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Tony Soprano

Anthony John Soprano is a fictional character and the protagonist of the HBO crime drama television series The Sopranos, and portrayed by James Gandolfini. Soprano is a member of the Italian-American Mafia and, especially later in the series, acts as the boss of the fictional North Jersey DiMeo Crime Family (later called the Soprano family). Usually referred to as Tony, the character was conceived by Sopranos creator and showrunner David Chase, who was also largely responsible for the character's story arc throughout the show's six seasons. Gandolfini was ultimately cast in the role ahead of several other actors including Steven Van Zandt and Michael Rispoli. The character is loosely based on stories from and about an assortment of La Cosa Nostra figures and especially on real-life New Jersey mobsters Ruggerio "Richie the Boot" Boiardo, boss of the North Jersey Genovese crime family, and Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, a former caporegime and de facto boss of the DeCavalcante crime family. Bobby Boriello and Mark Damiano II portrayed Tony Soprano as a child in one episode each and Danny Petrillo played the character as a teenager in three episodes. William Ludwig portrayed him as a child and James Gandolfini's son Michael Gandolfini portrayed a teenage version of the character in the 2021 prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.

In the first season, Tony is a captain and also serves as a key ally for ailing acting boss Giacomo "Jackie" Aprile in the DiMeo crime family. Between the first and second seasons, he is promoted to acting underboss and later official underboss, a position he retains until the sixth season; his uncle Corrado "Junior" Soprano is the acting boss up until early in the sixth season but has little or no actual power. Throughout the series, Tony struggles to balance the conflicting needs of his actual family—wife Carmela, daughter Meadow, son A.J., and mother Livia—with those of the Mafia family he controls. He often displays behavior traits characteristic of a violent sociopath, struggles with depression, and is prone to panic attacks. In the first episode of the series he seeks treatment from Dr. Jennifer Melfi, a character Chase modeled after his own psychiatrist, and remains in therapy on and off up until the penultimate episode of the series.

Both the Tony Soprano character and Gandolfini's performance garnered widespread critical acclaim, with Soprano often being cited as one of the greatest and most influential characters in television history. Gandolfini, for his portrayal of the character, won three Emmy Awards for Best Lead Actor in a Drama Series, three Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Male Actor in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama as well as two additional SAG Awards for Best Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Casting
James Gandolfini was invited to audition for the part of Tony Soprano after casting director Susan Fitzgerald saw a short clip of his performance in the 1993 film True Romance, ultimately receiving the role ahead of several other actors due to his large stature and acting abilities.

Anthony LaPaglia was interested in the role but due to his Broadway production and the decision not to go with Fox, he was not considered further. Series creator David Chase invited Steven Van Zandt, who was a guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, to audition for the role of Tony Soprano. Van Zandt, who had never acted before, felt that the role should go to an experienced actor, so Chase wrote him into a part that did not exist—as Silvio Dante. Michael Rispoli, who played Jackie Aprile, the ailing boss of the DiMeo family in the first four episodes of the series, was also very close to being cast as Tony Soprano.

In the pilot, Tony was named Tommy—an homage to the character played by James Cagney in The Public Enemy, Tom Powers, but the clearance on naming the character Tom was never given. The name "Tony Soprano" came from a family friend that Chase had named Toby Soprano.

As methods to focus anger into his performances, Gandolfini said he would deliberately hit himself on the head, stay up all night to evoke the desired reaction, drink several cups of coffee, or walk around with a rock in his shoe.

Early life
Tony Soprano was born in 1959 (1955 in The Many Saints of Newark) to Livia and Johnny Soprano. His father was a caporegime in the DiMeo crime family. Tony grew up living with his parents and two sisters, Janice and Barbara, in the old First Ward neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. Tony's paternal grandfather, Corrado Soprano, was from Avellino, Italy, and immigrated to the United States in 1911. He was a master stonemason who helped to build a church in Tony's old neighborhood.

In adulthood, Tony recalls how Johnny used Janice as a cover for attending meetings with criminal associates at a children's amusement park, leading him to assume she was his father's favorite child. In therapy, when asked to remember happy childhood memories about his mother, Tony struggles to come up with any; he later describes his mother as a cruel, joyless woman who wore his father down "to a little nub" and who seemed to delight in threatening her children.

Tony has a troubled relationship with Janice, due to her flighty and impulsive nature, which leads to her constantly relying on him for financial and emotional support. Their bond is further complicated in adulthood when she murders her boyfriend, Richie Aprile, one of Tony's subordinates, for striking her during a domestic dispute, leading to her calling on Tony for assistance in disposing of his body.

In high school, Tony met his future wife, Carmela DeAngelis, and became friends with Artie Bucco and Davey Scatino. He was also close to his maternal cousin Tony Blundetto. Their mutual relatives called them Tony-Uncle-Al and Tony-Uncle-Johnny (after their fathers) to tell them apart, although Tony Soprano and his friends would take to calling Blundetto "Tony B". The two Tonys spent summers at the farm of their uncle Pat Blundetto, a former DiMeo soldier allowed to retire from the Mafia due to chronic illness.

When they were in their early twenties, Tony Blundetto was arrested for his part in a hijacking; Tony Soprano was supposed to join him on the job but failed to appear because of a panic attack after an argument with his mother, which resulted in his blacking out and suffering a head injury. For years after, Tony Soprano claimed that he had sustained the injury during a mugging, a story he maintained to allay his guilt. As a young adult, he attended Seton Hall University for a semester and a half before dropping out to pursue a life of crime.

Tony was part of an unofficial crew of young criminals consisting of childhood friends Silvio Dante, Ralph Cifaretto and Giacomo "Jackie" Aprile, Sr. He and Jackie gained notoriety in the DiMeo family by robbing a card game run by Feech La Manna. Ralph was left out of the plan due to debilitating pain from a venereal disease, leading to a lifelong animosity between the two. Under the tutelage of his father's friend Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri, Tony committed his first murder in 1982, killing a small-time bookie named Willie Overall. Following the murder, Paulie became Tony's mentor in the Mafia, with Paulie eventually settling into a role as Tony's own capo.

Johnny shepherded Tony through his ascendancy until his death in 1986 from emphysema. When he died, Johnny had risen to the level of capo of his crew, as had his older brother, Junior. Junior took over as Tony's mentor, with parental figures Paulie and Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero passing their loyalty to Tony upon his father's death, while Silvio joined the crew. Tony became acting capo of his father's old crew, a position which eventually became permanent.

In 1995, Jackie became acting boss after Ercole "Eckley" DiMeo was sent to prison. The family was prosperous under Jackie's rule until 1998 when he was diagnosed with intestinal cancer. With Jackie's death in mid-1998, a succession crisis between Tony and Junior reached a point where a war within the family appeared imminent. However, Tony brought a quick end to the conflict by endorsing Junior as the official boss of the family. Unbeknownst to Junior, Tony secretly struck a deal with the rest of the family to be the true boss, allowing Junior to believe that he is in power and act as a distraction for the FBI.

Narrated killings committed by Tony Soprano
Tony personally committed eight murders during the show. As a boss, he was responsible for the deaths of others killed on his orders. The eight known murders, all explicitly presented onscreen, were:

 * Willie Overall, shot and killed by Tony to "make his bones" (become a made man) (1982, in "Remember When").
 * Fabian "Febby" Petrulio, strangled by Tony for ratting out members of Paulie and Pussy's crew and joining the witness protection program (1999, in "College").
 * Chucky Signore, shot and killed by Tony for conspiring to kill him with Junior (1999, in "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano").
 * Matthew Bevilaqua, killed by Tony and Big Pussy for attempting to kill Christopher Moltisanti (Tony's protégé and cousin-in-law) (2000, in "From Where to Eternity").
 * Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero, executed by Tony, Silvio, and Paulie on a yacht, after they discovered that he was an FBI informant (2000, in "Funhouse").
 * Ralph Cifaretto, choked/bludgeoned to death in a fight over Ralph's supposedly killing their prize-winning racehorse "Pie-O-My" for insurance money (2002, in "Whoever Did This").
 * Tony Blundetto, shot and killed by Tony with a shotgun for the unauthorized killings of Joe Peeps and Billy Leotardo, to spare him from being the subject of torture from Phil Leotardo in revenge for his brother's death, as well as spare his crew from the threat of retaliation (2004, in "All Due Respect").
 * Christopher Moltisanti, suffocated by Tony, following a major car accident with Christopher as the driver and Tony as the passenger, Christopher revealed that he was still using drugs and was worried about going to the hospital (2007, in "Kennedy and Heidi").

