Phil Leotardo



Phil Leotardo is a prominent figure in the Lupertazzi Crime Family in the fictional HBO TV series, The Sopranos played by character actor Frank Vincent. He is initially a captain in the New York based Lupertazzi crime family, but following the death of boss Carmine Lupertazzi, and the imprisonment of his successor Johnny Sack, Phil becomes boss of the family. Phil is married to Patty Leotardo and is a cousin of Marie Spatafore.

Biography
Phil is introduced in the beginning of the fifth season (2004) of The Sopranos, after completing a twenty-year prison stint. Phil Leotardo was one of the wiseguys who were sent to prison during the "Mafia Crackdown of the 1980's" Phil was always good at his job; he has an alleged 27 hits to his credit. He quickly rejoined the Lupertazzi family, just as its leader, Carmine Lupertazzi Sr. had a stroke and died.

Phil got into a financial dispute with Tony Soprano and when he tried to duck Tony he was run off the road. Tony later compensated Phil for this by having his car repaired free of charge at the Bonpensiero body shop. Phil took full advantage of this and tried to wring as much as possible out of the work.

Following Carmine Sr.'s death, a power struggle between two factions ensued. One side was led by Carmine's underboss, Johnny Sack, while the other was ostensibly led by Carmine's son and Miami Capo "Little Carmine" Lupertazzi, although it is likely that Consigliere Angelo Garepe and Capo Rusty Millio were the real power behind this faction.

Phil became Johnny's right-hand man during the war, and carried out murders in order to weaken Little Carmine's resolve. Phil performed a mock execution of Lorraine Calluzzo, shooting at her while holding a phone book in the path of the bullet, to persuade her to redirect her payments from Little Carmine to Johnny Sack. When she failed to comply Phil returned with his younger brother, Billy Leotardo, and Joe Peeps who killed Lorraine. When Peeps was later killed, Phil and Billy murdered Angelo Garepe in response. Phil coldly ignored Angelo's pleas to spare him because they knew each other. Acting only as Johnny's field marshall until that point, Phil became personally involved in the war when his brother Billy was murdered by Tony Blundetto, as revenge for the hit the Leotardos carried out on Angelo, who was Blundetto's friend.

Tony Soprano initially protected Blundetto against Phil. Phil stalked New Jersey looking for Blundetto hounding Christopher Moltisanti to his mother Joanne's home and badly beating Soprano associate Benny Fazio. When it became clear that Tony's men would not allow themselves to be imperiled for no good reason Tony was forced to act. Tony ultimately murdered his own cousin to save his family and give Blundetto a quick and painless death. Soprano did this because at an earlier meeting, Johnny Sack had made it clear that Phil would torture Blundetto if he got his hands on him.

Phil was, according to Johnny Sack, 'beside himself' that his opportunity for vengeance was stolen. However, at a meeting between the two bosses, Johnny and Tony made peace, but the moment was interrupted by Johnny's arrest by the FBI, while Tony escaped. With Johnny in Federal custody, Phil became acting boss of the Lupertazzi family, and on the surface was faithful in continuing the work of Johnny Sack. Even Tony Soprano has commended his leadership skills.

Phil has worked closely with Tony and Vito Spatafore, the husband of his cousin, on the two family's joint construction efforts. Phil mediated the dispute over the sale of Barone sanitation passing messages back and forth between Tony and Johnny Sack. Phil also resolved a dispute over the beating of Hesh Rabkin's son-in-law Eli by offering generous compensation.

However, due to Phil's "old-school" mentality, he has developed contempt for formerly close friends who have displayed effeminate qualities: particularly for Vito when his homosexuality was revealed, and even his own boss Johnny Sack for sobbing when forced to leave his daughter's wedding. At the wedding Phil also watched as Tony collapsed when asked to remove his shoes. Phil's homophobia is portrayed as excessive even by Mafia standards, reflecting a very personal obsession.

Distracted with all the duties of an acting boss Phil has made elderly Lupertazzi mobster Albie Cianflone his consigliere. Phil also placed Gerry Torciano in charge of his old Brooklyn, NY territory. Gerry received his button soon after being given his new responsibilities and Phil gave a speech at a celebratory dinner held at Nuovo Vesuvio. Phil used the opportunity to expound on his feelings about Vito's homosexuality.

Phil visited Marie to try to find out if she knew where Vito was, when she pleaded for mercy for her husband he told her they just wanted to get Vito help. Phil has also harassed Tony about his efforts to find Vito.

Phil visited Tony at the Feast of St. Elzear and they planned a last minute hijacking together - Phil suggested they cut Johnny out of a share in the profits and Tony agreed. When Johnny was planning to give in to asset seizures to reduce his sentence he avoided using Phil to conduct any of his business. Once Johnny's allocution at his trial became public Phil again expressed his disappointment in the boss in front of his crew.

In the episode "Cold Stones", Phil played in the background for the majority of the episode, busy sorting out Johnny Sack's turning. Vito, who is back in New Jersey, meets Tony and offers to buy his way back into the family. Tony refuses, but doesn't attempt to harm Vito. Phil and his associates later showed up to ask Tony Soprano about Vito Spatafore's whereabouts. Tony lied, delaying the inevitable.

In the end, Phil, Gerry and Fat Dom got to Vito at a hotel in Fort Lee before anyone from Tony S's camp could. Phil watched as Gerry and Dom taped Vito's mouth shut and beat him to death. They later symbolically shoved a pool cue in his rectum to signify their contempt of Vito's lifestyle. It seems likely that Phil's wife, Patty, had a significant influence in his response, having been extremely critical of Vito's lifestyle on religious grounds.

Phil soon returned to routine business, apparently not expecting a response from New Jersey. Yet not long after the murder, Fat Dom was murdered during a visit to Satriale's when he made one too many jokes at the expense of Vito and his former crime family, and the body quietly disposed of. Next, Leotardo himself received a shock from Tony Soprano's official response; while on a date with his Ukrainian housemaid, Leotardo approached one of his Brooklyn businesses, only to be blown off of his feet by a bomb planted in the wire room the building had housed.

After an unsuccessful attempt by Little Carmine Lupertazzi to broker peace between the families, Leotardo and his crew plotted revenge. Although Phil balked at the idea of killing Tony himself, underboss Butch DeConcini seemingly persuaded him to target someone important to the DiMeo family. However, their planning was cut short when Phil suffered a late-night heart attack and was hospitalised. There, Tony paid a visit to his ailing counterpart, relating the fear and regret Tony had felt during his own near-death experience, and asking for peace in the interests of business. Tony's words seemed effective, even moving Phil to tears. However, with Leotardo's ailing health, and DeConcini making his contempt for Tony well known, it is unclear whether more serious conflict between the two families has been averted or merely postponed.

Phil also bears an uncanny resemblance to the former Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, leading to Tony Soprano and his crew often referring to him as "the Shah". Phil has recently expressed his distaste for the nickname.

Trivia

 * Phil Leotardo's murder of Angelo Garepe referred back to the death of actor Frank Vincent's character, Billy Batts, in Goodfellas; both were beaten, thrown into a car trunk, and shot while pleading for their life. This marks the second time in the series that an actor has inflicted their character's fate in Goodfellas on another; see also Christopher Moltisanti.