Tony Blundetto
Encyclopedia
Anthony "Tony" Blundetto, played by Steve Buscemi
, is a fictional character
on the HBO TV
series The Sopranos
. He is Tony Soprano
's cousin who is released from prison
at the beginning of the show's fifth season. Tony Blundetto first appears as a calm, composed, and reformed criminal ready to pursue a straight, non-criminal, civilian life. However, it doesn't take long for him to realize that civilian life isn't what he wants and he turns back to crime, dragging the DiMeo Crime Family
into the Lupertazzi Crime Family's power struggle, which ultimately leads to his death.
". He is cousin to Tony Soprano and Christopher Moltisanti
. To distinguish between them, they were called "Tony Uncle Johnny" (Soprano) and "Tony Uncle Al" (Blundetto) when they were kids, after their fathers' first names. Blundetto, Soprano, and Moltisanti all grew up and played on a farm owned by their uncle, Pat Blundetto. The two Tonys would often bully Moltisanti.
Tony B. is the father of daughter Kelli Blundetto, who is Meadow's contemporary and is said to have run away from home, and identical twin boys Justin and Jason Blundetto, whom he fathered by having Tony S. smuggle his semen
out of prison nine years before, while still incarcerated. In the episode "Unidentified Black Males", it is also revealed that he has a genius level I.Q. of 158. Also, he sports a large number of crude prison tattoos, on his forearms, biceps, chest, back, and legs.
In 1986, Tony B. was arrested, tried, and incarcerated for almost 17 years for the armed hijack
ing of a truck. Tony Soprano was supposed to go along with his cousin that night but was not able to make it due to a severe panic attack
during which he passed out and injured his head, which was caused by an argument with his mother. Although Tony B. doesn't know that's the reason Tony S. never showed, Tony S. tells Tony B. he was mugged by a group of black men the night of the hijacking, and was knocked unconscious. Tony S. strongly believes Tony B. holds some ill-will towards him because Tony B. was caught that night and ultimately went to prison, while Tony S. prospered, and eventually became the boss of the family. Tony B. denies this.
In the Spring of 2004, Blundetto is released from prison along with a string of other well-known mobsters, the media labels them "The Class of '04." These other mobsters include: Former high-ranking caporegime
Michele "Feech" La Manna, Lupertazzi Crime Family caporegime
Phil Leotardo, and former Lupertazzi family consigliere
Angelo Garepe who returns and decides to stay semi-retired. After Blundetto's parole
, he decides not to return to a life of crime and has the incentive to stay straight and clean. Instead, he initially decides to go into massage therapy. Tony is seemingly disappointed that Tony B. has decided to pursue a legitimate career after Tony B. declines Tony's offer to get back started working with the DiMeo Crime Family
with a stolen airbag scheme Tony had lined up for him but respects his cousin's decision regardless. Tony gets his cousin a job working for a laundry company owned by a Korean man named Kim. Kim doesn't trust Blundetto at all and shows his overt racial prejudice against him since he is a white ex-con. When Kim, however, finds out about Tony B.'s aspiration to become a professional massage therapist, he begins to take a liking to him and even says he will go in on the business with him fifty/fifty. With the help of Gwen, a girlfriend he met via the Internet while in prison, Tony B. passes his "New Jersey State Massage Licensing Board" exam and is hopeful to open his own massage/spa facility. Kim sets up Tony B. with an empty storefront he owns in West Caldwell to establish the massage parlor/spa. In the episode "Sentimental Education
", Tony B. comes across $12,000 in the street, thrown out of a car window by a paranoid drug dealer who believed he was being tailed by the police, and everything appears to be going his way. He manages to start fixing the storefront up, but then goes on a self-destructive tear, staying out nights and blowing much of the remainder of the money on gambling and expensive clothes, to seemingly "keep up" with the modestly wealthy members of Tony's crew, and Tony himself. After fighting on the phone with Gwen, he takes his anger and frustration out in a beating he gives Kim, ostensibly because he has been doing all of the work, and he'd finally had enough. Tony B. then meets his cousin, Tony Soprano, at Nuovo Vesuvio for a meal. After hinting that he has messed up his business with Kim, Tony B. asks if he still needs someone to cover the airbag scheme, Tony S. tells Tony B. "it's hard doing business with strangers" (meaning Kim). At this, Tony B. then begins working with Tony's crew.
