NAME an actor other than James Gandolfini who would have been the BEST or WORST Tony Soprano EVER.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

I think James Gandolfini nailed it, but maybe you have another actor in mind. Let's hear it!

I'm gonna say the WORST would have been Eric Roberts, simply because I've seen him play a "mobster" before.

[Z_I_Peevey]

1. Bad Tony: Don Knotts

Worse Tony: Wallace Shawn

Worst Tony: Rip Taylor

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. Dear God, you DO know how to pick REALLY bad Tonys.

:rofl:

:toast:

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Bad yet interesting: Crispin Glover.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

8. Just hearing "Crispin Glover" gives me the same feeling...

...as when the dog licks your face while you're sleeping. He masters the art of "genuinely disturbing" a little too well. Still, he fills a void, and that is for actors who stand at the ready from a call from their agents saying "Crispin, I've got a part here that's perfect for you. It's a genuinely disturbing..."

And then the phone goes dead, because upon hearing the news, Crispin did a couple of cartwheels, a speedball, jerked off, had some microwaved macaroni and cheese, another speedball, passed out, called his agent the next day and said "I'm IN."

:rofl:

[Tyrone Slothrop]

3. Worst: Andy Dick

Best: Bob Hoskins

[Amerigo Vespucci]

12. I'll SEE your Bob Hoskins and raise you a John Goodman.

[NewJeffCT]

4. Joe Pesci would have been different

and interesting...

[Amerigo Vespucci]

10. The "milk fed veal" scene in "Casino"...

...that was Pesci proving he could play Tony. Seriously, that was a Tony Soprano moment if there ever was one.

:toast:

[mcctatas]

5. David Caruso, the best actor EVER

:rofl:

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. I'm going to have to readjust my sunglasses while I thoughtfully consider your post.

[SteppingRazor]

15. And then dramatically remove said sunglasses while saying something like...

"Well ... looks like I'm going to have to learn how to sing ... soprano."

(Cue "We Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

9. "Is David Caruso so powerful that he can make a rock so heavy that he can't lift it?"

(OBVIOUS hat-tip to the late George Carlin)...

:rofl:

:toast:

[DeepBlueC]

39. wrong place

[Jetboy]

11. Jocko from Sha Na Na

http://celebrity.premiere.com/photos/gallery/woodstock_040609/10751168

How ya doin'?

[Joey Liberal]

13. Liberaci would have been a poor choice:).............. nt

[Starbucks Anarchist]

14. Worst: Gilbert Gottfried.

[alfredo]

37. Richard Simmons

[I Have A Dream]

59. Yep, that's what I thought as well. nt

[LostInAnomie]

16. Sammy Davis Jr. would do a sub-par job

[eyepaddle]

17. Best Corey Haim

Worst Cory Feldman.

Or do I have that backwards?

Alternate worst Anthony Michael Hall

[Tangerine LaBamba]

18. No joke -

I think John Malkovich would have been a GREAT Tony Soprano.



Or, (yeah, I'm taking two BESTs because I'm Italian - you wanna make something of it?)

Christopher Walken.



The worst?

Ironically, it's an Italian-American:

[Missy Vixen]

19. Oh, yeah

John Malkovich would have been excellent.

About Annette Funicello: I would have liked to see her try the role, just for fun. Catherine Zeta-Jones was a GREAT drug kingpin's wife in "Traffic", for instance.

I wonder how Ralph Fiennes would have played a mobster. One thing's for sure -- his role in "Schindler's List" was the most chilling bad guy I think I've ever seen.

:hi:

[Tangerine LaBamba]

23. Hello,

trampy-named one.

I never had the courage to see "Schindler's List," so I'll take your word for it, but my problem with Fiennes as Tony Soprano is that he's too pretty, too WASPY. You could never see an Italian mother and father in him - and that's a requirement.

