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| “ | That's right, c-cksucker! Go back to New Jersey! | „ |
| ~ Phil taunting Tony and Carmine. |
| “ | You want compromise, how's this? Twenty years in the can, I wanted manicott', but I compromised. I ate grilled cheese off the radiator instead. I wanted to f-ck a woman, but I compromised. I jacked off into a tissue. You see where I'm goin'? | „ |
| ~ Phil Leotardo's most famous quote, displaying his stubbornness to relent to Tony Soprano. |
| “ | I gotta make a phone call - I'll meet you at the drug store. Tell the goddamn pharmacist to call Dr. Iaconis, I should get a 60-day supply of the Plavix. | „ |
| ~ Phil Leotardo's last words to his wife before he gets killed after being shot in the head by Walden Belfiore. |
Phil Leotardo is one of the main antagonists of the HBO series The Sopranos.
He is a capricious and ruthless mobster who started off as Capo for the Lupertazzi Crime Family before later becoming its new leader after the death of his former boss Johnny Sack. It was then he sought to eliminate his competitive rival Tony Soprano and his organization at all costs.
He was portrayed by the late Frank Vincent, who also played Billy Batts in Goodfellas, Frank Marino in Casino, Salvatore Leone in the Grand Theft Auto video game series, one of the Sharks in Shark Tale and Jon Gabagoolie in Mr. Pickles.
Personality[]
Phil Leotardo was a cranky, temperamental, crude, cruel, bitter, crass, violent and narcissistic mobster. He appears to have anti-social and narcissistic traits. If he feels he has been insulted, he will never let it go and will never rest until he is satisfied.
Aside from his younger brother Billy and his grandchildren, he seems to have no regard or empathy for anyone. He had no problem killing Angelo Garepe when he collaborated with Tony Blundetto, even though Phil and Angelo were in prison together. When he discovered his cousin's husband, Vito, was gay, he was outraged and sought to murder him. This implies not even Phil's family is safe from him should they provoke him. He seemed to have gained satisfaction watching Vito get clubbed to death, implying sadism.
Phil seemed to embody the toxicity of the mob mentality: he was abusive, power-hungry, foul tempered, anti-Semitic, racist, sadistic, misogynistic, and malevolently homophobic, even by Mafia standards. It is theorized that Phil was himself a closeted homosexual.
Phil is often regarded as one of the most vile villains in the series, often compared to Richie Aprile and Ralph Cifaretto in terms of cruelty.
Biography[]
As a prominent capo of the Lupertazzi crime family, Phil Leotardo served 20 years in prison and often mentions this as a testament to his loyalty to Costra Nostra.
When Phil got out of prison he rejoined the Lupertazzi family which was now under the leadership of Johnny Sack. Phil got into a financial dispute with DiMeo boss Tony Soprano, and when he tried to duck Tony, he was forced off the road, crashing his truck and injuring his neck enough to need a brace. Tony compensated Phil by having his car fixed free of charge at Angie Bonpenseiro's body shop. Phil took advantage of this and tried to wring as much work possible out of the deal.
Phil took Johnny's side in the power struggle against Little Carmine Lupertazzi. Phil, his younger brother Billy and Joey Peeps killed Carmine's ex and loan shark Lorraine Calluzzo when she refuses to redirect her payments from Carmine to John. Little Carmine then has a hit put out on Peeps which is carried out by Soprano's cousin Tony Blundetto. In retaliation Phil and Billy murder Carmine's supporter Angelo Garepe. Blundetto is outraged as he and Angelo are close friends and kills Billy in revenge.
Soprano initially protected his cousin's location from Phil as he knew he wanted to torture him however after Phil attacked family associate Benny Fazio and put him into hospital and later even tried to locate and kill Christopher Moltisanti due to his connection to Tony by threatening his mother, Soprano realizes he can't protect him forever and personally took his life to spare him from Phil's torture. Phil was outraged he had been robbed of his opportunity for revenge but was able to make peace with Tony for the time-being.
