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"Aren't they funny?" Rotondo says. "What characters. Great acting."

Like the Sopranos, the DeCavalcante family is said to operate from a pork store in north Jersey, and one of the acting bosses owns a strip club, just like the Bada-Bing.

GAG-sters Become Mob-stars

Still, "The Sopranos" cast features several actors with real-life rap sheets — including Tony Sirico, who plays Paulie — who count themselves in an unofficial group of New York actors called "GAG" — the Gangsters Actors Guild.

Not all "GAG-sters" have prison records, but all make an honest living playing hoodlums. Not that it works for everyone.

Sirico served time in Sing Sing more than 30 years ago for sticking up a few New York nightclubs. That's where the acting bug bit, and he's since become one of Hollywood's most dependable bad guys.

As he once told the New York Daily News, "I've done like 45 movies, played 40 gangsters and five crooked cops."

Buck Wolf is entertainment producer at ABCNEWS.com. "The Wolf Files" is published Tuesdays.