‘Blue Bloods’ Star, Steve Schirripa Once Said He ‘Would Forever Be Bobby Bacala’
Sometimes actors can’t shake off a role. Steve Schirripa is now on Blue Bloods. But he once talked about still having fans refer to him by his role on The Sopranos.
Steven Schirripa played Bobby Bacala on ‘The Sopranos’
Schirripa played Bobby “Bacala” Baccalieri from seasons 2 to 6. Bobby ran Junior Soprano’s (Dominic Chianese) shark business. He later gets married to Janice Soprano (Aida Turturro), who is Tony’s (James Gandolfini) sister.
The show eventually ended in 2007. Schirripa stayed in touch with the fandom by releasing two books called A Goomba’s Guide to Life and The Goomba Diet: Large and Loving It. He also has a sauce company called Uncle Steve’s Italian Specialties.
But he still had to move to other roles. Blue Bloods has lasted for a long time.
Steven Schirripa said he ‘would forever be Bobby Bacala’
The Sopranos is an iconic show. So it’s not surprising fans still call the actor by that character’s name long after the show ended. Schirripa has accepted that.
“I knew then that I would forever be Bobby Bacala,” he told Esquire. “People would never forget that name and all of that stuff.” He noted that he got the role of Leo Boykewich on The Secret Life of the American Teenager six months after The Sopranos and did more episodes with that. He then eventually got the role of Anthony Abetemarco on Blue Bloods, which also surpassed the 53 episodes he did on The Sopranos.
“But not a day goes by where someone doesn’t call me ‘Bobby’ or ‘Bacala,’” he said. “Not one day since the show. Not one single day has gone by where someone doesn’t go, ‘Hey Bobby!’ ‘Hey, Bacala!’ ‘Hey, where’s Junior?’ Not one day.”
The actor has been on Blue Bloods since 2015. He said some fans are calling him Anthony now because of that. Blue Bloods started with a few writers from The Sopranos, but it has also included other actors from the show.
Other actors from ‘The Sopranos’ have appeared on ‘Blue Bloods’
Michael Imperioli played Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos until 2007. He then moved on to other roles and that includes one on the cop show.
One of his smaller roles is Attorney General Robert Lewi on Blue Bloods. He first appeared on the show in 2016 and went on to do two more episodes—the last one being in season 11, where he talked to Frank (Tom Selleck).
Schirripa is still playing Anthony, who works under Erin Reagan (Bridget Moynahan), so sadly, he didn’t cross paths with Imperioli in the episode. Since the show is more focused on law enforcement, actors from The Sopranos are more likely to play politicians and cops than criminals. But the actors will probably always be remembered for their darker characters.