Little Carmine's crew simultaneously begins courting Tony B. through his old prison buddy, Angelo Garepe. In an earlier season episode "Where's Johnny?", Phil Leotardo had performed a mock execution
on a female loan shark
Lorraine Calluzzo for siding with Little Carmine during the Lupertazzi power struggle between Carmine and Johnny Sack. When Lorraine fails to give her money to Sack upfront, Phil gets his younger brother, Billy, and crew-member "Joey Peeps" to shoot Lorraine along with her boyfriend and partner in her shylock business, Jason Evanina, after breaking into her Brooklyn home. In retaliation, Little Carmine loyalists, Rusty Millio and Angelo Garepe offer a contract to Blundetto to murder Joey Peeps ("Marco Polo
") in retaliation. Although he is reluctant at first, he later accepts the contract after he decided that he isn't moving up fast enough in Tony's crew. Blundetto shoots Joey, and a prostitute he was seeing, inside his car. but the vehicle still in drive, rolls over his foot. Blundetto limps away from the scene and leaves quickly in his car. In "Unidentified Black Males", Soprano discovers Blundetto has a limp. Blundetto lies and says he was jumped by gang members in Newark, while making collections. Soprano learns from Johnny Sack, while playing golf, that a witness got a look at the man who killed Joey Peeps and that the witness said he was limping away from the scene. Soprano instantly puts the puzzle together and has a panic attack on the first tee and collapses. He later confronts Blundetto who calmly pleads his innocence. Although Soprano knows the truth, he tells Sack that Blundetto did not kill Peeps; he knows there would be dire consequences if the truth were known.
In "The Test Dream", Phil and Billy Leotardo shoot Angelo savagely, in the trunk of Phil's car, in revenge for Peeps' death. This drives Blundetto into a rage, and he tracks down the Leotardo brothers one night on a New York street, he wounds Phil and kills Billy. By the end of season 5, Tony Soprano is under heavy pressure to deliver his cousin to Johnny Sack, explicitly so he can be tortured to death by Phil Leotardo. With his entire crime family now targeted in revenge, Tony Soprano confronts his capos, telling them he is giving Tony B. the protection he would give to any of them. But after much prevarication, Tony S. realizes that he has to make a painful choice. He uses a contact at a phone company to track down Tony B. at their Uncle Pat Blundetto's former farm. Tony B. is coming back from grocery shopping and is ambushed by Tony S. who shoots him in the head with 12-gauge shotgun on the porch of the farmhouse. He then tells Johnny Sack where Tony B. is. When Phil arrives later to avenge his brother's death, he finds Blundetto's body lying on a pile of wood on the front porch and is furious to be deprived of his vengeance. Tony Soprano
then tells Christopher Moltisanti to bury his cousin Tony secretly, and in one piece, off the premises.
When Soprano is shot and falls into a coma
the following season, his dreams include an encounter with Blundetto. In the dream, occurring in the season 6 episode 3 "Mayham
", his cousin (named in the credits merely as "Man") is stuck as a doorman in purgatory
, urging Soprano to let go of his life as a mobster and spend the rest of eternity with his dead loved ones. Specifically, Soprano arrives outside an Inn where a fancy dinner party is being held. He wants to go in and is invited inside by Blundetto, but is told that he will have to leave his briefcase outside. Soprano is reluctant to let go of the briefcase, since he says his "whole life is in there." The implication is that he is on the verge of crossing over into the afterlife
and must leave the briefcase, symbolizing his mortal life, behind. The presence of Blundetto, a man he murdered, and his dead mother
inside the Inn, adds further credence to this idea.
Steve Buscemi
Steven Vincent "Steve" Buscemi is an American actor, writer and film director. An associate member of the renowned experimental theater company The Wooster Group, Buscemi has starred and supported in successful Hollywood and indie films including New York Stories, Mystery Train, Reservoir Dogs,...
, is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the HBO TV
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series The Sopranos
The Sopranos
The Sopranos is an American television drama series created by David Chase that revolves around the New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster Tony Soprano and the difficulties he faces as he tries to balance the often conflicting requirements of his home life and the criminal organization he heads...
. He is Tony Soprano
Tony Soprano
Anthony John "Tony" Soprano, Sr. is an Italian-American fictional character and the protagonist on the HBO television drama series The Sopranos, on which he is portrayed by James Gandolfini. The character was conceived by The Sopranos creator and show runner David Chase, who was also largely...
