Aside from James Gandolfini and Michael Imperioli, have there been any noteworthy roles for the main people in The Sopranos?
I know Edie Falco is having some success as Nurse Jackie and I have seen folks like Vincent Pastore and Steve Schirripa lately in less-than-stellar roles, but I’m having trouble thinking of anybody from the show making it big since the screen went dark in the restaurant.
Who am I missing?
How successful are you thinking? Looking at IMDB, it seems most of them (other then AJ) have at least managed to keep themselves busy.
Bobby was on The Secret Life Of the American Teenager
Adriana was on Joey and Desperate Housewives
The priest is sleeping with Edie Falco on Nurse Jackie
Melfi is on some TNT show and in a bunch of made for TV movies
Jr released at least one album that I know of, maybe more.
Meadow was on Entourage and Ugly Betty
Silvio is in some band
Gabriella’s IRL husband is in some band.
I’d leave that up to others’ criteria for “success.” Gandolfini is obviously finding starring (or at least primary support) roles in movies. Imperioli has had modest success with TV series roles.
I do see quite a few of the players from time to time in smallish parts and will immediately recognize them from The Sopranos. But I can’t think of anybody who’s “made it big” since then.
That, of course, leaves out the guest stars like Buscemi and Pantoliano who were already big names before their parts in The Sopranos.
I guess another way to put it would be “has any actor on The Sopranos done anything since that show to be better known for than what he or she did there?”
For Soprano’s fans, I don’t think any one has yet. But I’m sure there are plenty of people that never watched the Sopranos and therefore only know someone from their new role. Having said that, over the course of the next ten years…maybe, I guess we’ll see. The Sopranos was a pretty big deal, it’s going to be very hard to top. You know how on American Idol, there are certain songs that the judges will call “Big Songs,” The Sopraons was a Big Show, with a lot of Big Characters. It’s going to be very hard to top that.
Nurse Jackie might be able to do it, but only because Edie has the lead, it’s on every week (unlike a movie) and it’s currently on. Also, I know this is odd, but the cinematography is totally different. The Sopranos was a very dark show (as in the color and lighting) whereas Nurse Jackie is very bright/white/clean. It makes the show stand out.
But I think for someone that’s watched the Sopranos, people still see her as Carmella.
ETA, Also Jackie is a very different character then Carmella. Looking at Drea, her characters on The Sopranos, Desperate Housewives and Joey were all pretty similar.
I have no problem at all separating Jackie from Carmella. Falco has immersed herself very successfully in the role of the druggie nurse. Gandolfini, unfortunately, has the same mannerisms and personality no matter what role he plays.
I think what provoked me to start this thread was that just within the past few weeks I have seen quite a few of the alums from The Sopranos in other roles and it has seemed to me that other defunct “big shows” like Deadwood, The Wire, The Shield and others I was caught up in at the time, have had their players getting better (at least more significant) parts than Sopranos players. It’s not that they’re not finding work, but they’re not rising very high on the road to stardom.
And as for Gandolfini having limited acting chops, I just plain disagree. He can’t get away from his physical attributes, but his emotional range is quite impressive to me. He has played mild-mannered and sympathetic characters convincingly and as recently as Welcome to the Rileys (2010) Roger Ebert had this to say:
The thing is that in that role, if you hadn’t seen The Sopranos, you’d have a hard time thinking of Doug as a mob boss!
She has, no doubt, and as an avid Nurse Jakie watcher, I don’t have that problem. But at the moment, I still think Carmella is bigger then Jackie. And at the moment, that may just be because Sopranos was a bigger show, ran for much longer, had (I assume) a bigger more loyal fan base and is in syndication while Nurse Jackie is still fairly new, seems to be struggling and is on HBO. If it can hold on for a few more seasons, I think Jackie will be bigger then Carmella in the present but I think long after Nurse Jackie is over, people will still associate Edie with Carmella give the choice.
I think we’ll need to wait until someone other then Tony or Carmella gets a lead in something that runs for a few seasons and see what happens then. Those two really made their mark in pop culture.
This summarizes the issue very well. And the big question is who will that someone be? And when?
If you remove Tony and Carmela from that cast, who is left?
If an actor is cast in one show that is becomes a big hit, that’s a big deal - and frequently it’s the high point of their career. Not that many actors get cast in two or more hit shows. I would think that’s especially true for character actors. Most of the people who played supporting roles on The Sopranos were either already typecast as wiseguys, or they would be after the show. There were also a lot of great actors on The Wire and most of them have not had as much high-profile work since then (Idris Elba and Dominic West come to mind as exceptions, and Michael K. Williams is on Boardwalk Empire). I know David Simon feels that’s partly because there just aren’t that many great parts for black actors and that may be part of it, but it’s also true that not every actor goes onto bigger and better things after doing a well-known HBO series.
