Larry Barese

Lorenzo "Larry Boy" Barese, played by Tony Darrow, is a fictional character on the HBO original series The Sopranos. He is the only one of the five original captains of the DiMeo crime family who remains in that position throughout the show. In the episode "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano" his first name is given as "Lawrence," but in the episodes "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti" and "Stage 5" he is called "Lorenzo," which is likely his true given name. Larry is arguably the most affable and laid-back member of the Soprano organization. Richie Aprile called him "The King of Dermabrasion". He is typically polite and relatively soft-spoken, and is never seen to harm anyone physically or lose his temper. He also has a sense of humor and isn't above telling jokes around his fellow mobsters. Like Patsy Parisi, he also hasn't been shown committing murder.

A Capo of the Barese crew, cousin of Albert "Ally Boy" Barese, and the godfather of Soprano associate Benny Fazio, Barese managed to become an influential member of the DiMeo crime family during the 1990s. Following the death of Acting Boss Jackie Aprile, Sr. in 1999, Larry nominated Tony Soprano as a possible candidate for Boss of the family, and later rejected Tony's wish that Tony's uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano become the new boss instead. However, Larry supported Tony's plan to use Junior as the official boss and agreed to follow Tony's orders as he was running the family behind Junior's back.

In the season 1 episode "Pax Soprana," Larry, along with Jimmy Altieri and Raymond Curto, congressed in a meeting with Tony after Junior had Mikey Palmice murder Larry's top earner Rusty Irish by throwing him of Great Falls of Paterson' bridge after Rusty sold some ecstasy to one of Junior's friend's grandson and the boy committed suicide by jumping off Patterson Falls as well during a bad trip. Larry and the other capos reported this as a sign of Junior abusing his power as boss. Barese declared "that junky fuck was my biggest earner." Barese later moved his mother to the Green Grove retirement community (where Tony kept his mother) so that he could conduct clandestine meetings with Tony, Capo Jimmy Altieri and even New York Lupertazzi crime family Underboss John "Johnny Sack" Sacramoni.

Later during his daughter's wedding, Larry played a major role in reporting to the other mob crews and associates of the Mob Indictments of 1999. Soon after, along with Junior and underboss Joe Sasso (Mikey Palmice was also to be arrested, but was murdered beforehand), he was arrested and charged with violations of racketeering and fraud. Larry could often be seen as a second defendant in the courtroom during Junior's major RICO trial. During the trial and the time he was incarcerated, Larry promoted his cousin Albert "Ally Boy" Barese to acting capo of his crew.

Three years after the indictments, Larry was released following a mistrial and put under house arrest. However, he took control of his crew back from his cousin Ally Boy. At this point, Larry remained the only one of the original five DiMeo family captains in control of his crew (Tony was promoted to boss, Junior was removed from power by the family, Raymond Curto died of a stroke and Jimmy Altieri was executed for suspected of being an informant).

Larry was also a regular fixture at Tony's ICU waiting room following his shooting in 2006. Fellow captain and the family's biggest earner at the time, Vito Spatafore, approached Larry to suggest himself as a candidate to take over as Boss if Tony should not recover from his coma after his uncle had shot him. Although Tony recovered, Larry stayed loyal to him and Tony's nephew Christopher Moltisanti, with whom he began producing the upcoming fictional slasher film Cleaver. At this time, Larry had routinely broken the terms of his bail since his release in order to run business and socialize, including giving a toast at Christopher Moltisanti's belated bachelor party. In 2007, Larry was finally arrested at the premiere after-party for Cleaver by federal marshals for violating house arrest. He was in jail awaiting a retrial at the end of the series, and isn't seen after the episode, Stage 5.

The reference to him in the show is in the season 6 episode "Remember When," when the FBI begin digging up a body from a murder 25 years ago, which was Tony's first murder. There is minor discussion about Larry that indicates that he gave the FBI the location of the body. However, in order to save Tony and Paulie Gualtieri, he also told them (falsely) the murder was committed only by the late Jackie Aprile.

In 2011, Darrow aka Anthony Borgese, the actor who portrays Larry Barese admitted that he was an associate of the Gambino crime family after convicted of beating an extortion victim.