Latest news with #TonySoprano
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
At ‘only 94,' ‘Sopranos' star Dominic Chianese eyes second act as troubadour
NEW YORK — Dominic Chianese still has a lot of living to do. And he thinks Tony Soprano may too. The 94-year-old actor best known for playing Uncle Junior on HBO's mob hit 'The Sopranos' is coming to Town Hall on June 30 where he plans to tell stories about his life so far and play folk songs. Chianese told the Daily News from England, where he's spent the past eight years, that he workshopped material in London to suss out whether there's an audience for such a performance. 'I did about seven shows to see if people are interested in stories, and they are,' he said. The Bronx native's show draws from the 25 years of stage work he did before landing a role in 1974's 'The Godfather Part II' and beyond. That included being reunited with 'Godfather' star Al Pacino in 1979 to do Shakespeare's 'Richard III' at the Cort Theatre. While he remembers that experience fondly, Chianese has a clear favorite. ''Requiem for a Heavyweight' with John Lithgow,' he stated convincingly. 'That was my favorite — 1985.' Chianese thanks lots of live theater work for making him a solid actor and said his best performances have happened on stage. But it was his role as crime family boss Corrado Soprano, better known as 'Uncle Junior,' that made him a household name with a few dollars in his bank account. 'I didn't really make any money until 'Sopranos,'' he said. 'It's the best role I ever had and the most financially gratifying role I ever had.' Eighteen years later and 3,400 miles from the gambling dens of New Jersey, he's still known as Uncle June. 'I get recognized all the time,' Chianese said. 'That's gratifying because I like people.' 'The Sopranos' famously concluded with lead character Tony Soprano sitting at a diner where maybe he got whacked. Who knows? The 2013 death of James Gandolfini pretty much put to rest any possibility the beloved gangster series would someday be revived. Like the rest of us, Chianese was stunned when the series' final episode cut to black as a character who may or may not have been a hit man walked toward Tony. 'The way it ended he's still alive,' Chianese said. 'Nobody knows.' Likewise, nobody including Chianese knows how and when his career will end either, but he hopes to wind up in New York City where it all began. 'I'd like to be in Manhattan because there's a lot I'd like to do in my career,' he said. 'I'm only 94.' Being married to an English woman made life overseas alluring to Chianese. He's been bouncing between the U.S. and England for more than 30 years and says it's time to come home where he has family, and hopefully, more career opportunities. Someday performing at Radio City Music Halls tops his bucket list. 'When you go up on 6th Avenue and you see that big place with the Rockettes, that's such a place. That would be nice wouldn't it?' he beamed. Chianese doesn't see becoming a Rockette in his future. But his Town Hall show should give fans a taste of what he wants to do next. It draws from his work in film and television as well as his days as an emcee at Greenwich Village's Gerde's Folk City in the 1960s and '70s. He estimates that he met 600 folk musicians during that period including an already famous Bob Dylan, whom he calls one of his favorite writers. He also had the pleasure of introducing downtown music fans to a local duo named Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, who were fine-tuning a new song called 'The Sound of Silence.' Fans who come to hear Chianese tell stories and play tunes can expect him to perform songs by Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and 'maybe' Leonard Cohen. They'll also hear some Italian classics the Cuban anthem 'Guantanamera' made famous by acts including Pete Seeger, José Feliciano and the Sandpipers. 'That's one of my favorites,' he said. Chianese said music has been an important part of his development as an artist, which he hopes to prove when he hits the stage with a guitar in hand rather than the the mafioso scowl he wore on more than 50 episodes of 'The Sopranos.' 'It's a wonderful career and I want it to keep going,' he said. Chianese said he has friends in New York keeping an eye out for available properties while he tries to figure out what to do with his place in England. He hopes people in his hometown will respond to his June 30 performance — and whatever follows— as well as fans have abroad. It's his feeling New Yorkers may find his stories particularly relatable. 'They should want to know how a Bronx kid made it,' Chianese said.
