The 27 actors who starred in ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘Goodfellas’
As two of the greatest crime stories ever told across two very different mediums, it was almost inevitable that more than a few actors to have appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas would go on to pop up in The Sopranos at one stage or another.
After all, the big screen classic and the seminal small screen series were both rooted deeply in a labyrinthine organised crime mythology dominated by Italian-American families, where the recurring themes of family, brotherhood, loyalty, and an unquenchable thirst for power were both key.
Scorsese’s ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’-nominated masterpiece is one of the greatest movies ever made, and there are many willing to die on the hill that it’s the legendary filmmaker’s magnum opus. The Sopranos, meanwhile, holds similarly deified status in the annals of television history, with many pointing to HBO’s episodic epic as the genesis for the ‘Golden Age’ that’s still going strong more than a quarter of a century after its premiere aired in January 1999.
There’s definitely an element of typecasting in play, though, not that the performers who got the chance to star in a pair of the greatest crime stories ever captured on film would mind. In fact, several of those who pulled double duty on both The Sopranos and Goodfellas are recognisable to film and TV fans everywhere based almost entirely on their penchant for playing crooks.
Tony Cirico and Frank Vincent are firmly among that number, so it’s no surprise they made their respective presence felt in both, with the former even boasting an extensive criminal record before he segued into acting. Frank Albanese was in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, too, while Tony Lip carries the distinction of having Goodfellas, The Sopranos, The Godfather, and Donnie Brasco on his filmography.
In many cases, actors who’d played bit-parts or uncredited roles in Goodfellas circled back around to crop up in David Chase’s spiritual successor, and the Saw franchise’s figurehead Tobin Bell is one of the more surprising names to have done just that after playing an unnamed parole officer for Scorsese prior to guesting in a single episode of The Sopranos as a military major.
In terms of who played the most substantial parts in both, though, there’s only one winner. Lorraine Bracco played Henry Hill’s wife Karen before becoming a fixture of The Sopranos as Jennifer Melfi, the psychiatrist of James Gandolfini’s Tony. Clearly, she wasn’t in the minority by lending her talents to Goodfellas and The Sopranos, but she got a better end of the deal than anyone else.
Every actor who appeared in Goodfellas and The Sopranos:
- Lorraine Bracco
- Michael Imperioli
- Tony Sirico
- Tobin Bell
- Frank Vincent
- Vincent Pastore
- Suzanne Shepherd
- Frank Albanese
- Tony Darrow
- Tony Lip
- Frank Pellegrino
- Chuck Low
- Paul Hernan
- Nicole Burdette
- Marriane Leonne
- Daniel P Conte
- Angela Pietropinto
- Susan Varon
- Frank Adonis
- Nancy Cassaro
- Victor Collichio
- Anthony Alessandro
- Gaetano LoGiudice
- Vito Antufermo
- Gene Canfield
- Antony Caso
- John ‘Cha Cha’ Ciarcia
