# 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.

*By YPB Team · Published November 2, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-24-greatest-tv-mob-boss-characters*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Tony Soprano** — score 1000/1000
   James Gandolfini's New Jersey mob boss in HBO's The Sopranos (1999–2007), who juggles his crime family with therapy sessions.
2. **Al Swearengen** — score 911/1000
   Ian McShane's saloon owner who controls the mining camp's vice trade in HBO's Deadwood.
3. **Jax Teller** — score 852/1000
   Charlie Hunnam's president of the outlaw motorcycle club SAMCRO in FX's Sons of Anarchy.
4. **Tommy Shelby** — score 691/1000
   Cillian Murphy's leader of the Birmingham gang in BBC's Peaky Blinders, set after the First World War.
5. **Walter White** — score 624/1000
   Bryan Cranston's chemistry teacher in Breaking Bad who becomes the drug kingpin known as Heisenberg.
6. **Gus Fring** — score 571/1000
   Giancarlo Esposito's chicken-restaurant owner in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul who secretly runs a methamphetamine empire.
7. **Nucky Thompson** — score 571/1000
   Steve Buscemi's Atlantic County treasurer and bootlegger in HBO's Boardwalk Empire, loosely based on Enoch 'Nucky' Johnson.
8. **Ghost** — score 511/1000
   Omari Hardwick's James St. Patrick in Starz's Power, a New York nightclub owner who runs a drug network.
9. **Alfie Solomons** — score 443/1000
   Tom Hardy's leader of a Jewish gang in Camden Town who deals rum with the Shelbys in Peaky Blinders.
10. **Pablo Escobar** — score 443/1000
   Wagner Moura's portrayal of the Medellín Cartel founder in the first two seasons of Netflix's Narcos.
11. **Wilson Fisk** — score 443/1000
   Vincent D'Onofrio's Kingpin, the crime lord of Hell's Kitchen in Netflix's Daredevil and Disney+'s Daredevil: Born Again.
12. **Corrado "Junior" Soprano** — score 443/1000
   Tony's uncle in The Sopranos, played by Dominic Chianese, who becomes the family's figurehead boss in season one.
13. **Marlo Stanfield** — score 443/1000
   Jamie Hector's young, cold-blooded drug boss who takes over West Baltimore's corners in later seasons of The Wire.
14. **Arnold Rothstein** — score 443/1000
   Michael Stuhlbarg's version of the real New York gambler and financier of organized crime in Boardwalk Empire.
15. **Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo** — score 443/1000
   Diego Luna's version of a co-founder of the Guadalajara Cartel in Netflix's Narcos: Mexico.
16. **Avon Barksdale** — score 365/1000
   Wood Harris's West Baltimore drug lord whose organization is the target of the first season of HBO's The Wire.
17. **Loy Cannon** — score 365/1000
   Chris Rock's head of a Black crime syndicate in 1950 Kansas City in the fourth season of FX's Fargo.
18. **Boyd Crowder** — score 365/1000
   Walton Goggins's Harlan County outlaw who builds a criminal empire in FX's Justified.
19. **Teresa Mendoza** — score 365/1000
   Alice Braga's money changer turned drug-trafficking queenpin in USA Network's Queen of the South.
20. **Phil Leotardo** — score 365/1000
   Frank Vincent's hot-tempered Lupertazzi boss who goes to war with Tony in the final season of The Sopranos.
21. **Bumpy Johnson** — score 275/1000
   Forest Whitaker's Harlem crime boss in Godfather of Harlem, based on the real gangster Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson.
22. **Oz Cobb** — score 170/1000
   Colin Farrell's Gotham gangster in HBO's The Penguin (2024), who claws his way up after the death of Carmine Falcone.
23. **Franklin Saint** — score 0/1000
   Damson Idris's South Central Los Angeles teenager who builds a crack-cocaine empire in FX's Snowfall.
24. **Sean Wallace** — score 0/1000
   Joe Cole's heir to London's most powerful crime family after his father's murder in Gangs of London.

Tags: tv shows, crime, characters, mafia