| “ | To sell out your friends and save your own ass? It's despicable! That's one ride I would have loved to have been along on!
|
„ |
| ― Ray Curto |
Raymond "Buffalo Ray" Curto is a supporting character on The Sopranos. He is a veteran, high-ranking capo in the DiMeo crime family and a close associate of Tony Soprano. He is portrayed by George Loros.
Biography[]
Raymond was approached by Tony to replace Jackie Aprile, Sr as boss of the DiMeo crime family, due to his age and experience (Jackie was in and out of the hospital and close to death at that point in time). Raymond declined the honor, and insisted, along with the other capos, that Tony should take over instead, fearing Tony's uncle and fellow capo Corrado Soprano would step up as the new boss.
However, Raymond was also an F.B.I. informant, as revealed in the episode, "Proshai, Livushka." It has never been disclosed when or why he became an informant, although he was briefly seen in the episode "Nobody Knows Anything" being busted at a brothel along with Detective Vin Makazian. Raymond also mentioned he has a son with multiple sclerosis and the medication and care costs a fortune, so perhaps Ray's motivation to be an informant was to stay out of jail so he could keep earning and have the ability to pay for his son's care, or possibly out of fear that if he was incarcerated his son would die from lack of support from his parents.
Around Christmas of 2000, Raymond was present in the back room of Satriale's before the annual holiday celebration held there and openly discussed DiMeo soldier Salvatore Bonpensiero's murder, stating that he'd wished he had been along to kill "the rat". It is unknown whether he was wired-up during this conversation, in an attempt to link DiMeo capo Tony Soprano alongside then soldiers Silvio Dante and Paulie Gualtieri to the murder. In December 2004 (Season 5, Episode 13), many members of the DiMeo crime family attended a birthday party for Raymond at "Nuovo Vesuvio Ristorante".
Raymond unexpectedly died of a stroke in his F.B.I. handler's car, in April 2006, while giving potentially damaging information to Agent Sanseverino about Tony (Ray indicated he had a poor sound quality tape of Tony discussing a murder). Curto was handled by both Sanseverino and Agent Grasso. Raymond has the distinction of being the longest-tenured "rat" in the series, and for never being caught or suspected as such. How much damage, if any, he caused the Soprano crime family was never determined during the run of the show.
Trivia[]
- He has a wife named Marianucci Curto.
- He has a son with multiple sclerosis.
Appearance[]
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| Season 1 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||||||||||||||
| Season 2 | ✔ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Season 3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Season 4 | ✔ | ✔ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Season 5 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |||||||||||||||||
| Season 6 | ✔ |