Junior Soprano

Junior Soprano

Corrado John Soprano, Jr., played by Dominic Chianese, is a fictional character from the HBO TV series The Sopranos. Usually referred to as "Junior" or "Uncle Jun'", he is the mentor and surrogate father for his nephew and DiMeo crime family capo Tony Soprano, and for most of the series the nominal boss of the family. A younger Corrado sometimes appears in flashbacks and is played by Rocco Sisto.

Junior is portrayed as an arrogant, selfish, misanthropic and impulsive character. In Mafia jargon, he "ate alone." Junior was very envious of others who held an advantage or position of superiority over him (especially towards his own family). He had an uneasy relationship with his nephew Tony Soprano, for his fast ascendancy as a star of the family and their often conflicting business interests. Although Junior never directly murders anyone on the show, in Season One, he orders the murders of six people, including Brendan Filone and the unsuccessful hit on Tony after he believed Tony was conspiring against him. He also ordered a mock execution on Christopher Moltisanti for hijacking one of his trucks.

After a brief power struggle during season one, Tony stood aside and allowed Junior to become boss of the family. Shortly afterwards Junior was indicted for racketeering and placed under house arrest, leaving Tony as de facto boss. He would spend the next three seasons awaiting trial and trying to avoid prosecution on the grounds of his failing health, whilst struggling to cope with his virtual imprisonment; he was only allowed to leave the house for doctors' appointments and funerals. Eventually a member of Junior's crew managed to intimidate one of the jurors, resulting in a mis-trial. Over this period Junior's mental state gradually deteriorated, resulting in him shooting Tony, believing him to be his old enemy Pussy Malanga. He was subsequently committed to a psychiatric hospital. When Tony visited him for the last time, it was apparent that Junior was in the advanced stages of dementia, as he did not even recognize his nephew.

The Junior Soprano character may have been loosely based on the real life presumed boss of the Gambino crime family, Peter Gotti, with similarities in look, age, inheritance of the leadership from his nephew, John A. Gotti, and his relationship with longtime girlfriend Marjorie Alexander. Likewise, his attempt to feign mental illness in order to escape indictment for his crimes mirrors the real life case of Genovese crime family boss Vincent Gigante. According to series creator David Chase the name Junior was taken from one of his own older cousins.