Wall Street Journal
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘Gandolfini' Review: The Man Behind the Mob Boss
Starting out, James Gandolfini was willing to consider all sorts of theatrical roles, but he did not want to play a mafioso. Having grown up in an Italian-American family in blue-collar New Jersey, he was loath to disappoint his parents. 'He felt like his mom and dad had both worked too hard making sure their kids got a good education to end up playing, you know, somebody that was not representing Italians very well,' Jason Bailey quotes an old friend saying of the actor in 'Gandolfini,' a snappy and tactful biography subtitled 'Jim, Tony, and the Life of a Legend.' Fate, of course, had other plans. Imposing and magnetic, Gandolfini (1961-2013) was offered tough-guy roles as soon as he started looking for work. He was an actor on the rise when he came to the attention of David Chase, the creator of 'The Sopranos,' who was casting for a lead for his new television series. Mr. Chase, who had visualized Robert De Niro playing the violent, conflicted, charismatic Tony Soprano, wasn't immediately sold on Gandolfini. He liked a couple of other candidates, and he worried that that the actor, who already had a reputation, would be 'a pain in the ass on set.' But no other contender quite matched the darkness and sense of realness that Gandolfini brought to the role. Gandolfini's combination of twinkling charm and dead-eyed menace helped make 'The Sopranos' a hit. The show ran on HBO for six seasons, over the course of 86 episodes spread out over 8½ years starting in 1999. It is widely regarded as having inaugurated a new golden age of cinematic television, making possible a torrent of TV series with gritty performances, top-drawer writing and high production values, including 'The Wire,' 'Breaking Bad' and 'Mad Men.' 'The Sopranos' had an ensemble cast, but like the fictional family and crime syndicate the show depicted, it needed Gandolfini as both anchor and prime mover. In the role of Tony Soprano, a mobster having a midlife crisis, Gandolfini could toggle between geniality and aggression with terrifying speed. Prone to gaining weight that was good for throwing around on screen, he was, according to an early colleague, 'a sweetheart of a guy—but you could tell that there's a sharp edge on the other end of that thing, too.'
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The Sopranos fans are going crazy over the 'strangest edit in the entire show' from revered series - as bizarre scene from 21 years ago resurfaces
It's been more than two decades since The Sopranos first graced our screens - but the landmark HBO series still finds ways to surprise its fans. And this time, it's not a plot twist or a cryptic dream sequence that's setting social media alight. Rather, fans can't get enough of a jarringly produced scene from Season 5, Episode 10, titled Cold Cuts, that's being widely dubbed online as 'the strangest edit in the entire show'. The moment in question features Carmela Soprano - Tony's elegant but long-suffering wife - played by Edie Falco. She has a final, awkward encounter with school guidance counsellor Robert Wegler (David Strathairn), with whom she shared a brief and ill-fated romance earlier in the season. Following a tense confrontation a few episodes before, in which Wegler accused Carmela of using intimacy as a means to manipulate his grading of her underachieving son A.J., the relationship ended abruptly. But in Cold Cuts, the two crossed paths again at school. Clearly uncomfortable, Carmela blurted out: 'I'm going back to my husband.' The camera then lingered on Carmela turning away from Wegler. Fans can't get enough of a jarringly produced scene from Season 5, Episode 10, titled Cold Cuts, that's being widely dubbed online as 'the strangest edit in the entire show' She walked off - following which the scene inexplicably shifted into super-slow motion, complete with an odd, breathless silence. Viewers watched her pace away at an almost glacial crawl before the image abruptly froze mid-stride. Then a wipe transition slid across the screen, PowerPoint-style, ushering in the next scene at a lake where other characters are relaxing. Cue baffled Sopranos fans across the internet. 