It is made clear that some of these murders leave Tony perplexed as to how to cope with the situation; most notably, after murdering Christopher Moltisanti, he feels a rush of relief for finally being rid of an associate whom he feels he can no longer trust. He has to "show the sad face" while the rest of the family grieves, but Tony reassures himself that Moltisanti's murder was necessary, despite the hurt caused to the family.

The murder of Fabian "Febby" Petrulio in "College" is out of retaliation for Febby getting members of Tony's crew sent to prison when he ratted them out to get immunity. Tony does this out of a feeling of justice since he has contempt for Febby getting away with it initially.

The murder of Big Pussy in "Funhouse" weighs heavily on Tony. He is at first tempted to spare his old friend and even seems to be in denial for quite a long time, but in the end, realizes his priorities. In the years to follow, Tony talks about this with Paulie and Silvio, who also participated in the murder, and all three have had haunting dreams of the murder of their friend.

Tony kills Ralph Cifaretto after their horse, Pie-O-My, dies amid suspicious circumstances in "Whoever Did This". Tony tries to confront Ralph about the situation but, after some heated words, Tony loses control and murders Ralph following a violent fight. Though no solid proof was found that the fire killing Pie-O-My was arson, Tony is convinced Ralph did it. It is also implied that this burst of rage could have been fueled by anger over Ralph's brutal murder of stripper Tracee, considering Tony uttered "She was a beautiful, innocent creature. What'd she ever do to you? You fucking killed her!" which could apply to both the female horse and the young woman.

The murder of Matthew Bevilaqua is an act of revenge, which had to be carried out due to the fact that the failed murder attempt on Christopher was an attempt to topple Tony as the boss of the family. Tony takes pleasure in the murder because it was revenge for the attempted hit on a loved one. This murder was the closest Tony came to getting in trouble with the authorities, due to having been seen by a witness (who at first comes forward, but withdraws once he learns of the fact that Tony is a mafioso). In addition to his potential arrest, Tony was also uncomfortable about the murder due to Bevilaqua's young age, and the fact that his dying words were "mommy." This causes Tony to spend more quality time with his own son.

The murder of his cousin, Tony Blundetto (in "All Due Respect"), is solely to save him from a far worse death if he were to fall into Phil's hands, and so that Tony does not lose his reputation as a boss (as well as sparing the other members of his crew from Phil's threats of retaliation, thus preserving their loyalty).

The murder of his nephew, Christopher Moltisanti is not done out of mob-related necessity. Christopher had been addicted to heroin, cocaine, and alcohol for many years and had not conquered his addiction in rehab. While Moltisanti presents a threat to Tony's life and the New Jersey Mob, it is ultimately an emotional reaction. Tony is about to call 911 following a motor vehicle accident. Christopher, who needs urgent medical attention, tells him that he would "never pass the drug test" and would therefore lose his driver's license. He asks Tony to call for a taxi. Tony looks at the baby seat on the backseat of the SUV which had been destroyed by a tree branch, closes his phone, and suffocates Christopher by holding his nose shut so that he chokes to death on his blood. Tony does not plan to murder Christopher but sees the opportunity after the car accident. Tony is never suspected of this murder.

As a father
Tony lives in North Caldwell, New Jersey with his wife and two children: Meadow Soprano and Anthony (A.J.) Soprano. He also treats Christopher Moltisanti, his wife's first cousin once removed, as a son in many ways.

Tony is often portrayed as a loving father—he attends his children's sporting events regularly and does all he can to ensure they have luxuries and opportunities. He hopes that both his children will escape the life of crime he has led. Tony takes great pride in Meadow's achievements. In Season 1, he is moved to tears by her performance at a choir recital. He often tells people about her aspiration to become a pediatrician.

He also sometimes alienates his children with his behavior. He has always tried to conceal his criminal life from them—something that Meadow saw through early on and A.J. also realizes with guidance from his sister.

Tony's over-protectiveness of Meadow leads to feuds between them on several occasions. For example, her first boyfriend at college, Noah Tannenbaum, is of black and Jewish ancestry and Tony's dislike of him leads him to try to drive him away. Meadow learns of her father's actions and does not speak to him for several months, eventually reconciling at Christmas in 2001.

Meadow's next boyfriend is Jackie Aprile Jr., the son of Tony's old friend, the late Jackie Aprile Sr. Tony had promised Jackie Jr.'s father that he would keep his son out of the Mafia life. Tony is initially pleased with the relationship, believing Jackie to be a hard-working pre-med student from a good family. However, since Jackie's uncle Richie Aprile's release from prison and subsequent death, Tony realizes that Jackie had become more involved in the Mafia when he sees him at strip clubs and a casino.

He eventually beats Jackie up to warn him about abusing his daughter's feelings and confiscates his gun. Tony begins seeing much of himself and his treatment of Carmela in Jackie's relationship with Meadow. Jackie is killed by Vito for his involvement in a robbery at Christopher's and Furio's executive card game, and for shooting a made man, Furio. This drives Meadow to drink and into depression, although they had broken up shortly before his death.

After Jackie's death, Tony accepts Meadow's college friends and gets along well with her fiancé, Finn, before the two separate under unrevealed circumstances.

When Meadow is out for dinner with her "mystery" boyfriend Patrick Parisi, New York mob member Salvatore "Coco" Cogliano walks up to the table and makes remarks about her looks and how "Tony must love tucking you in at night". After taking advice from her mother, Meadow tells Tony, who hides his rage and says Coco is "harmless" and "an idiot". Tony then tracks down Coco and Butch DeConcini at John's Restaurant on East 12th Street in Manhattan. Tony viciously pistol-whips Coco several times with a snubnosed revolver and warns Butch at gunpoint to shut up and remain seated at his table. After breaking off some of Coco's teeth with a curb stomp, Tony leaves the restaurant.

Tony's feelings toward his son are mixed; he worries about his future. From the beginning, Tony has doubts that his son could succeed in the Mafia, telling his therapist, Dr. Melfi that "he'd never make it". His fears are confirmed as A.J. consistently demonstrates throughout the series that he lacks his father's cunning and dominating persona. Tony tells A.J. numerous times that he is proud that his son is gentle and kind. Tony is especially proud of A.J.'s prowess on the football field, even amid his failing grades in high school, but is frustrated with A.J.'s lack of focus after graduation.

After flunking out of Ramapo State, A.J. loafs around the house, parties, and for a time holds a job at Blockbuster until his father gets him a job working construction. There, A.J. meets Blanca, and in Tony's opinion, A.J. does well until he and Blanca break up. Tony worries about A.J.'s depression, the "rotten putrid Soprano gene" that Tony believes he passed down to his son.

Hoping to get A.J. back on track, Tony rekindles A.J.'s friendship with "the Jasons", sons of two of his associates, and A.J. seems to be doing better. With the help of a therapist and medication, A.J. is finally getting back to college, this time at Rutgers University, to take classes and party with girls as Tony believes every college kid should. This later turns sour after A.J. sees his new friends attack a Somali student on a bike and he regresses into depression.

A.J. tries to drown himself in a swimming pool but decides he wants to live; he is unable to escape the pool, however. Tony hears his cries for help and rescues him. After A.J. is released from a mental health ward, Tony and Carmela dissuade him from joining the Army and persuade him instead to become involved in a film bankrolled by Carmine Lupertazzi Jr., with the possibility of opening a club.

Interests and hobbies
Tony is an animal lover and enjoys feeding the ducks that visit his pool. He has a sentimental attachment towards animals, as he had been traumatized by the loss of his childhood dog (as revealed in the episode "In Camelot"), whose name was "Tippy". When he goes to confront Angie Bonpensiero as she is walking her poodle, the dog greets Tony in a friendly manner, which Tony reciprocates. During Christopher Moltisanti's intervention, when Tony hears Christopher accidentally suffocated Adrianna's dog, he is furious, saying, "I oughta suffocate you, you little prick!".

He becomes involved in horse racing through his friend Hesh Rabkin, who owns a stable, and invests in a racehorse named Pie-O-My. When his horse is killed in a fire – possibly set by Ralph Cifaretto – Tony is deeply upset and saddened and kills Cifaretto, yelling: "She was a beautiful innocent creature. What did she ever do to you?" He repeats "You fucking killed her!", while banging Cifaretto's head against the floor.

