The Sopranos was massive, and catapulted its stars to crazy heights of fame.
Check out the secrets some of them tried to keep under wraps.
Louis Gross: True crime
"Mrs. Soprano, good morning.
I'm Perry…
Annunziata."
"Come in!"
During The Sopranos' sixth season, Louis Gross portrayed Tony Soprano's bodyguard, Perry
Annunziata… but behind the scenes, the actor was involved in some real-life drama that
wouldn't have been out of place on the show.
"So what do you do uh free weights?
Machines?"
"A little bit of both.
Depends what muscles I'm trying to hit, you know?"
Gross wound up in some legal trouble when he was reportedly arrested in April 2006 for
breaking into a woman's apartment in Queens, New York.
He claimed some of his belongings were at the apartment, and somehow managed to avoid
jail time… despite also getting arrested in February 2006 for leaving a New York clothing
store without paying for items.
Gross didn't stay out of trouble, either.
According to the New York Daily News, he was arrested yet again in 2014 and convicted of
"criminal possession of a forged instrument" after trying to use fake $100 bills at a restaurant.
Once again, he managed to avoid jail time… and was sentenced to five years' probation
instead.
Robert Iler: Nose for trouble
"Hey, happy birthday.”
“Thanks dad.”
Actor Robert Iler, who played Tony's son Anthony Soprano Jr. throughout the course of the series,
got into some serious legal trouble, too.
"Can we take it out?"
"Yeah we can take it out.
Once.
Then this baby sits in the garage til you pull your grades up to a C."
"What?"
According to The New York Times, he and his friends reportedly stole forty dollars from
two sixteen-year-olds on the Upper East Side in July 2001.
At the time of his arrest, police said he was in possession of a bag of marijuana and
a small bong or water pipe.
All four teens were ultimately charged with robbery.
HBO's response at the time?
"No comment."
The show's producers clearly didn't want to make a big deal out of Iler's real-life exploits.
In April 2002, the actor pleaded guilty to a larceny misdemeanor charge and received
three years probation.
Tony Sirico: So much crime
"You think I'm here to hurt you?
You've known me since I'm a kid."
"Help!"
"What are you doing?"
"Help!"
Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri is one of The Sopranos' most memorable characters... and actor Tony
Sirico probably didn't have to do too much research to play a hardened criminal.
"It's not the worst thing I ever heard."
Before becoming an actor, Sirico was arrested not once, not twice … but twenty-eight times.
According to The Los Angeles Times, he had two stints in jail for weapons and armed robbery
charges.
He was also arrested for disorderly conduct, among other offenses.
Sirico's history might not be common knowledge, but he's talked about his past... and he seems
rather proud of it.
He told Paste magazine:
"I got 28 arrests and only two convictions, so you gotta admit I have a pretty good acting
record."
James Gandolfini's personal demons
"She reached out to me, for me to care, and I wasn't there for her."
Playing the role of Tony Soprano reportedly took its toll on actor James Gandolfini, who
passed away in 2013.
"I know you're there, Soprano."
According to Brett Martin's book Difficult Men, divorce papers filed by Gandolfini's
ex-wife in 2002 suggest the actor was experiencing, quote, "increasingly serious issues with drugs
and alcohol."
The divorce papers also detailed:
"...arguments during which the actor would repeatedly punch himself in the face out of
frustration."
Martin's book details a moment in the winter of 2002, when Gandolfini allegedly didn't
show up to work on The Sopranos for three days.
The show's creators became increasingly worried about the star's well-being.
Gandolfini reportedly turned up at a Brooklyn beauty salon on the fourth day and called
for a car to take him home.
Anthony Borghese's dirty deeds
"I'm gonna wind up being declared an MIA… they're gonna find me in the back of a car
somewhere in the weeds."
Actor Anthony Borghese, whose stage name is Tony Darrow, played restaurant owner Sonny
Bunz in the 1990 Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas.
That experience must have come in handy when Borghese portrayed crime family captain Lorenzo
"Larry Boy" Barese in The Sopranos.
You know what else probably came in handy?
The actor is very connected to the criminal world.
"But how long we gonna continue to kick upstairs without it hurting?
I mean something, anything, should trickle down over here, no?"
Growing up in East Brooklyn, Borghese mingled with noted crime personalities and even knew
John Gotti.
In 2009, Borghese was arrested for trying to extort a man back in 2004.
In 2011, he admitted to the New York Post that he'd arranged for, quote, "mobsters to
beat up a deadbeat."
That incident earned Borghese six months of house arrest and two years probation.