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| “ | I'll build a ramp up to your ass, drive a Lionel up in there. | „ |
| ~ Richie refusing a request to build a ramp for Beansie Gaeta, who he crippled. |
| “ | What's this? It's the jaaacket! [...] The jacket I took off Rocco DiMeo. [...] C-cksucker had the toughest reputation in Essex County, but he never came back after I got through with him. | „ |
| ~ Richie Aprile giving Tony Soprano Rocco DiMeo's jacket; his most famous line, which has since become a meme. |
| “ | The f-ck outta here. I'm in no mood for your- | „ |
| ~ Richie Aprile's last words before he's shot mid-sentence by Janice Soprano. |
Richard "Richie" Aprile, Sr. is one of two main antagonists (alongside Salvatore Bonpensiero) of Season 2 in the HBO television series The Sopranos.
A vicious-yet-impulsive mob enforcer, he was a Capo of the Aprile crew who was associated with the DiMeo Crime Family and is also the brother of it's former acting boss Jackie Aprile. Soon after being released from prison after a ten-year sentence, Richie resurfaced in New Jersey and proceeded to resume his career in the Mafia up to the point of getting into conflict with the new boss: Tony Soprano.
He was portrayed by David Proval, who has also portrayed Charlie Zephro in The Phantom.
Personality[]
Richie Aprile may have come across as an old-school mobster who respected the rules and valued his fellow associates, but in reality he was a foul-tempered and selfish narcissist who cared about nobody nor anything other than himself.
Since he was the brother of Jackie Aprile, the former boss of the DiMeo family itself, Richie was a made mobster before he went to prison. After doing his time and coming out to find his brother dead and Tony Soprano as the new boss of the family, Richie was unwilling to submit himself to the authority of someone who was once below him. Furthermore, he believed he was entitled to the position as captain, as well as money from Beansie Gaetta. Tony understood that Richie did time for them and promised to eventually give him what he wanted, but this offended Richie, who did not believe that, even as boss, Tony had a right to give him what he believed he rightfully deserved. Richie would continuously crash with Tony’s authority as a result of his own resentfulness. And while Richie was not outright stupid, he proved time and time again to be reckless and impulsive to a complete fault.
Aside from his ruthlessness, Richie displayed traits of sadism and cruelty with little to no compromise whatsoever. This is shown perfectly after he injured Beansie, an action which he showed zero empathy or regret over. Given that he had a lack of remorse for any of his actions, Richie vainly had a complete disregard for the consequence of his actions that was ignorant at best and malicious at worst.
In addition to his egotism, Richie is also very a bitter and arrogant person who even became unhealthily conceited as time went on. He believes to be entitled to everything after his release from prison and constantly bugs the other mobsters about this. This eventually leads him to disobey Tony and even try to have him killed simply for not giving him power quickly enough, thereby proving that Richie was utterly disloyal and treacherous whose own selfishness would lead to his own downfall.
This, combined with Richie's arrogance and power-hungry desires, was ultimately proven in the series' second season climax: he showed no sense of fear or worry once he saw Janice approaching him with a gun pointed at him, not understanding why she would have been upset at him hitting her, and showed genuine shock once she shot him in the chest as he couldn't believe he was on the receiving end of violence for once in his life.
While he can sometimes fake being polite, Richie is generally a detestable person to be around - being a sociopathic jerk very quick to violence, very abusive, and generally an annoyance to everyone. He also holds a lot of unpleasant views, such as saying it is okay to hit a woman only after you have married them (a rule which he violates by hitting Janice). He also holds many bigoted beliefs about many different groups, such as getting offended after Janice says that his kid being gay wouldn't be a big deal.
His distasteful personality and quickness to violence are ultimately what kills him in the end, as he had gone too far in hitting Janice and he would almost certainly have been killed not long after due to the high amount of enemies he had made in the short time since being released. He is widely regarded as one of the most hateable characters in the show, often compared to Ralph Cifaretto and Phil Leotardo in terms of cruelty.
Biography[]
Past[]
Born in 1950, Richie started working for the mob at the age of 15 for the DiMeo family. He got into a fight with Rocco DiMeo, who was the cousin of Ercole DiMeo, the leader of the family. Despite being known as a very tough man, Richie beat Rocco and managed to steal his coat. Impressing Ercole, he decided to test Richie by ordering him to kill a man who was selling drugs in his territory. The year after doing this he became made.