When informed by Carmela that a black bear has been foraging in his home's backyard while they were separated during Season 5, he reacts with interest, rather than fear. During his stay in the hospital after his shooting, he can be seen reading a book about dinosaurs, given by Carmela. In the series finale, Tony finds a stray cat at his safe house during the war with New York and takes a liking to it. He brings it back to Satriale's, where it stares at the deceased Chris Moltisanti's photo (much to Paulie's dismay).

Tony is seen many times throughout the show engaging in both freshwater and saltwater angling. His son Anthony Jr. sometimes accompanies him on fishing outings. During the second season, he presents his son with a Fenwick rod and a Penn International reel, both extremely high-quality products. In the sixth season, while in Florida with Paulie, he rents a sport fishing boat. He is sometimes haunted by visions of Pussy Bonpensiero incarnated in the form of a fish – presumably a reference to the disposal of his body in the ocean. A Big Mouth Billy Bass novelty singing fish, brought into the Bada Bing by Georgie and another later presented to him as a Christmas present by his daughter Meadow, recalls his nightmare and disturbs him greatly.

Throughout the series, Tony is shown to be a frequent cigar smoker, as well as an occasional cigarette smoker. He can be seen smoking a cigar during important events, such as shortly before being told of his mother's death and when disposing of Ralph Cifaretto's corpse. In the Season 1 episode "A Hit Is a Hit", he gives his doctor and next-door neighbor Bruce Cusamano a box of Cuban cigars as a thank-you gift for referring him to Dr. Melfi.

He is a gun enthusiast and is shown to have an arsenal in his home. He gives guns as birthday gifts to his father-in-law Hugh DeAngelis (in "Marco Polo") and receives one from Bobby Baccialieri on his birthday (in "Soprano Home Movies").

Tony enjoys sports, particularly baseball, football, basketball, golf, and horse racing. He played baseball and football at West Essex High School, and is a fan of the New York Yankees and New York Jets. He has taken A.J. to New Jersey Nets and New Jersey Devils games occasionally throughout the series. Some objects and posters in A.J.'s room confirm this. He plays golf with Johnny Sack at Upper Montclair Country Club. A large portion of his income is derived from illegal sports betting.

Tony is an amateur yachtsman and has owned two motor yachts throughout the show: Stugots and Stugots II, where several of his affairs take place. The name comes from the Italian phrase sto cazzo, literally meaning "this dick" or "my dick", and depending on the context, "what the fuck" or "my ass".

Tony maintains an avid interest in history, particularly World War II. Throughout seasons 4 and 5, Tony is seen watching Vietnam War documentaries. He is a big fan of President John F. Kennedy and owns one of his captain sailor hats, which he won at an auction. He is often shown watching programs on the History Channel about leaders such as George S. Patton, Erwin Rommel, and Winston Churchill. He reads The Art of War by Sun Tzu, which is quoted by several other characters on the show, particularly Paulie Walnuts.

Tony is often seen watching classic mob films. For example, he is shown watching The Public Enemy (1931) throughout the episode "Proshai, Livushka", which addresses his mother's death. He also shares a love for The Godfather series, wondering what went wrong in the third installment, although he and his friends are highly entertained when Silvio does an impression of Al Pacino from it.

Tony listens to classic, progressive rock and pop music, particularly of the 1960s and 1970s. Over the course of the show he is seen to enjoy AC/DC, Deep Purple, Eagles, Eric Clapton, Jefferson Airplane, Jethro Tull, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pink Floyd, Rush, Steely Dan, The Clash, The Chi-Lites, The Lost Boys, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, and Van Morrison.

Despite remarking about the dangers of drug use to his children and some of his fellow mobsters, Tony engages in recreational use multiple times in the latter half of the series, doing lines of cocaine with Adriana and smokes marijuana and uses peyote on a trip to Las Vegas.

Vehicles
Like most of the mobsters in the series, Tony is shown to be partial to Cadillac and Lincoln vehicles. When discussing with Dr. Melfi a bizarre dream in which his penis falls off, he mentions that he went to the guy who used to "work on my Lincoln when I drove Lincolns". For the first four seasons, Tony drives a burgundy 1999 Chevrolet Suburban LT 4x4.

In season 5 he drives a black Cadillac Escalade ESV. This black Escalade is totaled in an accident and quickly replaced with a white Escalade ESV. Tony has this Escalade until the end of the series. He has occasionally used Carmela's Mercedes-Benz E-Class station wagon and drove it when they went places together.

Extramarital affairs
Throughout the series, Tony is shown to be a serial adulterer. He typically has mistresses whom he consistently sees for long periods, though he also has several brief one-night stands with strippers from the Bada Bing.

His wife Carmela is tacitly aware of his infidelity and usually views it as a form of masturbation, though sometimes the bottled-up tensions explode in domestic arguments. At the end of Season 4, Irina telephones Carmela in a jealous rage at Tony's cheating on her with her cousin Svetlana, which causes Carmela to finally snap. Carmela throws Tony out of the house and begins divorce proceedings.

Tony has a strong preference for women of European, particularly Italian descent, with dark hair and eyes and exotic features. His mistresses have been, in chronological order, of Russian (Irina and later Svetlana), Italian (Gloria Trillo), Italian-Cuban (Valentina La Paz), and Jewish descent (Julianna Skiff). He favors dark features but also has a few brief flings with blonde American European women, including a stewardess from Icelandic Airways and a medical assistant. He has one very short encounter with an Asian-American escort during "The Test Dream".

Mistresses:
 * Irina Peltsin – a young Russian woman whom he sees consistently throughout the first two seasons. She frequently calls Tony's house when drunk, and when Carmela hints that she knows that he is seeing her, he breaks off the relationship. After her suicide attempt, Tony sends Silvio to give her a monetary compensation of $75,000 and try to reason with her about moving on with her life.
 * Gloria Trillo – an Italian-American Mercedes-Benz saleswoman with stylish tastes. Tony dates her throughout Season 3 after meeting her at Dr. Melfi's office (Melfi repeatedly expresses her disapproval of their relationship, knowing it will likely turn out a disaster). He eventually stops seeing her when she begins stalking him and calling his house while exhibiting manipulative behaviors reminding him of his own mother (which is foreshadowed very early on when she teases him by saying "poor you", jokingly at first). He also understands through Dr. Melfi's hints that Gloria is trying to use him as a means to commit suicide (akin to the suicide by cop phenomenon). Tony asks Patsy Parisi to threaten her; Parisi tells her that, if she tries again to harass Tony, the last face she'll see will be his, not Tony's, and that "it won't be cinematic". It turns out that it throws her over the edge and she commits suicide soon afterward, hanging herself. This greatly upsets Tony, who blames it on himself as well as Dr. Melfi.
 * Valentina La Paz – a beautiful art dealer of Italian and Cuban descent, initially the mistress of Ralph Cifaretto. Tony dates her throughout Season 4. They share a love of horses, and she visits Pie-O-My at the stable with Tony. She accidentally sets her robe on fire in Season 5 while cooking eggs for Tony. Shortly thereafter he decides to get back together with Carmela, and he breaks up with Valentina while she is in the hospital recovering from second-degree burns to her head, face, and arm. Tony offers to take care of any cost related to her treatment, but their relationship ends on bad terms.
 * Svetlana Kirilenko – the cousin of Tony's ex- mistress Irina and the manager of a home care nursing business. During her childhood, Svetlana developed osteosarcoma in her leg, which was amputated soon afterward. Tony comments that she looks like the actress Greta Garbo. She was first hired as Livia Soprano's nurse since Janice had left town. Svetlana resurfaces as Uncle Junior's nurse after he suffers a fall at the courthouse. One afternoon while Uncle Junior is asleep, Tony has sex with Svetlana on Junior's sofa but they are caught by Junior's nurse, Branca. Irina soon finds out about this and informs Carmela about the affair, prompting Carmela's violent confrontation of Tony and their ultimate separation. Svetlana later tells Tony that Branca told Irina about their affair after an argument over Svetlana's withholding FICA and other taxes from her paycheck. Tony admires Svetlana for her toughness of spirit and her refusal to allow her disability and misfortune to get in the way of her ambitions. Arguably, Svetlana is the most psychologically balanced of all Tony's extramarital affairs.
 * Julianna Skiff – a real estate developer of Jewish descent. She meets Tony in Season 6 when offering to buy a building that he owns, to be converted into a Jamba Juice. They later begin an affair, along with a business relationship, but never consummate their relationship sexually; Tony backs off and decides to be faithful to Carmela, who stuck with him after the shooting and seems re-devoted to him. Julianna eventually dates Christopher Moltisanti and the two begin a very destructive, co-dependent drug habit; she is last seen attending Christopher's funeral service, where she mentions that they had split up.