'Is that the ol' PowerPoint swipe?' one viewer asked on X (formerly Twitter), capturing the collective bewilderment. Another joked: 'Edited like a movie project I made for class in the 8th grade.' The post, shared by X user The Sopranos Guy, has racked up thousands of likes and hordes of perplexed comments Fans of the show were quick to express their amazement at the unusual editing choices from the series widely regarded as the best of all time One commenter wrote: 'I thought my stream froze the first couple watch-throughs,' while another echoed: 'I thought it froze at first'. And another chimed in: 'That was an old school way of ending a story line. "And that was it! Wrap it up boys!"' Another viewer suggested that the intentionally strange editing was a wink to the audience, symbolising Carmela's acute embarrassment and Wegler's stunned reaction to the emotional bombshell she'd just dropped. A few eagle-eyed cinephiles were quick to spot potential influences. The transition, they argued, might be a stylistic nod to Akira Kurosawa - the legendary Japanese filmmaker known for pioneering the wipe transition - or even Star Wars creator George Lucas, who famously borrowed the technique for his galaxy-spanning saga. Still, most agreed that the moment feels wildly out of step with the otherwise tight, understated direction the show is known for. 'First-time director got cute. Never returned again. Great episode though,' one viewer quipped. Cold Cuts remains a critically acclaimed entry in the series, delving into themes of familial resentment and emotional repression with typical Sopranos flair. But that one odd edit has somehow managed to upstage the episode's deeper emotional beats - if only temporarily. Whether it was a deliberate stylistic choice or an overzealous moment in the editing suite, the transition has now entered the annals of Sopranos lore. And in a show celebrated for its layers of meaning and artistic subtlety, perhaps the strangest twist of all is that fans are still debating a mid-season cut more than 20 years on.
Daily Mail
06-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Sopranos actor Charley Scalies dead at age 84: The Wire vet dies following battle with Alzheimer's
Beloved character actor Charley Scalies died Thursday at age 84 following a battle with Alzheimer's. Scalies' daughter Anne Marie Scalies revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that her father died Thursday at a nursing facility in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Scalies portrayed loyal stevedore Thomas 'Horseface' Pakusa on 12 episodes of The Wire during the show's second season in 2003. The sophomore frame of the enduring series from creator David Simon closely examined the economic issues Baltimore dockworkers faced amid changing times. Scalies also appeared in an episode of another iconic HBO series - The Sopranos - as he played Coach Molinaro, the high school football coach of Tony Soprano, played by late legend James Gandolfini. The character appeared in an intense exchange in a dream scene in an episode titled The Test Dream. Charley Scalies played Coach Molinaro, Tony Soprano's high school football coach, in a dream scene that showed the insecurities the troubled mob boss faced (and sought to deal with through therapy). The discussion between the coach - who saw potential in a young Soprano - and the fully-grown Tony Soprano illustrated the psychological insecurities the fearsome New Jersey mob boss harbored, and sought to address through therapy. The episode (which first aired May 16, 2004) was the show's 11th episode of its fifth season, directed by Allen Coulter and written by Matthew Weiner and Sopranos creator David Chase. A Legacy obituary - which noted Scalies died 'peacefully' - emphasized the role family played in his life. It noted he was 'best known first and foremost as a husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend,' adding that his 'favorite audience was always seated around the dinner table.' The obit described Scalies, a native of South Philadelphia, as 'an American actor and former business executive whose life reflected a rich blend of professional achievement, creative passion, and a true joy for life.' Season two of The Wire showed how the slow times at the docks led a few workers - including Pakusa - to earn extra cash smuggling in contraband. Amid the items unwittingly smuggled in by the Baltimore crew drugs and women tragically trafficked into the U.S. to be sex workers. On The Wire, the Horseface character was second-in-command to union leader Frank Sobotka (played by Chris Bauer), who had gotten into a desperate situation trying to keep his union and workers afloat amid declining times for the longshoremen. Sobotka, assisted by Horseface and his nephew Nick Sobotka (played by Pablo Schreiber) eventually resort to criminal smuggling to fund political efforts in a last-ditch effort to reinvigorate business at the docks. Scalies posed with Gandolfini during the production of the popular HBO series Soboktka's wayward