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| “ | Up your ass, buddy. Don't make me laugh. You keep fucking with me, I'll put you, your friends, your friend's families, your whole fucking home town under the sword. | „ |
| ~ Toni antagonizing McAffrey. |
| “ | Let's teach these would-be tough guys what it means to be a tough guy. | „ |
| ~ Toni to Claude. |
Antonio "Toni" Cipriani is a major character in Grand Theft Auto III and the main protagonist of its prequel Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.
In GTA III, he was voiced by Michael Madsen, who also played Victor Vega in Reservoir Dogs, James Alexander in L.A.P.D.: To Protect and to Serve, Budd in Kill Bill, Maugrim in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Michael O'Leary in Call of Duty: Black Ops II, William Carver in Telltale's The Walking Dead, Grouch Douglas in The Hateful Eight, and Travis Baker in Crime Boss: Rockay City. In Liberty City Stories, he was voiced by Danny Mastrogiorgio, who also played Frankie Carbone in Gotham and Earl Gilmore in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
Biography[]
Past[]
Toni Cipriani was born on November 16, 1963 to Ma Cipriani and an unnamed father, who was a member of one of the city's mafia families. He lived with his parents in their restaurant and later became involved in Liberty City's criminal underworld, joining the mafia to follow on his father.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories[]
In Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Toni Cipriani assumes the role of the playable character and main protagonist of the game. GTA: Liberty City Stories explores Toni's history and exploits in 1998, three years prior to the events in GTA III.
Toni leaves Liberty City and decides to lay low after killing a rival made man (presumably Forelli or Sindacco family) under orders from Don Salvatore Leone. He finally returns to the city in 1998, ready to continue his life of organized crime. A grateful Salvatore Leone gives Toni jobs; other members of the Leone Family have had the time to move up in the hierarchy as Toni was out of town for so many years. Salvatore is forced to strip Toni out of his rank and give the position to Vincenzo Cilli during his leave of absence. Toni now finds himself as a low-ranking goon that has to once again gain favor with the Don in order to secure a leadership position in the family. However, Toni works for Salvatore's wife Maria Latore, who later on develops feelings for Toni and has him to do her bidding, and tells him that she loves him although Toni does not feel the same way. After learning that Toni has "no money", she cuts ties with him and tries to remind him that she is Salvatore's girl. Toni appears in the game to be much thinner than his appearance in GTA III. Much of his efforts in achieving his goal of reclaiming his place in the Leone hierarchy include battling two other Mafia families, the Forellis and the Sindaccos via several means, allowing him to be "made" halfway through the storyline after killing the Liberty City mayor, Roger C. Hole. After being made, his mother calls off a hit she had put on her son. Later, Toni works for a millionaire and mayor candidate, Donald Love and fights the Forellis in order to help the Leones own the City Hall while protecting Donald. Donald Love is eventually found to be in the league with Salvatore and Toni, which makes him unfit for the office in people's eyes. After Miles O'Donovan has been elected the mayor, Salvatore Leone is arrested on several crime charges, forcing Toni to pose as a lawyer named Lionel to take jobs from the police station where Salvatore is imprisoned.
Donald Love, in a stressful phone call, says that he has many propositions for him. Upon arriving at the flophouse, Donald Love says that he has plans that will make both Toni and himself rich again and orders Toni to kill real estate businessman and Love's former mentor, Avery Carrington. Toni and Donald steal Avery's plans and bomb expert 8-Ball is paid to give them explosives in order to blow up Fort Staunton, causing the Forelli Family to lose a lot of influence. Toni is called by a mysterious woman, Toshiko Kasen, and asked to fight the local Yakuza organization. After Toni kills her husband Kazuki, a remorseful Toshiko commits suicide and a panicked Donald Love asks Toni for some help to take him to Francis International Airport as the Colombian Cartel are attacking to steal Avery's plans. Toni gets Love to the airport safely and Love brings with him the corpses of Avery Carrington and Ned Burner.
Salvatore is eventually released from jail, after being escorted to the courthouse by Toni due to the Sicilian Mafia wanting Salvatore dead. After being released, Toni and Salvatore go to see the mayor Miles O'Donovan, to get his charges dropped. However, Massimo Torini, a high-ranking member of the Sicilian Mafia, has the mayor kidnapped. Toni and Salvatore chase Torini and rescue the Mayor from Portland Rock, killing Torini in the process.
Granf Theft Auto III[]
By 2001, Toni has become one of the highest-ranking members of the Leone Family, behind only Salvatore Leone. The police have attempted to connect Toni and Salvatore throughout 2001; however, they fail to link them beyond his mother's restaurant. Salvatore’s son, Joey, introduces the game’s protagonist, Claude to Toni. Toni hires Claude to attack the Triads (Leone Family enemies), including trying to get protection money from Mr. Wong's Laundromat, destroying some Triad fish vans and the Triad owned fish factory in Callahan Point. Toni also introduces Claude to Salvatore Leone.
In 2001, Toni still lives with his mother and is frequently been seen in his family-run restaurant, where he provides Claude with jobs. The constant insulting from his mother about him not being able to be like his father and failing to meet up to her expectations forces him to call the local chat radio station, Chatterbox FM, and complain about his mother's constant berating. It's completely unknown what happens with Toni after Salvatore Leone gets assassinated by Claude, but it's presumed that Toni takes control as Don or Underboss of the Leone Family simply because Joey Leone, Salvatore's son, hasn't exactly done much to help the family.