Therapy
Tony has suffered from panic attacks that sometimes cause him to lose consciousness since his childhood. He has his first on-screen panic attack while cooking sausages at his son's birthday party—this occurs in a flashback in the pilot episode. Tony loses consciousness and causes a small explosion when he drops a bottle of lighter fluid onto the coals. Tony describes the experience of the panic attack as feeling like he had "ginger ale in his skull". This prompts him to seek help for the attacks. After extensive testing that includes an MRI scan and blood work, no physical cause can be found, so Dr. Cusamano refers Tony to psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi.

Tony's therapy allows a discussion of his thoughts and feelings away from both aspects of his life—this forum for reaching into the character's thoughts has been described as a Greek chorus, and as a key for viewers to understand the character.

Tony is initially very resistant to the idea that there was a psychiatric cause for his symptoms. He resents being in therapy and refuses to accept the diagnosis of panic attacks given him by the neurologists who had investigated his illness. Tony begins to open up once Dr. Melfi explains the doctor-patient confidentiality rules. He tells her about the stress of his business life—he has a feeling that he has come in at the end of something and describes a reverence for the glorified "old days" of the Mafia. Tony leaves out the violence associated with his criminal career. Tony tells Dr. Melfi a story about ducks landing in his pool. He describes his mother Livia as a cold, mean-spirited woman with whom he has an openly hostile relationship. By the end of the first session Tony has admitted that he feels depressed, but storms out when Dr. Melfi presses him further about the relationship between his symptoms and the ducks.

When the family visits Green Grove, a retirement community where Tony is trying to place his mother, Livia's derisive outburst prompts a second panic attack. Melfi prescribes Prozac as an anti-depressant, telling him that no one needs to suffer from depression with the wonders of modern pharmacology. Tony fails to attend their next scheduled session.

At their next session, Tony is still reluctant to face his psychological weaknesses. Tony is quick to credit the medication for his improved mood, but Dr. Melfi tells him it cannot be that, as it takes six weeks to work—she credits their therapy sessions. Tony describes a dream where a bird steals his penis. Melfi extrapolates that Tony has projected his love for his family onto the family of ducks living in his pool. This brings him to tears, to his consternation. She tells him that their flight from the pool sparked his panic attack through the overwhelming fear of somehow losing his own family.

In the episode "46 Long", they continue discussing Tony's mother and her difficulties living alone. Tony admits that he feels guilty because his mother could not be allowed to live with his family. We learn that he has been left to care for his mother alone by his sisters. When Dr. Melfi asks him to remember good experiences from his childhood, he has difficulty. He blames Carmela for preventing his mother from living with them. Later they discuss Livia's car accident, and Melfi suggests depression may have contributed to the accident – Tony misunderstands her and becomes angry. Tony has a panic attack while visiting his mother's home after she moves to Green Grove. In a later session, Dr. Melfi pushes Tony to admit he has feelings of anger towards his mother, and he again storms out. During this episode, Tony introduces the concept of him acting like the sad clown – happy on the outside but sad on the inside.

In "Denial, Anger, Acceptance", Tony discusses Jackie's cancer with Dr. Melfi. She tries to use it as an example of Tony's negative thinking contributing to his depression. Tony becomes angry and storms out. He feels she is trying to trick him and manipulate his thoughts using the pictures that decorate her office. After Jackie worsens and Tony is called a "Frankenstein" by a business associate, he returns to therapy to discuss these things with Dr. Melfi. She asks him if he feels like a monster.

In "Fortunate Son", Tony discusses a childhood memory of an early panic attack. He saw his father and uncle mutilate Mr. Satriale, the local butcher, and later fainted at a family dinner made with free meat from Satriale's shop. Dr. Melfi makes a connection between meat and Tony's panic attacks.

Later Dr. Melfi tries prescribing lithium as a mood stabilizer. In the episode "Isabella", Tony sinks into a severe depressive episode and experiences hallucinations—he sees a beautiful Italian woman named Isabella in his neighbor's garden. Tony sees Isabella several times during the episode and later learns that she never existed. Melfi theorizes that Isabella was an idealized maternal figure that Tony's subconscious produced because he was deeply upset about his own mother's actions at the time.

In "I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano", Tony abruptly ends his therapy and persuades Dr. Melfi to go into hiding when he discovers that Uncle Junior has found out about their sessions.

The relationship between Tony and Dr. Melfi is up-and-down, with Tony reaching a level of comfort with Dr. Melfi that he has never experienced with anyone else before, not even his wife. This closeness leads Tony to have something of a "crush" on Dr. Melfi, something that is unattainable. However, the "prying" from Dr. Melfi is uncomfortable for Tony and he often turns sarcastic and antagonistic towards her, leading to an ongoing strain in their relationship. In the episode when Tony's sister, Janice, goes back to Seattle, it is revealed during a rushed conversation between Janice and Tony that their mother suffers from narcissistic personality disorder.

During the episode "The Second Coming", aired in part II of season six, Melfi's therapist suggests to her that her work with Tony could be considered enabling toward Tony's sociopathic tendencies. Finally, in the penultimate episode of the series, "The Blue Comet", Melfi severs her relationship with Tony after reading research recommended by her therapist that indicates sociopaths can use talk therapy to improve their skills in manipulating others and use what is learned in therapy to become more capable criminals.

Shootings
In the first season, Tony is attacked by William Johnson "Petite" Clayborn and Rasheen Ray, two hitmen sent by Donnie Paduana to execute Tony. Tony sustains an injury to his ear, which is partially shot off, and minor bruises and cuts from crashing his vehicle. One of the two assailants, Clayborn, is shot dead by Ray in an attempt to kill Tony, and Ray is left bruised but runs off.

In the premiere of the sixth season, "Members Only", Junior Soprano, suffering from dementia, believes Tony to be Gennaro "Little Pussy" Malanga, and shoots him in the abdomen. Tony dials 911 but loses consciousness before being able to tell the operator what happened.

In the second episode of the sixth season, "Join the Club", Tony is in a medically induced coma in the hospital. In the second and third episodes, the viewer sees Tony in a dream-like state, eventually arriving at what could be purgatory, where he is greeted by a man who takes the physical form of his late cousin Tony Blundetto. The shadowy figure in the doorway of the house has the profile of his mother, who is dead. The voice of a younger version of his daughter calls him back. At the end of the third episode, he awakes from his coma in a confused but stable state.

By the fourth episode, Tony is mobile and fully aware and has regained his voice. Tony's attitude toward life is changed by his near-death experience. He has yet to discuss his experiences while unconscious with anyone close to him. However, in the Season 6 episode "Kaisha", he admits to Phil Leotardo (who had just suffered a heart attack), that while he was in a coma, he went to a place where he never wants to go again. While talking philosophy with John Schwinn, another patient at the hospital, he mentions that while in the coma he had the experience of being drawn towards somewhere he did not want to go and narrowly avoided it.

In the sixth episode of season 6, part 2, "Kennedy and Heidi", Tony sustains minor injuries in a car accident that seriously injures his nephew, Christopher Moltisanti. Tony suffocates Christopher after this accident. Tony is on bed rest for a few days and quickly recovers. Nonetheless, this gives his family quite a scare and a painful memory of his nearly fatal shooting the previous year.

Dreams
Tony sometimes has vivid dreams that are shown to the viewer. Episodes with dream sequences include "Pax Soprana", "Isabella", "Funhouse", "Everybody Hurts", "Calling All Cars", and "The Test Dream".

In the pilot, Tony tells Dr. Melfi about a dream he had wherein a screw in his belly button when removed, causes his penis to fall off. He tries to find a car mechanic (who had worked on his Lincoln when Tony drove Lincolns) to put it back on, but a duck swoops down and snatches it from his hand.

In "Meadowlands", Tony has a dream that several people in his life are present in Dr. Melfi's office: Hesh Rabkin strolling by the window, A.J. behind the door, Silvio Dante having sex with a woman in the waiting room, and Paulie Walnuts and Big Pussy reading Chinese newspapers. This causes him to worry that people will find out he is seeing a psychiatrist. The dream ends with Tony confronting Melfi, seeing Jackie Aprile, Sr. on his deathbed smoking a cigarette, asking Tony, "You smell that? That's rain," and only to find out that Melfi is his mother, Livia.

