The 24 Greatest TV Mob Boss Characters

Jersey capos, Birmingham razor gangs and Baltimore corner crews all answer to someone, and this list is about the one giving the orders.

1. 1
   Tony Soprano

   James Gandolfini's New Jersey mob boss in HBO's The Sopranos (1999–2007), who juggles his crime family with therapy sessions.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Al Swearengen

   Ian McShane's saloon owner who controls the mining camp's vice trade in HBO's Deadwood.
   911pts
3. 3
   Jax Teller

   Charlie Hunnam's president of the outlaw motorcycle club SAMCRO in FX's Sons of Anarchy.
   852pts
4. 4
   Tommy Shelby

   Cillian Murphy's leader of the Birmingham gang in BBC's Peaky Blinders, set after the First World War.
   691pts
5. 5
   Walter White

   Bryan Cranston's chemistry teacher in Breaking Bad who becomes the drug kingpin known as Heisenberg.
   624pts
6. 6
   Gus Fring

   Giancarlo Esposito's chicken-restaurant owner in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul who secretly runs a methamphetamine empire.
   571pts
7. 7
   Nucky Thompson

   Steve Buscemi's Atlantic County treasurer and bootlegger in HBO's Boardwalk Empire, loosely based on Enoch 'Nucky' Johnson.
   571pts
8. 8
   Ghost

   Omari Hardwick's James St. Patrick in Starz's Power, a New York nightclub owner who runs a drug network.
   511pts
9. 9
   Alfie Solomons

   Tom Hardy's leader of a Jewish gang in Camden Town who deals rum with the Shelbys in Peaky Blinders.
   443pts
10. 10
    Pablo Escobar

    Wagner Moura's portrayal of the Medellín Cartel founder in the first two seasons of Netflix's Narcos.
    443pts
11. 11
    Wilson Fisk

    Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin, the crime lord of Hell's Kitchen in Netflix's Daredevil and Disney+'s Daredevil: Born Again.
    443pts
12. 12
    Corrado "Junior" Soprano

    Tony's uncle in The Sopranos, played by Dominic Chianese, who becomes the family's figurehead boss in season one.
    443pts
13. 13
    Marlo Stanfield

    Jamie Hector's young, cold-blooded drug boss who takes over West Baltimore's corners in later seasons of The Wire.
    443pts
14. 14
    Arnold Rothstein

    Michael Stuhlbarg's version of the real New York gambler and financier of organized crime in Boardwalk Empire.
    443pts
15. 15
    Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo

    Diego Luna's version of a co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel in Netflix's Narcos: Mexico.
    443pts
16. 16
    Avon Barksdale

    Wood Harris's West Baltimore drug lord whose organization is the target of the first season of HBO's The Wire.
    365pts
17. 17
    Loy Cannon

    Chris Rock's head of a Black crime syndicate in 1950 Kansas City in the fourth season of FX's Fargo.
    365pts
18. 18
    Boyd Crowder

    Walton Goggins's Harlan County outlaw who builds a criminal empire in FX's Justified.
    365pts
19. 19
    Teresa Mendoza

    Alice Braga's money changer turned drug-trafficking queenpin in USA Network's Queen of the South.
    365pts
20. 20
    Phil Leotardo

    Frank Vincent's hot-tempered Lupertazzi boss who goes to war with Tony in the final season of The Sopranos.
    365pts
21. 21
    Bumpy Johnson

    Forest Whitaker's Harlem crime boss in Godfather of Harlem, based on the real gangster Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson.
    275pts
22. 22
    Oz Cobb

    Colin Farrell's Gotham gangster in HBO's The Penguin (2024), who claws his way up after the death of Carmine Falcone.
    170pts
23. 23
    Franklin Saint

    Damson Idris's South Central Los Angeles teenager who builds a crack-cocaine empire in FX's Snowfall.
    0pts
24. 24
    Sean Wallace

    Joe Cole's heir to London's most powerful crime family after his father's murder in Gangs of London.
    0pts

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