Corrado John Soprano (1895-1974) is a mentioned character in The Sopranos. He was the father of Giovanni "Johnny Boy" Soprano and Corrado "Junior" Soprano, as well as their mentally impaired brother Ercole "Eckley" Soprano.
Biography[]
Early life and immigration[]
Corrado Soprano, Sr. was apparently born in 1895 in Ariano, in the Province of Avellino, Italy. He was a trained stonemason and in 1911, he immigrated to the United States along with his brother "Frank" with only "4 dollars in his pocket". He settled in Newark, New Jersey, where he and "Frank" helped to construct St. Elzéar's Church. At some point, met his soon-to-be wife Mariangela D'Agostino, a fellow Italian immigrant. Although both remained in America for the rest of their lives, they knew no English until their children were born and even then are recalled to have spoken with strong accents.
Life as a father[]
Corrado Soprano and Mariangela D'Agostino had three sons together, all born in the 1920s: their eldest was Corrado Soprano, Jr., the middle child was Ercole "Eckley" Soprano and the youngest was Giovanni Francis "Johnny Boy" Soprano. The boys came to respect their parents a great deal, and would often reference them later on in their lives. When Corrado, Sr. and his wife found out about Eckley's mental disability, it was hard for them to assimilate, let alone deal with the issue. Corrado, Jr. later thanked his mother for looking hard until they could find an appropriate mental institution to provide for his care.
Corrado Jr. remembers his father rather fondly and used to accompany him to construction jobs around New Jersey as a child. When a job took them to Essex Fells to a wealthy woman's property, Corrado Jr. helped the woman carry her groceries inside and gave him a quarter as thanks, but he declined. Once the woman was out of sight, his father hit his son in the mouth with a belt for refusing the money, mockingly calling him "millionaire" and saying he wouldn't eat if he didn't take money offered to him, and made him walk the 11 miles back home on foot.
Later years and death[]
Only one of Corrado, Sr.'s sons, Johnny, would go on to have children of his own. He, along with his other son Corrado (nicknamed "Junior") found their way into the mafia's DiMeo crime family. Johnny's children were: Janice (born 1957), Tony (born 1959) and Barbara (born 1965). Corrado, Sr. seemed to be especially fond of Tony, and Tony would later reference his grandfather and how he helped in the creation of the local church. Tony also said it was his grandfather who taught him to drive a tractor. Corrado Soprano, Sr. died in 1974 at the age of 78/79.
It's implied that Tony's nightmare in "Calling All Cars", where he imagines himself as an early 20th century Italian immigrant doing a masonry job, is inspired by the memory of his grandfather.
Trivia[]
- An undated script for The Many Saint of Newark features an unused intro sequence that would have taken place in 1911, which would have shown the arrival of a 15 year old Corrado Sr. (along with an unnamed boy, possibly his brother Frank) in New York on a steam ship. The pair would have marveled at the Statue of Liberty, as well as expressed bewilderment over the first people they see, a group of black dock workers tying the ship to the port, saying they must have gone off course and landed in Africa instead.