son Ziggy (played by James Ransone, also gets involved peripherally, leading to tragic consequences down the line. has reached out to Simon, Bauer, Schreiber and Ransone, as well as their reps, for further comment on this story. Scalies told Chesapeake Bay Magazine in 2019 about his work on the HBO series, saying that the only time he had ever been on the docks was when he filmed the show. Scalies said that 'the only time I even met a stevedore was shortly after I was cast as Horseface.' The role was a perfect fit, as shortly after landing the part, Scalies happened to chat with several real-life stevedores and union reps for the International Longeshoremen's Association, who all approved of his casting. 'I told them I had just been cast as a union 'checker' on a TV show,' he recalled. 'Their response was immediate and unanimous: "He looks like a checker."' Scalies explained: 'As with all the other characters I've been blessed to portray, Horseface lives inside of me - I invite him out to play as needed.' On Twitter, a number of fans of the show paid homage to the late actor in the role he played on The Wire, making inside references to scenes that involved his character. A post from the Wire fan account Ziggy_Sobotka read: 'Heartbroken to report that Charlie Scalies, Horseface on The Wire and Coach Molinaro from The Sopranos has passed away.' It concluded: 'Charles J. Scalies, Jr. 7/19/1940 – 5/1/2025.' One fan commented, 'Great characters RIP to the legend.' Another said, 'R. I. P. He's still on the clock.' Referring to a scene illustrating Horseface's loyalty to the union, one fan wrote, 'Good luck to St Peter getting anything out of him at the pearly gates without an IBS lawyer present.' One Twitter user aptly remarked, 'At what age does death not break your heart?' According to the Legacy obit, Scalies is survived by 'the true love and joy of his life, his wife of 62 years, Angeline M. Scalies (née Cardamone); his five children: Charles (Chuck) Scalies III, Angeline Kogut (Steve Kogut), Anthony (Tony) Scalies, Christa Ann Scalise, and Anne Marie Scalies (Shawn Weaver); and grandchildren Charles IV, Christopher, Domenic and Amelia Scalies.'
Daily Mirror
29-04-2025
- Daily Mirror
'Tony Soprano' TV presenter 'ordered murder of rivals to boost ratings'
A Tony Soprano figure and popular TV host allegedly moonlighted as drugs-lord, ordering hits on his rivals to boost his own ratings. Wallace Souza hosted the controversial TV show Canal Livre. Broadcast daily, at lunchtime, it featured gory, raw, and rapid crime content with nothing left to the imagination. But police grew suspicious when the newsanchor and his crew were first on the scene in a string brutal murders and detectives soon began to believe that he had taken to creating violent crime in a bid to keep viewers hooked. For instance, when one corpse was found burnt and bound in nearby jungle, Canal Livre arrived to the scene with such speed that the reporter told how the body "smells like barbecue.' He added, addressing the camera man, 'Yes, my friend, it's here. Look. Here is the body,' pointing at the charred human remains. The victims were Souza's rivals in his other profession - drug trafficking. Authorities believe he ordered at least five murders. Each hit, it is alleged, furthered his triple-threat career as a gangster, a TV presenter and a politician. It eliminated a rival drug trafficker, boosted his show's ratings and demonstrated his claim that the region he represented was plagued with crime. Souza, who was once expelled from the police force following a scandal, always claimed the allegations were part of a smear campaign against him. Netflix viewers urged to watch 'hidden gem' war film starring Jamie Dornan Police told the Associated Press the orders to execute came from Souza and his son and that TV crews from the show, now off the air, were alerted so they could get to the scene first. State Security Secretary Francisco Cavalcanti also said: "On several occasions they fabricated facts. They fabricated news." In August 2009, local authorities accused the 51-year-old of suspicion of masterminding the murders. A former bodyguard was arrested and accused of nine murders, and he admitted at least one of them had been broadcast on the show. Police then raided Souza's house, uncovering several assault rifles. Souza was arrested in October 2009. But, with a seat in the Amazonas state legislature, elected three times, Souza remained free until his death from a heart attack at 51 in 2010, taking the truth with him to his grave. However, his son Rafael was arrested on charges of murder, drug trafficking and illegally possessing a gun.