During the 1980s, Richie ran a lucrative heroin dealing operation, recruiting his younger brother Jackie and associates such as Peter "Beansie" Gaeta to sell the heroin on the streets. An exchange between Beansie and Richie indicates it was the heroin pushing that got Richie investigated by law enforcement and eventually sentenced to ten years in prison, more than likely for federal drug trafficking, in mid-to-late 1989, despite a costly legal defense. Richie's crew was likely taken over by Jackie and after the latter ascended to acting boss, the crew was handed down to Jackie's friend Ralph Cifaretto, who Junior noted brought discipline.
The Sopranos[]
At some point, Richie was released from prison near 1999 after serving ten years for his involvement with the mafia. With Jackie Aprile Sr. dead and Junior Soprano awaiting trial, he learned that Tony Soprano had become the new boss of the crime family. As he had known Tony before he was a made man, Richie was jealous that Tony was now above him. He believed he immediately entitled to everything he wants. Tony tells him that in time he will receive what is his, which infuriates Richie.
Soon enough Richie confronted Beansie Gaeta at his restaurant about money owed to him. After Beansie doesn't pay him, Richie brutally assaults him with a glass kettle. He later meets Beansie again, threatening him with a gun. After Beansie thinks he's gotten away, Richie runs him over and runs his car back, paralyzing him. Tony then tells him to build a ramp for Beansie to make up with him, annoying both men. It quickly emerged that Richie had also loaned money to David Scatino, a sporting goods store owner and gambling addict. After finding him at Tony's executive poker game, he flies into a rage because he was behind on his payments. His behavior causes two men to leave. Tony then tells Richie that he will not see any money from Dave until Dave pays off Tony's debt. The game causes Dave to sink deeper into debt, causing Richie and Tony to take over his store.
It was then Richie became reacquainted with Tony's older sister Janice Soprano, with whom he had a previous relationship with in the past, at a yoga class. They end up dating again and eventually he moved in with Janice and her mother, Livia at the mother's house. They eventually get engaged and even have an engagement party. Despite all of this, Richie doesn't seem to actually love her much and even has rough sex with her with a gun pointed at her head.
As such, Richie also gets involved with pushing drugs with Junior. This causes some problems when Richie is ordered to stop selling on routes that Tony's trash pickup company work at as they just recently stopped being investigated. As this was the source of much of Richie's income, he gets infuriated. By then, Richie also at some point starts mentoring his nephew - Jackie Aprile Jr.
Eventually, Richie became fed up with Tony's leadership and - growing even more outraged with Tony's "disrespectful" attitude - decided to conspire with Junior to have Tony killed in order to take over as the new boss. However, Junior concluded that he was better off with Tony and instead informed him about Richie's treachery. Tony responds by planning to have Richie killed in retribution.
At home that night, Richie and Janice are about to have dinner not long after her mother had been sedated in hospital. Soon the pair get into an argument over Richie's son being supposedly gay, a matter of which Richie dismisses and is against whereas Janice argues that his son has the right to choose whoever he wants to be. The argument continues until Richie snaps and punches Janice in the face. He thereafter ignores her and begins to eat his dinner. In shock, Janice picks up his gun and points it at him. Richie begins to mock Janice under the assumption that she is threatening him, but is left shocked when she shoots him in the chest. Clinging onto his chest in pain, Richie is about to react when Janice shoots him again in the head - killing him.
Moments later, Janice calls Tony and he rushes over to the house. He soon summons Christopher Moltisanti and Furio Giunta to help cover-up his murder by cleaning up the mess and getting rid of the body. The next day, Janice goes back to Seattle to recoup from her ordeal. By the time she has returned, Livia has passed away and the other mob members are told by Tony that Richie has entered the Witness Protection Program. As time went on, Janice attempted to move forward from Richie by dating fellow mobster Ralph Cifaretto - which didn't last long due to Ralph's sociopathic and adulterous nature as well as his eventual death at Tony's hands.
Richie later reappeared in the season five episode "The Test Dream" from a dream that Tony is having after the latter had been hospitalized.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Richie is easily regarded as one of the most hated characters on The Sopranos due to his arrogance and cruelty, as well as the fact that he had little to no redeeming qualities unlike other mobsters in the series.
- However, just like similar character, Ralph Cifaretto, Richie has become a favorite for various fans of the series due to his actor's portrayal of him, as well as the infamous "Jacket" scene which has become a meme.
- His cruel personality could be explained with anti-social disorders and alexithymia.
External Links[]
- Richie Aprile - The Sopranos Wiki
- Richie Aprile - Hate Sink Wiki