When Tony's top earner Vito Spatafore, who was also the husband of Phil's cousin Marie was outed as gay and fled into hiding, he wanted to find Vito so that he could kill him as he felt Vito had personally dishonored his family.
Phil visits to Marie in an effort to find out where Vito was hiding and lied saying that he only wanted to get him some therapy. Phil also harasses the indifferent Tony about his efforts to find Vito. After Tony walks away from Phil, he resolves to murder Vito on his own after conversation with his wife Patty.
When Vito comes back out of hiding, Phil and his men track him down at a hotel in Fort Lee and brutally beat him for death in his hotel room without Tony's permission, much to his outrage. Tony then arranged for Phil's room to be bombed. After an unsuccessful attempt by Little Carmine to make peace between the families, Phil's captain Butch Deconcini suggested he whacks Tony but Phil felt killing a boss would be wrong. Butch then suggests he kill someone close to Tony instead. When Phil suffered a heart attack he was visited by Tony who related to Phil the feelings of fear and regret that plagued him after his near-death experience and asking for peace in the interest of business. Tony's words seemed effective, even moving Phil to tears.
Phil wishes to step down and spend more time with his blood family, keeping with the sentiment offered to him by Tony and wanted his protégé Gerry Torciano to take over however after Torciano was killed on orders from Doc Santoro in a bid for power Phil blamed Gerry's death on his softness and fell back into his old ways, arranging Santoro's death both to avenge Gerry and fully confirm Phil's position as boss.
Phil refused Tony's offer of compromise on a removal project and was outraged when Tony attacked one of his men for harassing his daughter, ordering a hit on Tony, Silvio Dante and Bobby Baccalieri Jr. in revenge, killing Bobby and knocking Silvio into a coma.
In the series finale, Butch decides the war is unprofitable and tells Tony he will not face any retaliation if he arranges a hit on Phil. But Butch refuses to disclose Phil's location to Tony. Later on, Phil is shot in the head by DiMeo soldier Walden Belfiore in front of his wife and baby grandchildren. Walden shoots him a second time in the chest to ensure he remains dead. His wife got out of her vehicle to check on Phil, but accidentally locks herself out of the vehicle as well as forgetting to put it in park. This causes the vehicle to slowly roll forward over the head of Phil's corpse, crushing it and horrifying many nearby onlookers. With Phil's death it is unknown who takes over his spot as Boss of the Lupertazzi Family.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Phil Leotardo is the main antagonist of Seasons 5 and 6 of The Sopranos.
- There is a popular fan theory that Phil Leotardo himself was secretly gay, since he never actually denied having sex with other men while he was in prison for 20 years, having an almost erotic reaction to watching Vito being beaten to death, briefly watching a body building competition filled with oiled up men, and quite literally "coming out of the closet" to reveal to Vito that he's going to be whacked.
- In a recent interview, David Chase confirmed that all of these signals were intentional and while Phil never realized it himself, he was indeed homosexual.
- Due to the character's personality and Frank Vincent's great performance, many of Phil's famous lines have become Internet memes in The Sopranos fan base. Famous memes include references to usually him complaining about him being in jail for 20 years, him seemingly transforming into a house while talking to Tony and Little Carmine, his rant about compromise, his referring to Tony Blundetto as "That Animal Blundetto" and saying his brother Billy was "just a kid" while he was 47 at time of his death.
- Another common meme is the "shine box" reference from Goodfellas, due to Phil Leotardo and Billy Batts both being played by Frank Vincent.
- Frank Vincent originally auditioned for the role of Uncle Junior alongside Tony Sirico, who played Paulie Gualtieri but the role ultimately went to Dominic Chianese.
External Links[]
- Phil Leotardo - The Sopranos Wiki
- Phil Leotardo - Near Pure Evil Wiki
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 Villains
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DiMeo Crime Family Lupertazzi Crime Family Other | ||