In "Pax Soprana", Tony has several dreams and fantasies about Dr. Melfi. He becomes convinced that he is in love with her, but she turns him down when he makes advances toward her.

In "Isabella", Tony, suffering from depression after Big Pussy disappears, acquaints himself with a dental student named Isabella who is staying in the Cusamano home while they are on vacation. He later discovers that he had hallucinated Isabella due to taking too much lithium and that Isabella represented the mother he never had.

In "Funhouse", an extended dream sequence exposes many of Tony's subconscious thoughts and feelings through symbolic and sometimes bizarre events: he attempts suicide to preempt a doctor's diagnosis of early death by dousing himself in gasoline and lighting himself on fire; he witnesses himself shooting Paulie Walnuts to death during a card game; he has an innuendo-laden conversation with Dr. Melfi while sporting a prominent erection, and a fish that speaks with the voice of Big Pussy confirms his suspicions that the longtime friend and soldier is a federal informant.

In "Everybody Hurts", Tony dreams of his ex-mistress Gloria Trillo shortly after learning of her suicide by hanging. He visits her apartment and finds her in a black dress with a black scarf around her neck. She is cooking dinner, and when she goes over to the oven the scarf drapes across Tony. Plaster falls in front of Tony and when he looks up, he sees that the chandelier is almost pulled out of the ceiling. Gloria is suddenly back at the table and offers Tony a choice between seeing what she has under her dress or her scarf. As she begins to peel away the scarf, Tony wakes up and makes his way to the bathroom for some medication.

In "Calling All Cars", Tony has two dreams featuring Ralph Cifaretto. In the first, he is being driven by Carmela in the back of his father's old car while Ralph sits in the passenger seat. A caterpillar is crawling on the back of Ralph's head. Tony's fellow passenger in the back seat changes; Gloria Trillo and Svetlana Kirilenko are both seen. The caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Dr. Melfi later tells him that the dream signifies a change for Ralph (recently killed by Tony) and Carmela being in control, which Tony doesn't like.

In the second dream, Tony follows Ralph to an old house, which Ralph enters. Tony is dressed in trousers, suspenders, and an undershirt. He knocks on the door and a female figure descends slowly in shadow; the door creaks ominously. Tony says he is there for the stonemason job but does not speak English well (Tony's grandfather was an immigrant stonemason). Just as Tony is about to enter the house, he wakes up.

In "The Test Dream", Tony comes to terms with having to kill his cousin Tony Blundetto. The episode reflects on his inner demons and fears, including his children's future, his relationship with his wife, his infidelities, deceased acquaintances—including some who have died by his hand or by his orders—his fate, and his relationship with his father. He is again shown in his father's old car, accompanied by a range of past associates.

In "Join the Club", a comatose Tony finds himself in an alternate universe where he is a law-abiding salesman on a business trip. Among other differences, his accent has changed and his hotel's bartender condescends to him (in sharp contrast to the bartender at The Bing, who is a recurring punching bag for Tony). Tony has mistakenly taken another man's briefcase—Kevin Finnerty's—along with all of his identification and work. The episode follows his attempts to discern his identity, recover his briefcase, and get back to his family.

In "Kennedy and Heidi", a stressed Tony Soprano has a dream following the death of Christopher Moltisanti. In this dream, he tells his therapist that Christopher was a burden and that he is relieved that he was dead. After that, he also tells her that he murdered Big Pussy and his cousin Tony Blundetto. Following the dream, he acts differently to his friends and family, trying to see if they also feel relieved now that Christopher is dead.

Legacy and cultural impact
The character of Tony Soprano was the first likable "antihero" character in television. Playwright Craig Wright stated, "A show like The Sopranos has a soothing quality because ultimately there's an unspoken assumption behind it that even the most monstrous people are haunted by the same concerns we're haunted by." Tony Soprano quickly became a pop culture icon during the show's run. In an article for the Los Angeles Times, Chris Lee referred to Tony Soprano as a "cultural sensation" who became the "unlikeliest of sex symbols." On the importance of Gandolfini's performance, Lee stated: "He forever rejiggered television's fascination with morally challenged antiheroes and less-than-physically-perfect protagonists."

The Globe and Mail wrote, "Women made Tony Soprano an unlikely sex symbol – and the men found him no less seductive. Wish fulfillment has always been at the queasy heart of the mobster genre, the longing for a life outside the bounds of convention, mingled with the conflicted desire to see the perpetrator punished for the same transgression. So it was for the fictional men of the straight world on The Sopranos, who were drawn to Tony's flame with consistently disastrous results. Likewise for viewers, for whom a life of taking, killing, and sleeping with whomever and whatever one wants had an undeniable, if conflict-laden, appeal."

The final scene of "Made in America" became the subject of much discussion, controversy, and analysis after its original broadcast; however, Chase consistently refused to give any definitive answers. The use of an abrupt cut to black followed by several seconds of silence led many viewers to initially believe that their cable or DVR had cut out at a crucial moment. Opposing interpretations soon emerged among viewers regarding the ultimate fate of Tony, with some believing that he was killed while others believed that he remained alive. During a November 2021 interview with Hollywood Reporter, Chase made comments which seemed to confirm Tony Soprano was killed at the end of the final episode.

Following Gandolfini's death on June 19, 2013, his portrayal of Tony Soprano was praised for its influence on subsequent other TV characters. TV Guide columnist Matt Roush stated, "Without Tony, there's no Vic Mackey of The Shield, no Al Swearengen of Deadwood, no Don Draper of Mad Men (whose creator, Matthew Weiner, honed his craft as a writer on The Sopranos)." Similar testimonials were included by his co-stars and colleagues; Bryan Cranston stated that his Breaking Bad character, Walter White, would not have existed without Tony Soprano. Mark Lawson of The Guardian praised Gandolfini for his "towering central performance" as Tony Soprano, writing: "The Sopranos was part of a wave of American TV dramas that finally persuaded cineastes and critics who had been snobbish and dismissive about television as a medium to accept the smaller screen as an artistic equivalent of the larger one. Although many of those who watched and wrote about TV had got this message much earlier, the remarkable and sustained range of Gandolfini's portrayal of Tony Soprano played a major part in ending any remaining inferiority complex about the medium."

Gandolfini's son, Michael, was cast in 2019 for the 2021 film The Many Saints of Newark to play a young Tony Soprano, as a prequel to the show. Michael, having never watched The Sopranos, watched through it to prepare for the role, describing it as an intense process.

title: Tony Soprano


text:
Dorothy Bush

Dorothy Bush may refer to:

 * Dorothy Bush Koch (born 1959), American author and philanthropist
 * Dorothy Vredenburgh Bush (1916–1991), American political activist

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Dorothy Bush


text:
Talk:Tetricus I

Untitled
The antoninianii of Tetricus were the most frequently imitated prototypes for barbarous radiates This entry is otherwise so good, that these terms (though they are explained if you click on the Wikilinks) need brief expository appositives, like mini-definitions, to explain the sentence to numismatic dunces, like me. Wetman 19:39, 9 Mar 2004 (UTC).

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title: Talk:Tetricus I


text:
PACS

PACS is an acronym with several meanings:

Medicine

 * Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome
 * Partial Anterior Circulation Stroke Syndrome, the symptoms of a type of an ischemic stroke
 * Picture Archiving and Communication System, a system used in medical imaging to store, retrieve, distribute, analyze, and digitally process medical images.

Organizations and establishments

 * Pacte civil de solidarité, a form of civil union in France
 * Palo Alto Chinese School, Palo Alto, California, USA
 * Poorest Areas Civil Society Program (2001–2008), a defunct Indian social welfare program
 * Primary Agricultural Credit Society, co-operative credit institutions in India
 * Provisional Army of the Confederate States, the "volunteer" or wartime-expansion component of the Confederate States Army

Child psychology

 * Phonological Assessment of Child's Speech, a type of analysis battery used in developmental psychology to ascertain if a child has a reading disorder.
 * Phonological Awareness Composite Scores, a marking criterion as part of the CTOPP assessment battery for assessing a child's awareness of the oral structure of language.