I thought of Malkovitch because of Steve Buscemi's role as Tony Blundetto - ugly little chicken-type guy, but I've known Italian-American guys who looked like that. Malkovitch would have been a riot as Tony, but, honestly, no one but Gandolfini could have done it. He truly owns it forever.

And try explaining to a man why Tony Soprano is sexy. They really don't understand it ..

:hug:

[Jade Fox]

57. Did you see Fiennes in "In Bruges"?

Chilling, and a bit funny too. Which can be said of the whole film, now that I think about it.

[old mark]

20. worst - Frank Sinatra. Other than that he's dead, he has too much ego

showing through in every character he played. He almost was Harry Calahan in Dirty Harry, but he hurt his hand and couldn't do the shooting scenes. I think he would have sucked.

mark

[RagAss]

21. The Best..... Assante...

[MGKrebs]

26. That's good.

[RiffRandell]

28. That was my thought, too.

I think he played Gotti in the movie Gangland.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

30. It was in the 1996 TV movie "Gotti"...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116441/

...and yes, he was excellent in it.

:toast:

[Wapsie B]

41. I like Assante but I don't see him playing the introspective mobster

anywhere close to that of Gandolfini's portrayal. JG completely nailed it.

[baldguy]

22. Gary Busey wouldn't have to go very far to be dangerous & disturbing.

Bob Saget would.

[Duer 157099]

24. Worst: Carrot Top

[Sabriel]

25. Sally Field?

Mary Tyler Moore?

For the guys, William Shatner.

"Silvioooooooooooooooo!"

[MGKrebs]

27. "Copland" changed my whole perspective on Sly Stallone.

He just might be pretty good at it.

[Ikonoklast]

29. Underrated movie, and probably Stallone's best performance.

If you've havent ever seen it, do so. You won't regret it.

And that Ketiel guy wasn't shabby in it, either.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

48. "I got something for you to do."

Major props to Stallone for playing against type, packing on the pounds, and "owning" that role. The interplay between Stallone and DeNiro is also excellent.

:toast:

[graywarrior]

31. Best: Marlon Brando

Worst: Steven Segal (On second thought, he'd be pretty good)

Ok, worst: Keanu Reeves or Adam Sandler.

[Sebastian Doyle]

32. Best: George HW Bush Sr.

He's been running America's most infamous crime family for decades.

[jobycom]

42. Noody would be believe him.

He's an incompetent ass who can't run his own family much less an extended crime family. Dude's the most overrated actor since Tess Harper.

[alfredo]

33. Worst? Phyllis Diller

[Orrex]

34. Worst? Fred Thompson

[Zavulon]

35. Bad Tony: Ben Stiller.

That's because Ben Stiller sucks at everything he does. Can't stand him.

I can't think of anyone who stands out above all others in the "good Tony" category.

[alfredo]

36. Worst part 2 - Marcel Marceau

[lutefisk]

38. Jack Nicholson gets my vote for best, with Larry David a wild card choice (best or worst)...n/t

[DeepBlueC]

40. Worst - Ronald Reagan

Of course he is at the top of a number of my Worst lists.

[jobycom]

43. Best--Joaquin Phoenix or John Goodman.

Joaquin has got that moody dark introspection down perfectly. John Goodman is just so intense and so skilled he could pull off anything.

[krispos42]

44. Jackie Chan

That would not have ended well.

[WillParkinson]

45. Worst...

Pauly Shore! Hey Buuuuddy.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

46. Worst: Keanu Reeves nt

[dysfunctional press]

47. michael madsen would have made a good tony.

[arbusto_baboso]

49. Worst: Rob Lowe I say this because I once played a pickup basketball game...

against him on the Pepperdine campus years ago. He's the whiniest little bitch on the planet.

Best? Well, if you can overlook the fact that he is African-American, Avery Brooks. Now THAT is one scary mofo.

[JonLP24]

50. Worst: Tom Arnold

Best: Maybe, De Niro or Pacino. Don't really know.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

53. I'd watch at least one Tom Arnold episode...

...but then again, I'm that kinda guy.

