In the past decade few shows have achieved what The Sopranos did over its eight-year run. Competitors for the title of “The Greatest Television Programme Ever Made” have come and gone but without success. Given David Chase’s ingeniously simple ending, we will never get to know what happened to Tony and his two families – and with the death of James Gandolfini, the show will certainly never return. So although we can’t catch up with Tony, Silvio, Paulie and co we can see some of the wildest things the cast members have (bada) been up to for the last 10 years.

Steve Schirripa

Steve Schirripa. Photograph: Starpix/REX/Shutterstock

Big Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri has been busy. Not only has he published five books – most recently Big Daddy’s Rules: Raising Daughters Is Tougher Than I Look – a film was also made of Nicky Deuce, the children’s book he co-authored, in which he starred alongside four Sopranos castmates. But perhaps most impressively, he has created Uncle Steve’s Italian Specialities – a range of organic vegan pasta sauces. For just $22, you can get a gift package (or “Schirripa-Gram”) containing two jars of sauce and a wooden spoon – signed, of course.

Joseph R Gannascoli

Joseph R Gannascoli. Photograph: Schwab/StarPix/REX/Shutterstock

As Vito Spatofore, the closeted gay mobster (a man so fat he was once described as a “parade float”) Gannascoli had a gift of a storyline, one he apparently suggested to Chase himself. Since the show, his involvement in movies and TV has been reduced to titles such as Megaball$ and characters including New York Mets Fan #2. He was also heavily involved with the Sopranos tour. So involved, in fact, that he was until recently selling merchandise out of the back of his car and signing photos for $20.

Denise Borino-Quinn



Denise Borino Quinn with Frank Santorelli and Vincent Pastore. Photograph: Bobby Bank/WireImage

14,000 women apparently attended the open casting call for the part of New York boss Johnny Sack’s “Rubenesque” wife Ginny Sacrimoni. But it was Borino-Quinn, a legal assistant from Rosewood, NJ, attending only to support her auditioning friend, who won the role. After the show she never acted again, instead returning to the same law firm. Just months after losing her husband in 2010, she died aged 46 of liver cancer.

Lillo Brancato

Lillo Brancato. Photograph: Gilbert Carrasquillo/Getty

Discovered at 17 by Robert De Niro for the latter’s directorial debut A Bronx Tale, Brancato will be remembered as Matt Bevilaqua, the over-eager underling who hoped to impress Richie Aprile by trying (and failing) to murder Christopher Moltisanti. Not long after leaving the show Brancato and Steven Armento, the father of his then girlfriend, were disturbed breaking into a house by off-duty cop Daniel Enchautegui. Armento shot and killed Enchautegui and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Brancato served eight years for first degree attempted burglary after a charge of second degree murder was dropped. Since his release in 2013 he’s back acting but has been widely shunned by the majority of his Sopranos castmates.

Robert Iler

Robert Iler. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty

After appearing in all 86 episodes as Tony and Carmela’s brattish son AJ, Iler all but turned his back on acting (bar one episode of Law and Order in 2009). Now he is a professional poker player. Frustrated with the lack of tournaments in New York and Atlantic City he moved to Las Vegas permanently in 2012 and is a regular at the World Series of Poker. He is frequently quoted as saying he hasn’t read a script in six years.

Jamie-Lynn Sigler

Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Jerry Ferrara in Entourage.

If they gave out awards for “Most Stressful TV Parking” Meadow Soprano would have had to clear an entire shelf. Since we saw her bounding into Holsten’s to join her family for dinner, Sigler has been busy most memorably for a bizarre turn playing herself on the sixth season of Entourage alongside her then boyfriend Jerry Ferrara. Despite a constant stream of work, she recently revealed she has lived with multiple sclerosis for 15 years but kept it quiet for fear it would affect her career. She now lives with her husband, the brilliantly named baseball player Cutter Dykstra, and their three-year-old son.

Dominic Chianese

Dominic Chianese. Photograph: Channel 4

Uncle Junior will go down as one of TV’s most iconic characters, but what would you expect when the actor playing him already has The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon and All the President’s Men on his CV? At 85 Chianese is still acting, with recent roles on Damages, Boardwalk Empire and The Good Wife. When he’s not filming, Chianese tours retirement communities singing to patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia, the same illness his character had.

John Costello

Ex-firefighter Costello only appeared in four episodes of the show as Jim “Johnny Cakes” Witowski, the local chef and lover of Vito Spatofore. Costello went on to appear in 2008’s Doubt, then killed himself later that year. At the time of his death he was receiving glowing reviews for his performance in an off-Broadway play. His funeral was attended by another former firefighter and Sopranos alumni, Steve Buscemi. The pair became lifelong friends after working together in the FDNY before they found acting.

Federico Castelluccio

Federico Castelluccio. Photograph: Erik Pendzich/REX/Shutterstock

Shipped over from Rome, Furio Giunta found himself harbouring feelings for the one woman you don’t fall in love with – Carmela. Since fleeing back to the homeland, Castelluccio has spent the last decade acting consistently but also dedicating his time to his other love, painting. Not only is he an accomplished realist painter but he has an immense knowledge of the Baroque masters. In 2010 he unearthed a previously forgotten masterpiece by Guercino at a gallery in Frankfurt which he paid £43,000 for. It went on to sell at auction in 2014 for a reported £6.2m.