Physics and astronomy

 * Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme, a scheme developed by the American Institute of Physics
 * Photodetecting Array Camera and Spectrometer, an instrument of the Herschel Space Observatory

PACs
PACs is the plural of PAC; for example:
 * Political action committees, groups organized to elect or defeat political candidates
 * Premature atrial contractions

Other

 * Primary airport control station, a survey marker established in the vicinity of an airport
 * Personal access control system. Gates, barriers and turnstiles that provide security for restricted areas on buildings and sites.
 * Cape Sarichef Airport (ICAO airport code), on Unimak Island of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska
 * Peace and conflict studies, an academic field that identifies and analyzes violent and nonviolent behaviors of social conflicts

title: PACS


text: User talk:195.92.168.171

title: User talk:195.92.168.171


text:
The Notion Club Papers

The Notion Club Papers is an abandoned novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, written in 1945 and published posthumously in Sauron Defeated, the 9th volume of The History of Middle-earth. It is a time travel story, written while The Lord of the Rings was being developed. The Notion Club is a fictionalization of Tolkien's own such club, the Inklings. Tolkien's mechanism for the exploration of time is through lucid dreams. These allow club members to experience events as far back as the destruction of the Atlantis-like island of Númenor, as narrated in The Silmarillion.

The unfinished text of The Notion Club Papers runs for some 120 pages in Sauron Defeated, accompanied by 40 pages of Christopher Tolkien's commentary and notes, with examples of the pages hand-written by his father.

Context
J. R. R. Tolkien was a scholar of English literature, a philologist and a medievalist interested in language and poetry from the Middle Ages, especially that of Anglo-Saxon England and Northern Europe. His professional knowledge of Beowulf, telling of a pagan world but with a Christian narrator, helped to shape his fictional world of Middle-earth. His intention to create what has been called "a mythology for England" led him to construct not only stories but a fully-formed world, Middle-earth, with invented languages, peoples, cultures, and history. Among his many influences were his own Roman Catholic faith, medieval languages and literature, including Norse mythology. He is best known as the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), and The Silmarillion (1977), all set in Middle-earth.

Structure and plot
The story revolves around the meetings of an Oxford arts discussion group, the Notion Club. During these meetings, Alwin Arundel Lowdham discusses his lucid dreams about Númenor, a lost civilisation connected with Atlantis and with Tolkien's Middle-earth. Through these dreams, he "discovers" much about the Númenor story and the languages of Middle-earth (notably Quenya, Sindarin, and Adûnaic). While not finished, at the end of the given story it becomes clear Lowdham himself is a reincarnation of sorts of Elendil, leader of the men who escaped the destruction of Númenor. Other members of the Club mention their vivid dreams of other times and places.

The Notion Club Papers is elaborately constructed. The main story (the Notion Club, itself the frame of the Númenor story) is set within a frame story. Both are set in the future, after the actual time of writing, 1945. Embedded within the story are Tolkien's versions of European legends: King Sheave, and The Death of St. Brendan, a three-page poem also titled 'Imram'.

In the frame story, a Mr. Green finds documents in sacks of waste paper at Oxford in 2012. These documents, the Notion Club Papers of the title, are the incomplete notes of meetings of the Notion Club; these meetings are said to have occurred in the 1980s. The notes, written by one of the participants, include references to events that 'occurred' in the 1970s and 1980s. Green publishes a first edition containing excerpts from the documents. Two scholars read the first edition, ask to examine the documents, and then submit a full report. The "Notes to the Second Edition" mentions the contradictory evidence in dating the documents, and an alternative date is presented: they may have been written in the 1940s.

Writing and publication
J. R. R. Tolkien wrote several unfinished drafts of The Notion Club Papers in 1945. The 120-page fragment was published posthumously by George Allen & Unwin in the UK and by Houghton Mifflin in the US, within Sauron Defeated, the 9th volume of The History of Middle-earth, in 1992. The book includes in addition some 40 pages of Christopher Tolkien's commentary and notes on the abandoned novel, and reproduces examples of pages hand-written by his father.

Literary group

The text comments on C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy. Lewis and Tolkien were close friends and members of the Inklings literary club. The two men had agreed to write space travel (Lewis) and time travel (Tolkien) novels, since they agreed there were too few stories in existence that they really liked. Tolkien's remarks on the trilogy are similar in style to Lewis's commentary on Tolkien's poem The Lay of Leithian, in which he created a fictional history of scholarship of the poem and even referred to other manuscript traditions to recommend changes to the poem. Tolkien's biographer, Humphrey Carpenter, describes The Notion Club as a "thinly disguised" version of the Inklings, noting that the time travellers are two Oxford dons who are members of the club.

Jane Stanford links The Notion Club Papers to John O'Connor Power's 1899 The Johnson Club Papers; the two books have a similar title page. The Johnson Club was a "Public House School" and met in taverns as the Inklings did. The purpose was "Fellowship and free Exchange of Mind". Both clubs presented papers "which were read before the members and discussed". The Johnson Club was named for Samuel Johnson, who like Tolkien, had a strong connection to Pembroke College, Oxford. Stanley Unwin, Tolkien's publisher, was a nephew of Fisher Unwin, the founding member of The Johnson Club.

Time travel
The Notion Club Papers may be seen as an attempt to re-write the incomplete The Lost Road (written around 1936-1937), being another attempt to tie the Númenórean legend in with a more modern tale through time travel. It follows the then-popular theory of J. W. Dunne, who had suggested in his 1927 An Experiment with Time that dreams could combine memories of both past and future events, and that time could flow differently for observers in different dimensions. The modern name "Alwin", the Old English name "Ælfwine", and the Quenya name "Elendil" all mean "Elf-friend"; in The Lost Road, the story involves father-son characters named Edwin/Elwin, Eadwine/Aelfwine, Audoin/Alboin, Amandil/Elendil, all meaning "Bliss-friend/Elf-friend", as the pair travel successively further back in time all the way through history to Númenor, just as the protagonists of The Notion Club Papers do in their lucid dreams. This situates Númenor, whose downfall is described in The Silmarillion, as part of an invented mythology for England. Tolkien's biographer John Garth adds that The Notion Club Papers character Lowdham's middle name, Arundel, is both an English place-name and an echo of the legendarium's Éarendel (an ancestor of Elendil ).

Both stories however break off before much time-travelling takes place. Tolkien finally managed to incorporate literary explorations of time in The Lord of the Rings, in the form of a visit to what seems to be the deep past in the Elvish land of Lothlorien, following a tradition that in Elfland, time is different; the stay lasts a month, but feels like only a few days. According to Christopher Tolkien, had his father continued The Notion Club Papers, he would have linked the real world of Alwin Lowdham with his eponymous ancestor Ælfwine of England, the fictional compiler of The Book of Lost Tales, and with Atlantis. One of the members of the Notion Club, Michael George Ramer, combines lucid dreams with time-travel and experiences the tsunami that sank Númenor. He cannot tell if it is history, or fantasy, or something in between. Verlyn Flieger writes that the journeying about of the protagonist recalls the Celtic Imram voyages, noting that Tolkien wrote a poem named "Imram" at the same time, and it was the only element published in his lifetime.

Virginia Luling writes of The Notion Club Papers that "Tolkien had reason to abandon it: the existing chapters are unsuccessful, though with gleams." Flieger comments that had either The Lost Road or The Notion Club Papers been finished,

"we would have had a dream of time-travel through actual history and recorded myth which would have functioned as both introduction and epilogue to Tolkien's own invented mythology. The result would have been time-travel not on the scale of ordinary science fiction but of epic, a dream of myth and history and fiction interlocking as Tolkien wanted them to, as they might well once have done."

Prophecy
The Notion Club Papers mentions a great storm in England, on 12 June 1987. The actual Great Storm of 1987 occurred in October of that year. Christopher Tolkien drew attention to this, saying "my father's 'prevision' was only out by four months".

title: The Notion Club Papers


text:
Middle East Technical University

Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish, Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, ODTÜ) is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey. The university emphasizes research and education in engineering and natural sciences, offering about 41 undergraduate programs within 5 faculties, 105 masters and 70 doctorate programs within 5 graduate schools. The main campus of METU spans an area of 11,100 acre, comprising, in addition to academic and auxiliary facilities, a forest area of 7,500 acre, and the natural Lake Eymir. METU has more than 120,000 alumni worldwide. The official language of instruction at METU is English.

Over one third of the 1,000 highest scoring students in the national university entrance examination choose to enroll in METU; and most of its departments accept the top 0.1% of the nearly 3 million applicants. METU had the greatest share in national research funding by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) in the last five years, and it is the leading university in Turkey in terms of the number of European Union Framework Programme (FP) projects participation. Over 40% of METU's undergraduate alumni choose to pursue graduate studies.

