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| “ | Look, you take the speakers, right? At the same time, you say to yourself, "This is the last time I'm ever gonna steal something." It's that simple. | „ |
| ~ Dickie giving a young Tony Soprano "words of wisdom" on taking stolen speakers. Ironically, the advice is not something Tony would hold onto later in life. |
| “ | Dickie: You got to have a better attitude. With your father gone, your mother's got a lot on her plate. You got to be good. I don't want to go through this again. Young Tony Soprano: I try to be good. Dickie: I don't think so. Try harder. Pinky swear? |
„ |
| ~ Dickie lecturing a young Tony Soprano. |
Richard "Dickie" Moltisanti is the main protagonist of the 2021 film The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos.
He is a mob boss who becomes involved with the DiMeo Crime family and is also the father of Christopher Moltisanti. In addition, Dickie is the uncle of Tony Soprano, whom he often mentors to try and become a better person rather than allow Tony to get involved with a life of crime.
He was portrayed by Alessandro Nivola, who also played Pollux Troy in Face/Off. He is portrayed by Michael Imperioli in The Sopranos, although this is only seen in a picture.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Dickie Moltisanti was born in 1934. He grew up in a rough area with an abusive father, Aldo. Aldo beat up his mother in front of him. Dickie always resented his father for this, but still had a cordial relationship with him as an adult. He later joined the army and served in the Vietnam War, and after it, he became a member of the DiMeo Crime family. He was friendly with Johnny Boy Soprano and his brother Junior, while Johnny's son Tony Soprano looked up to Dickie, who did his best to be a good influence on the child.
The Many Saints of Newark[]
Dickie's friendly relationship with family associate Harold McBrayer is put under strain when Dickie has him kill a gangbanger called Overalls, who robs their card game. Dickie gives Harold money to skip town as a favor, but Harold remains resentful of him. Dickie becomes infatuated with Aldo's wife Giuseppina, but does not act on it out of respect to his father.
After Aldo lays a beating on her, she turns to Dickie for support and he attempts to calmly reason with his father, however Aldo angers Dickie by insulting both Giuseppina and his dead mother. In a rage, Dickie brutally beats him up and accidentally kills him. Uncle Junior offers Dickie his sympathy at the funeral and offers to help in any way he can, but Dickie is distracted with his feelings of guilt. He visits his uncle Sally in prison and tells him he wishes to do a good deed. Sal has Dickie bring him a jazz record. Dickie sees him regularly, and Sal often provides him with advice.
Dickie takes Giuseppina as his mistress and does a string of good deeds to balance out all the bad he's done, including coaching a team for blind kids, but after Giuseppina confesses she slept with Harold, an enraged Dickie drowns her.
Towards Christmas 1972 in December that year, Dickie visits Sal about his wife's demise. It is then Sal deduces that Dickie killed both his father and then his wife. When Dickie asks his uncle for advice on how he can do better for Tony, he is shocked when Sal advices him to stay out of his life forever. Dickie nevertheless decides that Tony is better off without him and ignores him every time Tony wants to talk, which leaves him confused and angry. Thereupon, mobster Silvio Dante thinks Tony is meant for better things than life in the mob, and pleads with Dickie to talk to him to try to set him on the right path - to which Dickie reluctantly agrees. However, before he can, a man shoots Dickie dead under orders from Junior in retaliation for Dickie laughing at him earlier on when he fell in the rain.
Not long afterwards, Dickie's funeral takes place with Tony, Junior and everyone else that knew Dickie.
Personality[]
Dickie is a somewhat complex character. His character draws many parallels to Tony Soprano, in that - being part of the mafia - does law-breaking, villainous and murderous acts. At the same time, he shows a charismatic, likeable, level-headed, decisive and friendly side. Despite this, he also shows an extremely hot-headed side when angered. The best example of this is when his father insults Dickie's deceased mother as well as his own comare in one fell swoop, leading Dickie to beat his father to death in a blind rage.
After the heinous act, Dickie shows great remorse, seeking advice from his incarcerated uncle in finding out how to perform a "good deed", as if a good deed would somehow counteract his patricidal act. When his comare, Giuseppina, wants to pursue her dream of owning her own business, Dickie is very hesitant of this at first, but later financially backs the idea and supports her all the way.
Another example of Dickie's uncontrollable anger is when Giuseppina admits to sleeping with Harold, Dickie's friend-turned-sworn-enemy, and Dickie responds to this by drowning Giuseppina in the nearby sea, and leaving her body there. Like many Italian parents in the series, and especially his own father, he shows a heavy disciplinarian side, as he wasn't afraid to smack a young Arthur Bucco in the face when disrespectfully laughing at Harold, despite Arthur not being his kid.
Dickie also shows an immature and sadistic side. This is seen during Dickie's drive through the Newark riots, where he sings to himself with a smile on his face while backing his car out of the more dangerous areas with the riots still going on around him. This is also seen when Dickie laughs at Junior slipping and falling, thus injuring his back in the process. Dickie continues laughing at Junior, even when trying to help the latter up.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- During the run of The Sopranos, Dickie Moltisanti was always mentioned but never featured, leading to The Many Saints of Newark to mark his first appearance. However, according to The Sopranos creator David Chase, he didn't put any particular restriction on Dickie appearing in the show, which likely means that he just found a right place to use him in the movie prequel.
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 Villains
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DiMeo Crime Family Lupertazzi Crime Family Vittorio/Zucca Camorra family Philadelphia Crime Family/Buscetta Crime Family Other | ||