's cousin who is released from prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
at the beginning of the show's fifth season. Tony Blundetto first appears as a calm, composed, and reformed criminal ready to pursue a straight, non-criminal, civilian life. However, it doesn't take long for him to realize that civilian life isn't what he wants and he turns back to crime, dragging the DiMeo Crime Family
DiMeo Crime Family
The DiMeo crime family, later referred to as the Soprano crime family, is a fictional Mafia family from the HBO series The Sopranos. It is thought to be loosely based on the DeCavalcante crime family, a real New Jersey Mafia family....
into the Lupertazzi Crime Family's power struggle, which ultimately leads to his death.
Character overview
Anthony "Tony" Blundetto is introduced in the second episode of season 5, "Rat PackRat Pack (The Sopranos episode)
"Rat Pack" is the fifty-fourth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and was the second of the show's fifth season. It was written by Matthew Weiner, directed by Alan Taylor and originally aired on March 14, 2004.-Guest starring roles:...
". He is cousin to Tony Soprano and Christopher Moltisanti
Christopher Moltisanti
Christopher "Chris" Moltisanti, played by Michael Imperioli, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. He was Tony Soprano's protégé and a Capo in the Soprano crime family.-Biography:...
. To distinguish between them, they were called "Tony Uncle Johnny" (Soprano) and "Tony Uncle Al" (Blundetto) when they were kids, after their fathers' first names. Blundetto, Soprano, and Moltisanti all grew up and played on a farm owned by their uncle, Pat Blundetto. The two Tonys would often bully Moltisanti.
Tony B. is the father of daughter Kelli Blundetto, who is Meadow's contemporary and is said to have run away from home, and identical twin boys Justin and Jason Blundetto, whom he fathered by having Tony S. smuggle his semen
Semen
Semen is an organic fluid, also known as seminal fluid, that may contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize female ova...
out of prison nine years before, while still incarcerated. In the episode "Unidentified Black Males", it is also revealed that he has a genius level I.Q. of 158. Also, he sports a large number of crude prison tattoos, on his forearms, biceps, chest, back, and legs.
In 1986, Tony B. was arrested, tried, and incarcerated for almost 17 years for the armed hijack
Truck hijacking
Truck hijacking is the taking of a truck: normally for the consignment being carried, by force, or the threat of force to the driver....
ing of a truck. Tony Soprano was supposed to go along with his cousin that night but was not able to make it due to a severe panic attack
Panic attack
Panic attacks are periods of intense fear or apprehension that are of sudden onset and of relatively brief duration. Panic attacks usually begin abruptly, reach a peak within 10 minutes, and subside over the next several hours...
during which he passed out and injured his head, which was caused by an argument with his mother. Although Tony B. doesn't know that's the reason Tony S. never showed, Tony S. tells Tony B. he was mugged by a group of black men the night of the hijacking, and was knocked unconscious. Tony S. strongly believes Tony B. holds some ill-will towards him because Tony B. was caught that night and ultimately went to prison, while Tony S. prospered, and eventually became the boss of the family. Tony B. denies this.
In the Spring of 2004, Blundetto is released from prison along with a string of other well-known mobsters, the media labels them "The Class of '04." These other mobsters include: Former high-ranking caporegime
Caporegime
A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to just a capo, is a term used in the Mafia for a high ranking made member of a crime family who heads a "crew" of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization...
Michele "Feech" La Manna, Lupertazzi Crime Family caporegime
Caporegime
A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to just a capo, is a term used in the Mafia for a high ranking made member of a crime family who heads a "crew" of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization...
Phil Leotardo, and former Lupertazzi family consigliere
Consigliere
Consigliere is a position within the leadership structure of Sicilian and American Mafia crime families. The word was popularized by Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather , and its film adaptation...
Angelo Garepe who returns and decides to stay semi-retired. After Blundetto's parole
Parole
Parole may have different meanings depending on the field and judiciary system. All of the meanings originated from the French parole . Following its use in late-resurrected Anglo-French chivalric practice, the term became associated with the release of prisoners based on prisoners giving their...