History
Middle East Technical University was founded under the name "Orta Doğu Teknoloji Enstitüsü" (Middle East Institute of Technology) on November 15, 1956, to contribute to the development of Turkey and the surrounding countries of the Middle East, Balkans, and Caucasus, by creating a skilled workforce in the natural and social sciences. "Arrangements and Procedures as for the Foundation of METU, Law No 6213" was enacted on January 22, 1957, whereby the current name "Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi" (ODTÜ) was adopted. Finally, the "Foundation Act No 7907", setting forth the particular standing of METU and establishing it as a juridical entity, was enacted on May 27, 1959.

In the early years immediately following its foundation, METU was temporarily hosted in a small building that previously belonged to the Social Security Office of Retirees in Kızılay and another building near the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. In 1963, the university moved to its current location west of Ankara city center, creating the first university campus of Turkey. In 1956, the Department of Architecture initiated the first academic program at METU, followed by the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the spring of 1957. At the start of the 1957–1958 academic year, the Faculty of Architecture, the Faculty of Engineering, and the Faculty of Administrative Sciences were established. In 1959, the establishment of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences was completed. The Faculty of Education launched its academic program in 1982.

Faculties and departments
METU has 42 academic departments, most of which are organised into 5 faculties. These are responsible for the undergraduate programs.
 * Faculty of Architecture: Architecture, City and Regional Planning, Industrial Design
 * Faculty of Arts and Sciences: Biology, Chemistry, History, Mathematics, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, Sociology, Statistics
 * Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences: Business Administration, Economics, International Relations, Political Science and Public Administration
 * Faculty of Education: Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Educational Sciences, Elementary Education, Foreign Language Education, Physical Education and Sports, Secondary Science and Mathematics Education
 * Faculty of Engineering: Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Engineering Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Food Engineering, Geological Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Mining Engineering, Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering

In addition to these, there are the Department of Basic English and the Department of Modern Languages in the School of Foreign Languages; the Technical Vocational School of Higher Education; and, bound directly to the President's Office, the Department of Turkish Language and the Department of Music and Fine Arts.

Graduate schools
The 5 graduate schools present in METU are responsible for the graduate programs.
 * Graduate School of Applied Mathematics
 * Graduate School of Informatics
 * Graduate School of Marine Sciences (Institute of Marine Sciences – IMS)
 * Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences
 * Graduate School of Social Sciences

Academics

As of 2020, METU has approximately 27,000 students, of which 19,700 are enrolled in undergraduate programs, 4,700 in masters, and 3,000 in doctorate programs. A further 1,500 students are attending programs in the new Northern Cyprus Campus. Over 40% of METU's students go on to graduate school. Each academic year, METU hosts over 1,700 regular international students from 94 different countries; and through 168 Erasmus Programme agreements and 182 bilateral exchange and cooperation agreements with universities abroad (e.g. in Central Asia, Middle East, North America, Australia, Far East and Pacific Region), it sends 350 students and receives 300 students and 50 researchers annually. As of 2010, the university employs 2,500 faculty (professors and associate professors), 500 academic instructors, and over 2,000 research assistants. The number of the alumni exceeds 500,000 (about 350,000 having completed undergraduate programs).

METU has about 40 undergraduate programs within the faculties of Engineering, Architecture, Arts and Sciences, Economic and Administrative Sciences, and Education, and there are 97 masters and 62 doctorate programs available in the graduate schools of Natural and Applied Sciences, Social Sciences, Informatics, Applied Mathematics, and Marine Sciences. METU commonly ranks close to the top among research universities in Turkey, with over one third of the 1,000 highest scoring students in the national university entrance examination choosing to enroll; and most of its departments accepting the top 0.1% of the nearly 1.5 million applicants. In the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities published in July 2009, aiming to measure through web-based publications the institution size, research output, and impact, METU ranked as the world's 435th (1st place within Turkey) among 15,000 universities, being the only university from Turkey to get included among the top 500. Recently, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings published in September 2016 placed METU at the 501–600th position worldwide based on indicators of teaching, research, influence, innovation, and international character,  making it one of the six universities from Turkey listed among the top 600 (the other being Bilkent University at number 351–400). The QS World University Rankings 2010 by Quacquarelli Symonds ranked METU as 185th worldwide in the field of engineering and technology, and as 333rd in the field of natural sciences.

The language of instruction at METU is English. All enrolled students are required to have a degree of proficiency in English for academic purposes, and this is assured by a proficiency examination before the commence of studies. Students with unsatisfactory knowledge of English follow a preparatory English education for one year, given by the METU School of Foreign Languages. Two exceptions instructed in Turkish are the Turkish language and the history of Turkish revolution courses mandated by the Council of Higher Education.

International perspective
Researchers from METU actively take part in many COST, EUREKA, NASA, NATO, NSF, UN, World Bank, Jean Monnet, Erasmus Mundus, Leonardo and SOCRATES projects. METU has been involved in 56 European Union 6th Framework Programme (FP6) projects, including the coordination of 12 FP6 and 3 Networks of Excellence projects. Within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), 33 research projects involve participation of METU, since 2007.

As of 2020, METU has 22 international joint degree programmes with European and American universities at the undergraduate and graduate levels. METU is a member of various associations and networks dealing with international education and exchange, including EUA, EAIE, IIE, GE3, SEFI, and CIEE. The university also actively participates in AIESEC and IAESTE summer internship programs. English as the language of instruction in all its degree programs has greatly facilitated METU's international involvements and accommodation of international students and researchers.

METU continually goes through external assessment, accreditation, and certification by international organizations. In 1991, METU initiated a long-term program to have its engineering programs evaluated by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), the recognized U.S. accreditor of college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology. This process was concluded with the Faculty of Engineering having all its thirteen undergraduate programs declared as "substantially equivalent" to the ABET accredited programs in the USA. The university has completed the evaluation process of Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) of the European University Association (EUA) in 2002.

Because of METU's effort to maintain international standards, the Faculty of Engineering was awarded in 1977 the "Silver Badge of Honor" by the UNESCO International Center for Engineering Education and the "Meritorious Achievement Award in Accreditation Activities" by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). METU was awarded the international Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1995 for its forestation program.

Being the pioneer institution of the country to connect to the Internet backbone in the early 1990s, METU also manages Turkey's Country Code Top-level Domain (ccTLD) (the ".tr" domain).

METU library
The METU main library has one of the largest collections in Turkey, containing over 500,000 books classified according to the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) scheme. The library subscribes to 1,500 print journals (170,270 volumes) and it provides access to 76,671 electronic journals, 587,493 electronic books, and 66 electronic reference sources. The library collections also hold over 1,780 book and serial CDs, 1,300 doctoral dissertations and 11,600 masters theses. Abstracts for doctoral dissertations and some master theses from North American colleges and universities and some accredited international universities are also provided, starting from 1861, with full texts available from the year 1997. The library's collections are predominantly in English, but there are also items in Turkish, German, and French.

Ankara campus
METU main campus in Ankara, used by the university since 1963, is the first university campus of Turkey. It is situated about 10 km west of central Ankara and encompasses an area of 11,100 acre, of which 7,500 acre constitute the METU Forest. The campus grounds was transformed into a forest with the continuing help of students and volunteers since the foundation of the university. The creation of this distinctive campus with its forest was spearheaded by the METU rector from 1961 to 1969, Kemal Kurdas.

Lake Eymir near Gölbaşı, located 15 kilometers from the academic portion of the campus, is used by the students and faculty for rowing and recreational activities. The campus is accessible by several types of public transport, and the construction of METU subway station of the Ankara Metro on the main entrance to the campus (gate A1) was completed in 2014.

Northern Cyprus campus
The METU Northern Cyprus Campus, the first overseas campus of a Turkish university, 50 km west of North Nicosia in Northern Cyprus, admitted its first students during the academic year 2002–2003, but the doors were officially opened in Northern Cyprus in September 2005.

Erdemli campus
The METU Erdemli campus in Mersin Province on the Mediterranean coast, used by the Institute/Graduate School of Marine Sciences (Deniz Bilimleri Enstitüsü) since 1975, is the first campus of METU outside of Ankara. It is situated about 45 km from Mersin. The campus area is 660,000 m2, close to the shore and surrounded by lemon trees. The laboratory space is about 700 m2. METU-IMS Harbor is an important shelter for marine biological diversity on the Mersin coast. The harbor is the only intact rocky habitat along the long sandy coast.

