Not to be confused with Ercole "Eckley" DiMeo, the unseen founder of the New Jersey crime family or Ercole Soprano, father of Corrado Soprano, Sr.
Ercole "Eckley" Soprano is a minor, unseen character mentioned in The Sopranos. In "The Happy Wanderer" it was revealed that Eckley was the mentally-disabled middle brother of Junior and Johnny Boy, named after his paternal grandfather. Because of some form of mild retardation, he had been kept away from the rest of the family until his death. He was entirely unknown to Tony Soprano until an offhand reference from Junior in "The Happy Wanderer" exposed that Tony had an uncle he never knew about.
Junior mentioned that Ercole was "strong as a bull and handsome like George Raft". Because Tony's paternal grandparents were immigrants, they had a hard enough time assimilating, let alone deal with Ercole's disability. Junior later thanked his mother for looking hard until they could find an appropriate mental institution to provide for Ercole, and also remarked that Ercole's younger brother Johnny Boy paid for the place after the death of his parents. Another remark of Junior's was that it was unfortunate that Ercole was born in his day, for if he was still alive today he could have gotten a menial job, as today's healthcare better understands issues such as Down Syndrome and it has more public acceptance. Junior also expresses shock that Tony's parents kept the existence of Ercole hidden from Tony, to which Tony replies he remembered his mother Livia talking about his father's feeble-minded brother, but Tony always assumed that was in reference to Junior. That remarks annoys Junior, and when Tony asks when Ercole died, Junior replies his death was shortly before Johnny's. As Tony's father died in 1986, it could be assumed Ercole died in 1984 or 1985.