, he decides not to return to a life of crime and has the incentive to stay straight and clean. Instead, he initially decides to go into massage therapy. Tony is seemingly disappointed that Tony B. has decided to pursue a legitimate career after Tony B. declines Tony's offer to get back started working with the DiMeo Crime Family
DiMeo Crime Family
The DiMeo crime family, later referred to as the Soprano crime family, is a fictional Mafia family from the HBO series The Sopranos. It is thought to be loosely based on the DeCavalcante crime family, a real New Jersey Mafia family....
with a stolen airbag scheme Tony had lined up for him but respects his cousin's decision regardless. Tony gets his cousin a job working for a laundry company owned by a Korean man named Kim. Kim doesn't trust Blundetto at all and shows his overt racial prejudice against him since he is a white ex-con. When Kim, however, finds out about Tony B.'s aspiration to become a professional massage therapist, he begins to take a liking to him and even says he will go in on the business with him fifty/fifty. With the help of Gwen, a girlfriend he met via the Internet while in prison, Tony B. passes his "New Jersey State Massage Licensing Board" exam and is hopeful to open his own massage/spa facility. Kim sets up Tony B. with an empty storefront he owns in West Caldwell to establish the massage parlor/spa. In the episode "Sentimental Education
Sentimental Education (The Sopranos episode)
"Sentimental Education" is the fifty-eighth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the sixth of the show's fifth season. It was written by Matthew Weiner, directed by Peter Bogdanovich and originally aired on April 12, 2004....
", Tony B. comes across $12,000 in the street, thrown out of a car window by a paranoid drug dealer who believed he was being tailed by the police, and everything appears to be going his way. He manages to start fixing the storefront up, but then goes on a self-destructive tear, staying out nights and blowing much of the remainder of the money on gambling and expensive clothes, to seemingly "keep up" with the modestly wealthy members of Tony's crew, and Tony himself. After fighting on the phone with Gwen, he takes his anger and frustration out in a beating he gives Kim, ostensibly because he has been doing all of the work, and he'd finally had enough. Tony B. then meets his cousin, Tony Soprano, at Nuovo Vesuvio for a meal. After hinting that he has messed up his business with Kim, Tony B. asks if he still needs someone to cover the airbag scheme, Tony S. tells Tony B. "it's hard doing business with strangers" (meaning Kim). At this, Tony B. then begins working with Tony's crew.
Little Carmine's crew simultaneously begins courting Tony B. through his old prison buddy, Angelo Garepe. In an earlier season episode "Where's Johnny?", Phil Leotardo had performed a mock execution
Mock execution
A mock execution is a stratagem in which a victim is deliberately but falsely made to feel that his execution or that of another person is imminent or is taking place. It may be staged for an audience or a subject who is made to believe that he is being led to his own execution...
on a female loan shark
Loan shark
A loan shark is a person or body that offers unsecured loans at illegally high interest rates to individuals, often enforcing repayment by blackmail or threats of violence....
Lorraine Calluzzo for siding with Little Carmine during the Lupertazzi power struggle between Carmine and Johnny Sack. When Lorraine fails to give her money to Sack upfront, Phil gets his younger brother, Billy, and crew-member "Joey Peeps" to shoot Lorraine along with her boyfriend and partner in her shylock business, Jason Evanina, after breaking into her Brooklyn home. In retaliation, Little Carmine loyalists, Rusty Millio and Angelo Garepe offer a contract to Blundetto to murder Joey Peeps ("Marco Polo
Marco Polo (The Sopranos episode)
"Marco Polo" is the sixtieth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the eighth of the show's fifth season. It was written by Michael Imperioli, directed by John Patterson and originally aired on April 25, 2004.-Guest starring roles:...
") in retaliation. Although he is reluctant at first, he later accepts the contract after he decided that he isn't moving up fast enough in Tony's crew. Blundetto shoots Joey, and a prostitute he was seeing, inside his car. but the vehicle still in drive, rolls over his foot. Blundetto limps away from the scene and leaves quickly in his car. In "Unidentified Black Males", Soprano discovers Blundetto has a limp. Blundetto lies and says he was jumped by gang members in Newark, while making collections. Soprano learns from Johnny Sack, while playing golf, that a witness got a look at the man who killed Joey Peeps and that the witness said he was limping away from the scene. Soprano instantly puts the puzzle together and has a panic attack on the first tee and collapses. He later confronts Blundetto who calmly pleads his innocence. Although Soprano knows the truth, he tells Sack that Blundetto did not kill Peeps; he knows there would be dire consequences if the truth were known.
