom they decide has been the rat. Sal resurfaces at Tony's home in 2000, claiming to have been in Puerto Rico receiving treatment from an acupuncturist for his bad back. He starts lying to Agent Lipari, showing reluctance to divulge details. Acquaintance Jimmy Bones spots Sal with Agent Lipari, so Sal later kills him to prevent any possibility of him telling Tony what he saw. After Sal's return, he experiences relationship issues with his wife, Angie. Angie discusses leaving him with Carmela, who dissuades her, so she settles for sleeping in separate bedrooms.
When Tony becomes acting boss, he makes Silvio his consigliere and Paulie a capo, with new addition Furio Giunta on equal footing with Sal despite Sal's years of service. Sal wears a wire to A.J.'s confirmation, but he spends most of the time privately counseling A.J. instead of talking business with the crew. Following Christopher Moltisanti's shooting by associates Matthew Bevilaqua and Sean Gismonte, Sal resumes his loyal soldier role despite his double life as an informant; he tracks down the escaped Bevilaqua and shoots him to death with Tony. Sal, increasingly dissatisfied with Tony, becomes more cooperative with Agent Lipari and gives him information on Soprano's stolen airline tickets scam, leading to Tony's brief arrest.
Tony accepts his suspicions about Sal after a portentous dream in which Sal appears to him as a talking fish, a reference to the Mafia saying "sleep with the fishes". To be certain, he searches for evidence in Sal's home and finds a wire in a cigar box. He then organizes a hit on a boat with Sal, with Silvio and Paulie. After a last toast during which Tony asks Sal if a prostitute he has allegedly been seeing in Puerto Rico really exists and Sal admitting that he has "fucked up", Tony, Paulie, and Silvio shoot Sal to death, wrap his body in plastic bags, chains, and weights, and dump it into the ocean. After his death, Sal makes several appearances in dreams or flashbacks. Tony and other members of his crew tell Sal's friends and family that he disappeared after entering the witness protection program.

Silvio Dante

Anthony "A.J." Soprano Jr.

Meadow Soprano

Paulie Gualtieri

Livia Soprano

Adriana La Cerva

Richie Aprile

Richard "Richie" Aprile is played by David Proval. Richie is the older brother of acting DiMeo crime family boss Jackie Aprile, and was a capo in the DiMeo crime family before being sent to prison for ten years. Richie was previously married and fathered a son, Richie Aprile Jr. Richie returns from prison to a very different family, with Tony Soprano as the boss, whom Richie had known since before Tony had become a made man. Richie feels he is entitled to more control and a higher ranking position in the family for having paid his dues in prison.
Tony promises to give Richie his due, an offer which Richie immediately rebuffs, saying Tony does not have the authority to do it. Richie's tensions with Tony escalate throughout Season 2. One of Richie's first actions as a free man is to confront his old partner Peter "Beansie" Gaeta and try to extort money from Beansie's legitimate business investments. Later, Richie waits for Beansie to approach his car in the parking lot, then rams Beansie with his car, crushing him between the two vehicles. Richie then drives over Beansie's legs as he leaves.
Richie dislikes Tony's protégé Christopher Moltisanti because of his violent relationship with Richie's niece, Adriana La Cerva, and warns Christopher of the consequences should he ever hit her again while they are still unmarried. Christopher's two young associates, Matthew Bevilaqua and Sean Gismonte, learn of Richie's dislike for their boss, and shoot Christopher, hoping to impress Richie. The shooting goes wrong, however, and Christopher survives while Sean is killed. Richie had nothing to do with planning the hit, and when he learns of it, he refuses to help Bevilaqua and chases him off his premises waving a baseball bat.
Richie and Janice Soprano, Tony's sister, used to date in high school. When Richie gets out of prison, he and Janice resume their old relationship and eventually get engaged. Janice frequently encourages Richie to defy Tony because she wants to be married to the boss. In the end, Richie prepares, with the approval of Tony's Uncle Junior, to take over the family as boss. Richie approaches acting capo Albert "Ally Boy" Barese to ask for his support in his takeover bid, but he declines.
After weighing his options, Junior realizes he is better off with Tony in charge and tips him off about Richie's plans. Silvio Dante advises Tony that there is nothing to gain from leaving Richie alive, so Tony instructs Silvio to have Richie killed. However, after returning home one night, Richie gets into an argument with Janice over Richie's son's possible homosexuality, during which he punches her in the mouth before settling down for dinner.
Janice leaves the room and returns with a gun, shooting Richie twice and killing him. Distraught, she calls Tony, who has Christopher and Furio Giunta meet him to remove Richie's body. They bring his corpse to Satriale's to dismember it while Tony sends Janice off to Olympia, Washington to lie low.