:rofl:

:toast:

[JonLP24]

55. lol me too

I seen Big Bully and Carpool truly awful movies but it would be funny to watch Tom Arnold try to pull off Tony Soprano. Only decent movie I seen him in was Exit Wounds and that movie by itself is not great but it does entertain me.

[jakefrep]

51. Worst: Larry The Cable Guy

nt

[madeline_con]

52. Danny Aiello could have pulled it off. Maybe Robert Loggia with some

Just for Men.

As for BAD, Paulie Shore or Ben Stiller.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

54. Did you see Loggia's "Feech La Manna" episodes of the show?

He was pretty damn good on the show.

One of my favorite Robert Loggia moments came in his orange juice commercials a few years ago, in which a kid WAY TO YOUNG to even have a CLUE as to who Robert Loggia IS jumped up from the breakfast table as Loggia walked in and yelled "WOW! ROBERT LOGGIA!"

Loggia strolled coolly in and said "Hiya, Billy..." Then he talked about orange juice. The commercial was pure GENIUS.

:toast:

[madeline_con]

60. I liked the o.j. ads. Are you saying Loggia was on Sopranos?

I'll have to look those up.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

61. I did it for you. Here you go:

http://www.hbo.com/sopranos/cast/actor/robert_loggia.shtml

"The Sopranos" .... Feech La Manna (4 episodes, 2004)
- All Happy Families (2004) TV episode .... Feech La Manna
- Where's Johnny? (2004) TV episode .... Feech La Manna
- Rat Pack (2004) TV episode .... Feech La Manna
- Two Tonys (2004) TV episode .... Feech La Manna

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005162/

The episodes are on Discs 1 & 2 of Season 5, which you can rent from Netflix:

The Sopranos: Season 5: Disc 1
This disc includes the following episodes: "Two Tony's," "Rat Pack" and "Where's Johnny?"

Additional Actors:

Joseph R. Gannascoli, Robert Loggia, Tony Lip, Ray Abruzzo, Peter Bogdanovich, Max Casella, Jerry Adler, Joe Santos, Robert Desiderio, Patti D'Arbanville, Rae Allen, Frank Vincent, Carl Capotorto, Karen Young, Louis Mustillo, Richard Portnow, Dan Grimaldi

The Sopranos: Season 5: Disc 2

This disc includes the following episodes: "All Happy Families," "Irregular Around the Margins" and "Sentimental Education."

Additional Actors:
Joseph R. Gannascoli, Michael Goldstrom, Dennis Aloia, Kevin Aloia, David Lee Roth, Lawrence Taylor, Jerry Adler, David Strathairn, Robert Loggia, Peter Bogdanovich, Dan Grimaldi, Max Casella, Hill Harper, Frank Vincent, Rae Allen, Carl Capotorto, Lola Glaudini, Paul Schulze, Robert Funaro, Tom Aldredge, Tim Daly, Polly Bergen, Joseph Siravo, Richard Portnow


:toast:

[madeline_con]

62. Wow! Thanks!

[OneMoreDemocrat]

56. Best; Chris Walken....

Worst; Justin Timberlake

[Amerigo Vespucci]

63. Have you seen "True Romance?"

It's sort of Walken as Tony Soprano, more or less.

I'm Italian, and I have no problem with the film, but some people might be highly offended by the Walken-Dennis Hopper "Sicilians" scene, which is available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqccyUpnZwA

ON EDIT:

I completely forgot that Gandolfini's in this movie...you'll see him standing in the background in the clip above. His scene with Patricia Arquette is pretty damned brutal...sort of "Tarantino brutal."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddzaYkvCVog

[AzDar]

58. Worst? Woody Allen. Best: the late Jack Lord.

:hi:

[A HERETIC I AM]

64. Chazz Palminteri would have NAILED the part.

Loved him in "A Bronx Tale"