In "The Test Dream", Phil and Billy Leotardo shoot Angelo savagely, in the trunk of Phil's car, in revenge for Peeps' death. This drives Blundetto into a rage, and he tracks down the Leotardo brothers one night on a New York street, he wounds Phil and kills Billy. By the end of season 5, Tony Soprano is under heavy pressure to deliver his cousin to Johnny Sack, explicitly so he can be tortured to death by Phil Leotardo. With his entire crime family now targeted in revenge, Tony Soprano confronts his capos, telling them he is giving Tony B. the protection he would give to any of them. But after much prevarication, Tony S. realizes that he has to make a painful choice. He uses a contact at a phone company to track down Tony B. at their Uncle Pat Blundetto's former farm. Tony B. is coming back from grocery shopping and is ambushed by Tony S. who shoots him in the head with 12-gauge shotgun on the porch of the farmhouse. He then tells Johnny Sack where Tony B. is. When Phil arrives later to avenge his brother's death, he finds Blundetto's body lying on a pile of wood on the front porch and is furious to be deprived of his vengeance. Tony Soprano
Tony Soprano
Anthony John "Tony" Soprano, Sr. is an Italian-American fictional character and the protagonist on the HBO television drama series The Sopranos, on which he is portrayed by James Gandolfini. The character was conceived by The Sopranos creator and show runner David Chase, who was also largely...
then tells Christopher Moltisanti to bury his cousin Tony secretly, and in one piece, off the premises.
When Soprano is shot and falls into a coma
Coma
In medicine, a coma is a state of unconsciousness, lasting more than 6 hours in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light or sound, lacks a normal sleep-wake cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. A person in a state of coma is described as...
the following season, his dreams include an encounter with Blundetto. In the dream, occurring in the season 6 episode 3 "Mayham
Mayham (The Sopranos episode)
"Mayham" is the sixty-eighth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the third of the show's sixth season. It was written by Matthew Weiner, directed by Jack Bender and originally aired on March 26, 2006.-Guest starring:...
", his cousin (named in the credits merely as "Man") is stuck as a doorman in purgatory
Purgatory
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...
, urging Soprano to let go of his life as a mobster and spend the rest of eternity with his dead loved ones. Specifically, Soprano arrives outside an Inn where a fancy dinner party is being held. He wants to go in and is invited inside by Blundetto, but is told that he will have to leave his briefcase outside. Soprano is reluctant to let go of the briefcase, since he says his "whole life is in there." The implication is that he is on the verge of crossing over into the afterlife
Afterlife
The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...
and must leave the briefcase, symbolizing his mortal life, behind. The presence of Blundetto, a man he murdered, and his dead mother
Livia Soprano
Livia Soprano , played by Nancy Marchand, is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos. She is the mother of Tony Soprano. A young Livia, played by Laila Robins and later by Laurie J. Williams is sometimes seen in flashbacks...
inside the Inn, adds further credence to this idea.
Episode appearances
- Appears in the following episodes:"Two TonysTwo Tonys (The Sopranos episode)"Two Tonys" is the fifty-third episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and was the first of the show's fifth season. It was written by David Chase and Terence Winter, directed by Tim Van Patten and originally aired on Sunday March 7, 2004....
", "Rat PackRat Pack (The Sopranos episode)"Rat Pack" is the fifty-fourth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and was the second of the show's fifth season. It was written by Matthew Weiner, directed by Alan Taylor and originally aired on March 14, 2004.-Guest starring roles:...
", "All Happy Families...", "Irregular Around the Margins", "Sentimental EducationSentimental Education (The Sopranos episode)"Sentimental Education" is the fifty-eighth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the sixth of the show's fifth season. It was written by Matthew Weiner, directed by Peter Bogdanovich and originally aired on April 12, 2004....
", "In Camelot", "Marco PoloMarco Polo (The Sopranos episode)"Marco Polo" is the sixtieth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the eighth of the show's fifth season. It was written by Michael Imperioli, directed by John Patterson and originally aired on April 25, 2004.-Guest starring roles:...
", "Unidentified Black Males", "Cold Cuts", "The Test Dream", "Long Term Parking", "All Due Respect", "MayhamMayham (The Sopranos episode)"Mayham" is the sixty-eighth episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the third of the show's sixth season. It was written by Matthew Weiner, directed by Jack Bender and originally aired on March 26, 2006.-Guest starring:...
".
Known murders committed by Blundetto
- Joseph "Joey Peeps" Peparelli: Contracted by Rusty Millio and Angelo Garepe in retaliation for Lorraine Calluzzo's shooting (2004, "Marco Polo")
- Heather: A prostitute shot by Blundetto alongside Joey (2004, "Marco Polo")
- Billy Leotardo: Shot by Blundetto in retaliation for the murder of Angelo Garepe (2004, "The Test Dream")