Ray Curto

Raymond "Buffalo Ray" Curto, played by George Loros, is a fictional character on the HBO original series The Sopranos. A Capo in the DiMeo Crime Family, Curto was an FBI-informant throughout almost the entire series.

A Capo in the DiMeo/Soprano crime family before Season 1, Curto was approached by fellow Capo Tony Soprano and asked to replace Jackie Aprile, Sr. as Boss of the DiMeo Crime Family, due to his age and experience (Jackie was then in and out of the hospital and close to death). Curto declined the honor, and insisted, along with the other capos, that Tony should take over instead, fearing Tony's uncle and fellow capo Corrado "Junior" Soprano would step up as the new Boss.

However, Curto was also an FBI informant, as revealed in the episode, "Proshai, Livushka." It has never been disclosed when or why he became an informant, although he was briefly seen in the episode "Nobody Knows Anything" being busted at a brothel along with Detective Vin Makazian. Curto also mentioned having a son with multiple sclerosis and the high cost of his son's medical treatment, so perhaps Curto's motivation to be an informant was to stay out of jail and have the ability to pay for his son's care.

Around Christmas of 2000, Curto was present in the back room of Satriale's before the annual holiday celebration held there and openly discussed the murder of informant Pussy Bonpensiero, stating that he'd wished he had been along to kill "the rat." It is unknown whether Curto was wearing a wire during this conversation, in an attempt to link Tony Soprano, Silvio, and Paulie to the murder. In 2004, many members of the DiMeo Crime Family attended a birthday party for Curto at "Nuovo Vesuvio Ristorante."

Curto unexpectedly died of a stroke in his FBI handler's car, in 2006 while giving potentially damaging information to Agent Sanseverino about Tony (Curto indicated he had a poor sound quality tape of Tony discussing a murder). Curto was handled by both Agent Sanseverino and Agent Grasso. Curto has the distinction of being the longest-tenured "rat" in the series, and for never being caught or suspected as such. In fact, at Curto's funeral (in "Members Only"), the other mobsters lauded him for being a model "stand up guy." The one exception was Eugene Pontecorvo, who, when Agent Sanseverino told him in the episode "Members Only" that the FBI had lost a major asset, asked if Curto had been an informant. How much damage, if any, Curto caused the Soprano crime family was never determined during the run of the show.