Posted on 07/26/2015 11:46:57 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
To take our minds off politics for a bit who was your favorite TV Gangster?
I can't seem to find much stuff to watch on Network TV anymore and I find that I have a short attention span with most shows I do see.
So last week I was trying to think what I would like to see that I had not seen in a long time and I thought of the TV show "Wiseguy" with Jonathan Banks and Ken Wahl.
I found it via my Roku on Amazon Prime and I bought the first season which I consider the best. In the first arc of that show was probably the best of it featuring Ray Sharkey, in probably the best role he ever had, as Sonny Steelgrave. He owned that role and was able to take a great character part and even make him somewhat likeable even for a Crime Lord. So he has my vote for one of the best I have ever seen.
Now there are a lot folks out here who probably like James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, and I like him too, but compared to Sonny Steelgrave, I like Sonny.
Now there another show I have found on Hulu Plus that many may remember and like from 30 years ago and that is "Crime Story" with Dennis Farina and Anthony Dennison. Dennison played Mobster Ray Luca and I must say I had forgotten how ruthless he was.
So weigh for some fun and nominate your favorite TV or even Movie Gangster.
Bruce Dern
Wo Fat from Hawaii Five-O
Tony Soprano.
This one goes waaaay back: Bruce Gordon as “Frank Nitti” on “The Untouchables.”
I know it is a movie, but Tony Montana!
Yes! Gordon was outstanding as Nitti.
I was just going to say Lawrence Dobkin’s Dutch Schultz on the Untouchables. He played the part with real style and menace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drp8pok8W0c
Lex Luthor from “Superfriends.”
Kind of hard to pin it down to single person but the DNC Crime Famiglia certainly gets more air time than any other show.
Frank Nitti is mine also. We’ve been watching DVD of “The Untouchables.”
0bama.
My uncle worked on Wiseguy in Vancouver. Ray Sharkey was one of the nicest guys and he was shocked later of what he died from. Sonny Steelgrave is legendary. And years later, I met Ken Wahl and I probably told this story on FR, I told him that every scene in Wiseguy I knew where in vancouver it was shot and we both laughed together as I grew up there.
Oh Wow! Thank you for reminding me of “WISEGUY”! I loved that show at the time, but had forgotten all about it.
I’m gonna have to do some binge-watching, fer sure. :-)
Also...loved Tony Soprano, RIP, James Gandolfini.
“’Crime Story’ with Dennis Farina and Anthony Dennison.”
I love both of ‘em. Tony Denison was the best of the cast on “The Closer”. Dennis Farina: RIP. A patriot, I believe.
Every time Sheldon Leonard plays one, especially on Burns and Allen, where he has Ronald Reagan slap a bumbling henchman.
Not technically a crime figure but a shady con artist nonetheless, Angel from “Rockford Files.”
My Friday Night staples in College: Miami Vice and Crime Story.
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