I mean, you can say the same about other HBO shows - of Six Feet Under only Michael C. Hall has really gone up (to a leading role in Dexter). From Deadwood, Ian McShane has been around but then he was an experienced actor who’s been in tons of stuff before that. (So was Powers Booth, but I haven’t heard much from him since.) That one guy whose name I can’t remember has been around a TON (he played Jack McCall and also that serial killer guy) but I know him as Cromartie from The Sarah Connor Chronicles. As for Rome, I’m hard pressed to think of any of those people who I’ve seen hide or hair of since.
I bet you’re thinking of Garret Dillahunt from Deadwood! He’s one of the examples I would use to try to find a comparable Sopranos actor.
Rome’s people would include
Kevin McKidd
Indira Varma
to name just a couple I’ve seen in significant roles since the show folded.
Peter Krause is one of the leads in the Parenthood series.
He’s been the lead of like three shows since Six Feet ended. Granted those shows seem to get canceled pretty quickly, but he doesn’t appear to have any trouble getting re-hired.
The Hispanic mortician is a recurring character on Ugly Betty.
Freddy Rodriguez. He’s in a new show, CHAOS…don’t know if it’s premiered yet, but CBS (I think) has been promoting it.
Part of why I started this thread was to avoid going through every IMDb list of credits for each actor who worked in The Sopranos since so many of the shows since then are things I haven’t watched for one reason or another. Thus I have little idea which of those roles might qualify as relatively significant when compared with Gandolfini, Imperioli, Falco, Hall, Dillahunt and the like.
When I looked over Ray Stevenson’s (Rome) credits, I saw that he’s been very busy, in spite of my seeing his work in only a couple of things. I don’t know how to rate his “success” based on what I’ve seen of his. Others are in the same boat as far as my watching goes.
Thus the appeal to you people for ideas on who might be doing well after The Sopranos folded.
Carmella played congresswoman Celeste Cunningham on 30 Rock. I saw that before I saw Sopranos and I thought she was quite convincing.
I agree. I think the actors also suffer from the cultural phenomenon that the show was. I’d also add that it wasn’t an especially young cast. Gandolfini and Falco were both well into their thirties when the show started. Even Michael Imperioli was over thirty. Most of the major supporting players were even older, excepting the kids and Drea de Matteo. Lorraine Bracco certainly wasn’t on an upswing in her career when she took the part. The show lasted a pretty long time. Tony Sirico was 65 when it ended. The world had seen him for the past 8 years as Paulie. He would have a lot to overcome, if he even wanted to. Steve Van Zandt was about 57. Vincent Pastore was in his fifties when he left the show. Most actors don’t become big stars that late in life, especially if the most visible role was a memorable part on a long-running, very popular tv show. Gandolfini, Falco, and Imperioli may be young enough and have enough range to pull it off and have another hit, but most of the cast won’t.
That said, Vincent Pastore seems to have worked a lot since the show, especially in the past year. I don’t know how successful any of those roles have been. Additionally, Joe Pantoliano has worked steadily since leaving the show. He has always worked steadily, so I don’t know if the show helped him in that regard. He’s such a chameleon, I don’t think he can be typecast. I wouldn’t be surprised if he manages to get a role that surpasses his role as Ralphie, if only because Ralphie wasn’t as distinctive as some of the other characters. If someone other than Gandolfini, Falco, or Imperioli is going to do it, I think it will be Joe Pantoliano.
Well thought out and presented, missouri65 and Marley23, and I think it would be hard to make a much stronger case for the why behind what appears to be happening.
Another factor that may be implied (if it’s been stated, I missed it) is that so many of the minor characters in The Sopranos were cast from “the general puiblic” or “casting calls” of untrained people who were likely chosen more for their local color than for acting skills or ambitions. I’d be interested in have a statistical breakdown of the hundreds whose names appear on Full cast and crew for “The Sopranos” in terms of “years of previous acting experience.”
I think that says a lot right there. There are many, many good performers out there and holding a lead role on a series or top-tier film doesn’t necessarily translate to enduring A-list status. Personally I feel a series/film is more driven now by the story, directing, sfx than it is by actors. That doesn’t mean quality performances don’t add to a production, but it isn’t an iron rice bowl.