Janice Soprano

Artie Bucco

Arthur "Artie" Bucco Jr. is played by John Ventimiglia. Artie is a restaurateur and chef, and childhood friend of Tony Soprano, attending elementary school together. Artie appears throughout the series, from the first episode to the penultimate episode. He and his wife, Charmaine Bucco, have three children: Chiara Bucco, Melissa Bucco, and Arthur "Art" Bucco III. Charmaine is frequently concerned about his attraction to Tony's criminal life and often warns Artie about his occasional attempts at involvement.
Despite Artie and Tony's close friendship, their relationship sees several low points. At the end of Season 1, Artie learns from Tony's mother, Livia, that Tony was responsible for the arson at his original restaurant co-owned with his wife, Vesuvio, in Essex County, New Jersey. Tony's Uncle Junior had planned to stage a hit at Vesuvio on "Little Pussy" Malanga, despite Tony's repeated requests to move the location of the hit. Tony, knowing that the restaurant's patrons would be permanently chased away if a hit occurred there, set the restaurant ablaze so that the hit would be avoided and Artie could rebuild the restaurant with the payout from his insurance policy.
Artie rebuilds the restaurant, renaming it Nuovo Vesuvio. However, Artie had a strong emotional attachment to the old restaurant, which he inherited from his father, and confronts Tony with a hunting rifle in the parking lot of Satriale's when he finds out that Tony was responsible. Eventually, Artie believes Tony's repeated denials of having been the arsonist. There is a brief tension between the two, but by the end of the Season 1 finale, they have made up.
In Season 3, Artie becomes infatuated with Adriana. When she quits working as a hostess at his restaurant, he unsuccessfully tries to court her. This causes a rift in his marriage to Charmaine and the two separate. In Season 4, Artie is approached by Frenchman Jean-Philippe, the brother of the new hostess at Vesuvio, for a $50,000 short-term loan to distribute Armagnac in the US. Artie agrees to lend him the money at high interest. He tries to borrow the money from Ralph, who declines but mentions it to Tony, who reminds Artie of their friendship and insists that he accept the loan from him.
Ten days pass and Jean-Philippe is not answering the phone. Artie goes to his home; Jean-Philippe says plainly that the deal has failed and there is no money. Artie attacks him. Jean-Philippe gets the better of him, rips out his earring, and throws him out. At home, Artie overdoses on alcohol and pills and calls Tony to apologize. Tony deduces that his friend is trying to kill himself and calls 911.
At the hospital, Tony says that Artie can clear his $6,000 tab at Nuovo Vesuvio in lieu of payment. Artie expresses admiration that Tony could intuitively foresee that the deal would go bad and so he would be able to profit from it; this makes Tony furious. Someone rings the bell at Jean-Philippe's apartment. He opens the door: it is Furio.
In the third episode of Season 5, Tony learns that Artie has been living in a Motel 6 since the separation from his wife. Tony offers to let Artie stay in his mother's old house, where Tony has been living since his separation from Carmela. Artie accepts, and the old friends reconcile. In Season 6, Artie and Charmaine reconcile. There is a growing sense of dissatisfaction amongst Nuovo Vesuvio's diners, culminating in the episode "Luxury Lounge".
Artie has hired another young hostess whom he lusts after—Martina, an undocumented Albanian immigrant he has been helping through the U.S. government's immigration process. Soprano crew associate Benny Fazio is a regular fixture at the restaurant's bar, flirting with Martina. The restaurant is losing many customers to the new rival restaurant, Da Giovanni's. Nuovo Vesuvio's finances worsen when American Express will not let its customers use its cards there, because several account numbers had been stolen and used to run up charges elsewhere. Artie confronts Martina, who instantly breaks, tearfully admitting to stealing, then passing, the charge card numbers to Benny.
Artie is enraged and storms to Benny's house in the middle of the night. Benny tries to deny his involvement, and Artie starts a brawl, knocking Benny unconscious on his front porch. Though Benny is eager to seek revenge on Artie, Tony insists that the pair must make peace and has the Fazio family have dinner at Artie's restaurant. However, after an overconfident Artie slyly references Benny's affair in front of his pregnant wife, a furious Benny forces Artie's hand into a vat of boiling sauce, severely burning it. Later, a healed Artie appears to restore his business. Artie had also catered Christopher Moltisanti's belated bachelor party at Nuovo Vesuvio without coming into further confrontation with Benny.