Ralph Cifaretto
From Sopranopedia - The Sopranos Encyclopedia
zeleltlio
| Ralph Cifaretto | |
|---|---|
 | |
| First appearance | "Proshai, Livushka" (episode 3.02) |
| Last appearance | "Whoever Did This" (episode 4.09) (death) |
| Cause/reason | Murdered by Tony Soprano |
| Information | |
| Aliases | Ralphie, Henry Caruso |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 51 (Deceased) |
| Occupation | Roofing Company Owner |
| Title | Former Capo of the Aprile crew in the DiMeo Crime Family |
| Relationships | Ronnie Cappoza (divorced) |
| Children | Justin Cifaretto (son) |
| Portrayed by | Joe Pantoliano |
| Created by | David Chase |
Ralph "Ralphie" Cifaretto, played by Joe Pantoliano, is a fictional character on the HBO series The Sopranos.
Story arc
Ralph Cifaretto was a member of Tony Soprano's crime family. Highly intelligent, cunning, remorseless, and violently unstable, he was in many ways a classic psychopath.
Cifaretto was friends with Jackie Aprile, Silvio Dante and Tony Soprano in his youth, although he came up in the DiMeo/Soprano crime family more slowly than his peers - he once attributed this to not going along with some of the more elaborate schemes of the others, such as the stickup of Feech La Manna's card game. He spent an extended period in Miami and returned following the death of Richie Aprile in 2000.
His return rubbed several members of the Soprano crime family the wrong way - obnoxious and belligerent, he tended to fly off the handle at social events and incessantly quote the film Gladiator. This attitude came to a head when he beat his stripper girlfriend to death for insulting and slapping him. She was carrying a child she asserted was his (a claim that he later denied). He became flippant about her death with Tony, which led to Soprano striking him â something that a "made man" is not supposed to do to another.
Incensed, Cifaretto claimed that Soprano violated the codes of the family over something so trivial as a dead whore, even researching the possibility of joining the Lupertazzi family. Though Soprano despised Ralph for killing the stripper - who reminded him of his own daughter - he understood that he had to either make amends or make Cifaretto disappear. Due to Cifaretto's skill at earning, Soprano chose the former and promoted him to captain of the Aprile crew (a promotion he had vocally coveted for some time) after the death of Gigi Cestone, his former captain and personal enemy.
A divorcee, Cifaretto had one son named Justin from his marriage. He briefly pursued relationships with Rosalie Aprile, the widow of Jackie Aprile, Sr., and then with Janice Soprano; both of these relationships ended badly, possibly because of his preference for masochistic sex games over actual intercourse. A third girlfriend, Valentina La Paz, later had an affair with Tony and complained frequently to him of Cifaretto's inadequacy.
Cifaretto was notoriously sarcastic and loud-mouthed - once commenting that Vito Spatafore's brother shouldn't worry about a coma because "He wasn't that smart to begin with." This trait got him into trouble on several occasions. In the third season, his casual recounting to Rosalie's son, Jackie Jr., of a story about how his father and Tony "made their bones" inspired Jackie to make a similar move, with tragic results; to control the situation, Cifaretto ordered the boy's death. His relationship with Rosalie ended soon afterwards, even while he attempted to dodge the blame by claiming that Jackie Jr. had become a drug addict and that he would look after the boy's interests. In the fourth season, his joke about Johnny Sack's wife brought on an assassination plot that was called off at literally the last minute.
The last straw was when Cifaretto purchased a race horse named "Pie-O-My" and worked with Tony Soprano to turn her into a winner. However, he needed some money for his son's medical expenses after an archery accident, and Pie-O-My died in a suspicious stable fire (which Soprano accused him of having ordered to collect on the insurance policy). A furious Tony confronted Cifaretto, and after some heated words a brawl broke out that saw him choke Ralph to death. With help from Christopher Moltisanti, he then dismembered and disposed of the body, burying the head and hands in a field and the body at sea.
Several members of the family suspected Tony had him killed over the horse, though Tony later deflected the blame to New York by suggesting that Johnny Sack killed him over a business deal gone wrong. As the deal was important to both families and Cifaretto had a known feud with Sacrimoni, this explanation was accepted by the family, few of whom mourned his passing.
External link
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| Characters: | Tony • Dr. Melfi • Carmela • Christopher • Uncle Junior • Meadow • A.J. • Janice • Silvio • Paulie Walnuts • Bobby "Bacala" • Johnny Sack • Vito • Adriana • Furio • Tony B. • Ralph • Big Pussy • Livia • Artie • Jackie Jr. • Rosalie • Phil • Hesh • Richie • Carmine • Little Carmine • Patsy • Benny • Charmaine • Little Paulie • Eugene • Carlo • Agent Harris • Kelli • Larry Boy • Feech • Walden • Mikey • Gigi •Butch • Anthony • Johnny Boy • Dante • | |||
| Fictional universe: | DiMeo crime family • Lupertazzi crime family • FBI • Bada Bing • Satriale's Pork Store • Cleaver • Death List • Timeline • Family Tree | |||
| Production: | Episode List • Writers & Directors • David Chase • Music • Awards | |||