Appearance[]
In Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Toni is significantly thinner than his depiction in Grand Theft Auto III, this is commented or criticized by his mother, Maria, and Salvatore Leone, with his mother and Salvatore in particular commenting about him not being fed well. By GTA III, Toni is much fatter and has aged considerably in the three years that have passed.
Personality[]
Toni's behavior in scenes of the game suggest that he is very loyal, but is very easy to irritate (of course, this may be in part of that he is surrounded by such strange people, for instance, Maria Latore, Joseph Daniel O'Toole and Donald Love).
When he is angry, Toni is capable of practicing extremely violent acts (using an axe to kill Giovanni Casa and cut his body into small pieces), but he also seems to feel remorseful at times (when he goes to the Cathedral to make a confession). However, like many other GTA protagonists, he too shows very little hesitation in killing anyone standing in his way and occasionally mocks them. Toni also believes that people should show proper respect to their parents, seen when he berates Vincenzo Cilli for receiving oral sex from a prostitute named Cheryl while talking to his mother, and how he desperately tries to please his mother. Like Claude, he will give drivers the finger if a vehicle stands in front of him and tries to mow him down.
Toni seems to be very loyal to his bosses (for example, he saves Salvatore from being crushed in a car which the Sindaccos used to kill Salvatore). However, after completing the story-line mission "The Sicilian Gambit", during the ending cutscene, Toni seems to be a little troubled and hesitant for not being paid by Salvatore the couple of million dollars he promised.
Toni's loyalty borders on innocence, considering that some of his enemies have already taken advantage of this to try to kill him. For example, when Vincenzo Cilli convinced Toni to go to an abandoned ship at the docks for a possible reconciliation between the two, only then to try to kill him. Although it can be said that much of this innocence is due to the strict loyalty that Toni has with Salvatore, which remains unbreakable until his death.
In 2001, Toni is the current Capo of the Leone family, and after years in Liberty City he has assumed an arrogant and somewhat childish attitude towards business. He constantly screams and loses control in Claude's presence, as well as appearing to be more docile in his mother's presence, never questioning her like he did three years ago. Either way, Toni remains cruel, psychotic, and even more controlling over the mafia's business.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Toni Cipriani's name, character, and appearance is influenced from characters portrayed by the late Paul Sorvino. The GTA III rendition of Toni Cipriani is heavily based on Sorvino's character Paulie Cicero from the film Goodfellas, a huge inspiration on both games Cipriani appears in. Furthermore, Toni Cipriani's name comes directly from a character Sorvino played named Tony "Guy" Cipriani from the 1997 film Money Talks.
- Toni Cipriani is likely an homage to Tony Soprano, the main character from The Sopranos. Aside from their names, both characters also share ongoing problems with their mothers, who also ordered hits on them. They also both would later go on to have weight problems, and were feuding with caporegimes in their respective crime families (Corrado 'Junior' Soprano and Vincenzo Cilli respectively).
- Toni Cipriani, (along with Salvatore Leone, Luigi Goterelli, Maria Latore, 8-Ball, and Joey Leone, in that order) appears on posters for the film Badfellas in Grand Theft Auto III. This is a reference to the film Goodfellas, which the late Frank Vincent (Salvatore Leone's voice actor) and Ray Liotta (Tommy Vercetti's voice actor) starred in. The posters can be found at Luigi's Sex Club 7 in the Red Light District of Portland Island, Liberty City.
- An easter egg in Grand Theft Auto IV suggests that Toni, along with the other 3D Universe protagonists, are dead. However, this is not been considered canon with the 3D Universe.
- Toni is the first protagonist to give missions to another protagonist (namely, Claude). He is followed by Trevor Philips, who gives missions to the GTA Online Protagonists in Grand Theft Auto Online.
- Toni may have been a loan shark in the past, as he reminds J.D O'Toole of the money he owes in Snuff and Giovanni Casa tells Toni that he will pay him "the money I owe" in Dead Meat.
- Toni appears in a total of seventy-seven storyline missions, the third-highest number of any protagonist (behind Carl Johnson and Niko Bellic, who appear in one-hundred and four and ninety-four missions respectively).
- Toni said his own name as "Toni Ki-priani" in the mission The Pick-Up in Grand Theft Auto" III instead of the usual "Toni Si-priani". This is a simple mistake by the voice actor Michael Madsen. As Madsen didn't reprise the role in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, it's rumored by fans that Rockstar recasted the role with Danny Mastrogiorgio due to Madsen's incapacity of pronouncing his character's last name correctly. However youtuber with the nickname 'TheProfessional' implied and theorized that it's just Claude reading the name wrong. Joey introduce Toni and quoted to Claude "This is pops capo, Toni Si-priani''. Claude might lose respect for him overtime and as a result he didn't care about him reading Toni's surname wrong.
- One of Toni's random lines when targeting someone is "It's my constitutional right, you moron!", which is similar to CJ's line "It's my constitutional right, bitch!" in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
- Toni's original name was Tony Facile.
External Links[]
- Toni Cipriani on the Heroes Wiki
- Toni Cipriani on the Grand Theft Auto Wiki
