Top 5 Sopranos Crew Members In Honor Of Jerry Adler's Passing

Fans of the TV show masterpiece The Sopranos were saddened to learn of the passing of Jerry Adler.

The 96-year-old actor was perhaps best known for his role as Tony's trusted friend and shylock business runner, Hesh Rabkin, on the show.

To me, The Sopranos is the greatest television show to have ever graced our screens, and Adler's presence played an integral part in its success.

In honor of his passing, I thought I would take a look at the top five members of Tony's crew throughout the show's seven (ish) season run.

And I'm sure it goes without saying, but you won't find a single FBI informant rat bastard on this list.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

5. Furio Giunta

What an entrance!

Coming in at number five on the list, we have Tony's most feared enforcer from the home country, Furio Giunta.

A capable soldier and a master cheesemaker to boot, Furio made the most of his two-season run on the show with some of the more memorable lines in the series, all being uttered through a hilariously heavy (and fake) Italian accent.

Though he was known for his tough, no-nonsense brutality (just watch that video of him shaking down a brothel for his first collection on the show), Furio's soft side is ultimately what did him in, as his love for Tony's wife Carmela caused him to "lamb chop it" back to The Boot.

Banging the boss's wife is a big no-no, so we can't have our silver-tongued Lothario any higher than fifth.

4. Hesh Rabkin

It wouldn't be a proper list without including the man of the hour, and Hesh more than earned his spot among these giants on his own merits.

Perhaps the best way to describe Hesh's memorability was his ability to carry perhaps the worst episode of the entire show, "A Hit Is A Hit."

In it, Hesh uses his expertise as a former MoTown record producer to help guide Tony's nephew Christopher through signing a new band to his label.

The scene where Hesh is explaining to Chris what makes a song a hit (which is where the episode gets its title) is perhaps his finest hour and is a beacon of light in an otherwise murky sea of mediocrity for this season one snoozer.

Jerry Adler will be missed, but his contributions as Hesh will live on as long as I keep rewatching the series every six-to-eight months.

3. Christopher Moltisanti

Tony's lunkhead pseudo-nephew claims the bronze medal of this ranking, and a lot of that has to do with just how hilarious his character was.

Moltisanti's character arc throughout the run of the show was tragic. There's no question about it.

From his escalating drug use to the death of his fiancé at the hands of Tony and crew, Chris had no right to be as side-splittingly funny as he was, but that just goes to show how clever the writing and acting from Michael Imperioli was from beginning to end.

Some personal favorites of mine include his numerous screw-ups at big meetings, his unintentional mispronunciations and misuses of words and idioms ("hair apparent" instead of "heir apparent"), and, of course, the infamous intervention (embedded above).

Chrissy will always be my favorite punching bag from any television show, so his spot is well-earned here.

2. Paulie Walnuts 

From a guy who was tragically hilarious to one who was just hilarious, Peter Paul Gualtieri, aka Paulie Walnuts, might have been the single funniest member of the Soprano crew by a country mile.

This man was a literal caricature of an Italian-American wiseguy, and that is probably due in large part to the fact that the actor who played him, Tony Sirico, was a real-life mobster-turned-actor himself.

Everything from the hairdo, to repeating his jokes twice to everyone within earshot for emphasis, and even his mannerisms elicit full-on belly laughs from me even as my rewatch count exceeds double digits.

Tony may have been eternally annoyed by his oldest lieutenant, but Paulie Walnuts keeps me coming back to the show every single time for more laughs.

Probably should've had him checked for Tourettes though (heh, heh).

1. Silvio Dante

Was it ever going to be anyone else?

Silvio Dante is Tony's most trusted confidant, and for good reason.

You don't rise to the ranks of consigliere, aka second in command, without earning your keep.

Silvio acts as sort of a friendly voice to the disgruntled members of the Soprano crew; an understanding position coach to Tony's hard-ass Parcels position, as it were.

Whenever there is a dispute among the crew or a job where Tony doesn't want to get his hands dirty, Sil is there to fill in.

Some people are better off being number two, though, as Silvio finds out in season six when Tony is temporarily deposed.

The pressure of the job gets to be too much for our favorite right-hand-man, because, in Tony'