Faustino "Doc" Santoro is a supporting antagonist on The Sopranos. An old-school mobster in the Lupertazzi crime family, Doc has a feud with Phil Leotardo over the family leadership after the death of Johnny Sacrimoni. He is portrayed by Dan Conte.
Biography[]
Season 6[]
Part II[]
| “ | Glad you're back, Phil. This fucking guy.
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| ― The Lupertazzi family's unflattering opinion of Doc |
After Phil returns home from a hospital stay following a heart attack , Doc greets him at a party. When he goes over to the bar to get a drink, one of the men welcoming Phil quietly comments on how he's glad Phil is now back after having had to deal with Doc's power plays the entire year he was away, an opinion shared by the family as a whole. Doc also relays the news of Tony Soprano's arrest on a gun charge, derogatorily calling him "pork chop" while at it.[1]
In the very next episode, Johnny Sacrimoni is in jail and dying from lung cancer, and the question of who is to fill his shoes remains in the air. Phil has decided to retire to spend time with his family, and his protégé Gerry Torciano seems like the most likely candidate, though Doc isn't discarded either. He attends the premiere party for Christopher Moltisanti's movie Cleaver, and maintains a jovial tone, taking a photo with Phil and Tony. However, jovial as he may seem, Doc actually wanted the top spot for himself, and decides to take measures into his own hands. He sends an assassin to take care of Gerry, and while he is having dinner with Silvio Dante at an Italian restaurant, he is shot to death.
Phil is devastated over this, and Tony is upset, as he fears Sil could have been hurt, so he requests that Little Carmine should step up, but he declines the offer. At the end of "Stage 5", Phil tells Butch DeConcini: "No more, Butchie. No more of this.".[2] In “Remember When", Phil seems to have embraced the fact that Doc is now acting boss, as they are seen calmly chatting at a sitdown in a restaurant, although it could be interpreted as Phil putting on a falsely amicable facade to Doc in order to not arouse suspicion. However, Phil is humiliated when Doc asks him if he can take some food from his plate, and after he coldly allows him to, he decides all boundaries are crossed. As Doc is exiting a massage parlor and brothel in Chinatown with his driver and a bodyguard, Doc orders his driver to take him to his daughter jeanette's house. The driver notices something and suddenly runs away. Before Doc has time to react, three Lupertazzi gunmen appear out of the corner and open fire on him and his bodyguard, hitting his torso and shooting his right eye out. The gunmen quickly get out of there, with Butch DeConcini as their getaway driver. Doc collapses to the floor dead alongside the bodyguard, as three girls cry out in horror and onlookers pass by. After his death, Phil became the official boss of the family, although the fate of Doc's crew is unknown.[3] The last appearance of Doc, although posthumously, is in the series finale of Made in America, where he is seen in the corner of a picture of Phil Leotardo Little Paulie shows to a gas station manager.
Personality[]
Even if he acted like a humble old man on the exterior, Doc was really a conniving psychopath ready to commit violent acts such as murder with only his own interests in mind. Though manipulative, one could say he was also short-sighted and arrogant, as he failed to see the warning signs that led to his own murder when he stole food from Phil Leotardo's plate. His amiable facade didn't seem all that convincing, however, as even before he ordered Gerry the Hairdo's death, various family members already didn't like him, and he would have been inefficient as boss would his plan have come into fruition. Doc, like most other mobsters, liked to surround himself with hookers, as he was seen exiting a brothel shortly before his death.
Relationships[]
Lupertazzi crime family[]
Doc, Phil and Tony Soprano take a photo together
From the beginning, the Lupertazzis didn't especially like Doc, which is strange, since he was a capo and was made in Sicily, but it's possible they just saw right through his exterior. Phil Leotardo seemed to respect him at first, even if he still hoped Gerry would become boss, although that respect quickly went down the drain when Gerry was killed, and he ultimately ordered his death. Gerry himself seemed to have a favorable opinion on Doc in contrast to the rest of the Lupertazzis, referring to him as a “great guy” to Silvio before his death, although he admitted that he didn’t believe Doc to be boss material.
DiMeo crime family[]
Tony Soprano also seemed to initially like Doc, approaching him in a friendly manner at the premiere of Cleaver, but much like Phil, Tony lost all respect for him when Silvio, his consigliere, was put in danger as he was near Gerry at the time of his death, and Tony tried to talk to Little Carmine to prevent Doc from taking over. Doc referred to Tony as "porkchop".
Murders Doc is associated with[]
Gerardo "Gerry the Hairdo" Torciano: Ordered his death and sent an assassin to murder him. Killed so he could seize control over the family (September 2007).
Quotes[]
| “ | Oh! Young and tall and tan and lovely!
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| ― Doc to Phil Leotardo after he returns from the hospital. |
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| “ | Did you hear the news? Porkchop down in Jersey got pinched on a weapon charge.
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| ― Doc informs Phil of Tony Soprano's gun charge. |
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| “ | Hey, Tony! You know Danny, huh? Got a ticket on the Jersey Turnpike. Broken windshield wiper. I said he should talk to you. Oh! Let's take a picture!
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| ― Doc conversing with Tony at the premiere of Cleaver. |
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| “ | This fucking DeLeo Construction has always been a problem. Tell him I personally am upset.
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| ― Doc talking about Tommy DeLeo with Phil Leotardo at a sitdown. |
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| “ | Nice gravy, huh? How's Patricia? Do you mind?
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| ― Doc asking Phil if he can borrow some food from his plate, unknowingly sealing his fate. |
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| “ | Take me over to Jeannette's house.
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| ― Doc's last words to his driver, before being shot to death. |
Appearances[]
| Episodes | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Season 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Season 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Season 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Season 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Season 6 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Trivia[]
- Actor Dan Conte, who played Doc Santoro, was a doctor in real life. He was an Osteopathic physician and practiced in Northern New Jersey.[4]
- When greeting Phil at his "welcome home" party, Doc says "young and tall and tan and lovely", which are some of the lyrics from Frank Sinatra and Antônio Carlos Jobim's song "The Girl from Ipanema", first released in 1964.
Gallery[]