Live footage from all campuses can be accessed via METU-CAM, a collection of six webcams in METU main campus, one in METU Northern Cyprus Campus, and one in the Graduate School of Marine Sciences, in Erdemli, Mersin.

METU-Technopolis
METU-Technopolis, or METUTECH, is the first science and research park in Turkey. Founded within the campus, it aims to facilitate the development of companies that conduct substantial research and development to produce high-tech products and services through benefiting from METU's research capacity and information pool. Priority is given to companies executing research and development work on information technologies, advanced materials, energy, automotive, chemistry, biology and environment technologies.

As of 2009, the METU-Technopolis project employs about 3,300 personnel, approximately 2,700 of whom are researchers (86% of the total staff are university graduates, and 23% have MSc, MA, or PhD degrees), working in 240 firms. Around 90% of the firms are small and medium enterprises (SMEs), 65% of these are specialized in information and communication technologies, 25% in electronics, and 15% in other sectors such as aerospace, environment, bio-technology, nanotechnology, and advanced materials. The company profile also includes multinationals such as SBS, MAN, Cisco, and Siemens. To promote entrepreneurship and innovation, the incubation center at the METU-Technopolis serves 38 start-ups and micro sized companies, most of which start their life as spin-offs from METU research projects.

METU-Technopolis hosts partners to several European Union Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) projects, such as NICE, SINCERE, ReSIST, SmeInnov8gate and IP4INNO.

Student life and culture

The student life at METU is marked with activities of student societies, frequent political protests, and festivals. The Cultural and Convention Center continually hosts a wide spectrum of cultural events and also regular occurrences such as the METU Jazz Days and METU Art Festival. The event with the largest number of participants is the annual METU Spring Festival, a five-day-long series of open-air concerts and exhibitions held at the main campus.

There are various traits shared by METU students, including the usage of an English–Turkish jargon (METUrkish, ODTÜrkçe as once named by an alumnus artist in an art project) which apparently stems from the fact that English is the language of instruction covering academic processes and student life (and blending into campus language similar to Persian, Arabic and later French in the past blended into Turkish to form Ottoman technical language), which reputedly is not liked much by the students of other universities; and the omnipresent word "Hocam" (meaning "My Teacher"), which is used by METU students to address anyone from bus drivers to senior faculty members. Underneath this phrase lies the philosophy that everyone has something to learn from each other.

The main campus has dormitory capacity for nearly 7,000 students who benefit from the shopping center, banks, post office, and a wide variety of sports facilities, including gymnasiums, tennis courts, basketball and football fields, jogging trails, Olympic-size indoor swimming pool, and an outdoor swimming pool.

Student organizations
There are numerous student organizations active in METU. Some of these are:

METU Pride march
METU Pride march has been held annually since 2011.

The 2022 Pride march was banned by the university, and the university threatened to summon police if it should proceed.

The 9th annual Pride march held 2019 found students and faculty met with pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets used by police. Some were dragged on the ground and others sustained head injuries. 18 students and an academic were arrested and released late in the night on the same day. Following a letter from the Ankara Security Office, arrested students had their KYK scholarships and credits terminated. The arrested were prosecuted, and they were acquitted October 2021, with the university's ban found lacking legal basis.

Faculty

 * Behram Kurşunoğlu (1956–1958) – physicist, B.Sc. and M.Sc. at University of Edinburgh and Phd in University of Cambridge, best known for his works on unified field theory and participated in the discovery of two different types of neutrinos in the late 1950s
 * Cahit Arf (1967–1980) – known for Arf invariant, B.Sc. and M.Sc. in mathematics at École Normale Supérieure
 * Erdal İnönü (president 1970–1971, faculty 1964–1974) – B.Sc. and M.Sc. in physics at Middle East Technical University and Phd. at California Institute of Technology and former Interim Prime Minister of Turkey
 * Feza Gürsey (1961–1974) – Theoretic physicist – B.Sc. in mathematics and physics at Istanbul University and Phd at Imperial College London and receiver of Wigner Medal in 1986
 * Halil Berktay (1992–1997) – Historian, currently at Sabancı University
 * Kemal Derviş – (1973–1976) – economist – Alma Mater: London School of Economics, Princeton University former head of the United Nations Development Programme, former vice-president of the World Bank for the Middle East, former Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
 * Kemal Karpat (1958–1959, 1968–1971) – Historian, currently at University of Wisconsin–Madison
 * Hakkı Ögelman (1970–1990) – physicist and astrophysicist
 * Oktay Sinanoğlu – physical chemistry, molecular biophysics and biochemistry – B.Sc. and Phd at University of California, Berkeley, M.Sc. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology receiver of Humboldt Prize in 1973 and two-time nominee for Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
 * Ordal Demokan (1946–2004) – physicist, electrical engineer
 * Ulus Baker – Sociologist
 * Tarik Ogurtani - Experimental and theoretical solid-state physicist, materials scientist. Professor Emeritus of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering @ METU.
 * Robert Langlands (1967–1968) – mathematician, B.Sc. at University of British Columbia and Ph.D. at Yale University.

Alumni

 * Abdullah Atalar (B.Eng.) in electronics engineering, M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Stanford University, former president of Bilkent University
 * Ahmet Bozer (B.BA.) – vice president of The Coca-Cola Company
 * Alev Alatlı (B.S. 1963) – Economics, economist, writer and columnist
 * Ali Babacan (B.S. 1988) – Politician and former Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey
 * Erol Gelenbe (B.S. 1966) - PhD NYU (1970), DSc Sorbonne (1973), Electrical Engineer and Computer Scientist, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium, Fellow of the Science Academies of Hungary, Poland and Turkey, Fellow of the National Academy of Technologies of France, Chair of the Informatics Section of Academia Europaea
 * Ataç İmamoğlu (B.Eng.) - Electrical Engineering – Ph.D. Stanford University, former researcher at Harvard University and currently head of Quantum Photonics Group and professor at ETHZ (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
 * Aylin Nazlıaka (B.S.) – Economics, businesswoman and politician, Emerging Leaders program at Harvard Kennedy School and former lecturer at Bilkent University, member of Republican People's Party
 * Amir Farshad Ebrahimi (Ph.D.), Human rights activist in Iran, journalist
 * Burçak Özoğlu Poçan (B.S.) – Mountaineer, one of the four Turkish female summiters of Mount Everest
 * Naşide Gözde Durmuş (B.S. 2007) – scientist at Stanford University, recognized among the "World's Top 35 Innovators Under 35" (TR35) in 2015, as a pioneer in biotechnology and medicine, by MIT Technology Review
 * Can Dündar (M.S. 1988, Ph.D. 1996) – journalist, B.S. in journalism at London School of Journalism, receiver of Reporters Without Borders prize in 2015
 * Cevdet Yılmaz (B.Sc.) – Economics, Ph.D. in Bilkent University and former Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey and minister at Ministry of Development (Turkey)
 * Cüneyd Düzyol (1988) – B.Eng. in Civil Engineering, M.Sc. in economics at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and former minister at Ministry of Development (Turkey)
 * Ece Sükan (B.S. 1998) – Turkish model and former editor-at-large at Vogue Turkey
 * Elif Şafak – Best-selling Turkish novelist and columnist, receiver of Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2010
 * Emin Çölaşan – Famous Turkish dissenter journalist/columnist
 * Emre Koksal - Computer scientist, electrical engineer and entrepreneur
 * Eren Bali (B.S. 2005) – Mathematics and Computer Engineering, founder and CEO of Udemy
 * Erdem Duhan Özensoy (B.S. 2009) – Businessman, boardmember of Kimetsan
 * Erdem Başçı (B.Sc.) electronic engineering – M.Sc. in Johns Hopkins University, M.Sc., Ph.D. and professor of economics in Bilkent University and head of Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey
 * Eylem Elif Maviş (B.S., M.B.A.) – Mountaineer, first Turkish female summiter of Mount Everest
 * Fikri Işık – Educator, politician and Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology (Turkey)
 * Gülnur Tumbat – Academic of Marketing, mountaineer
 * Hakan Topal (B.Sc. 1996, M.Sc. 1999) – Civil Engineering and Gender and Women's Studies – Artist, professor at Purchase College, New York
 * Ibrahim Tarik Ozbolat (B.S. 2006, B.S. 2007) Mechanical engineering – academician at the Pennsylvania State University
 * Ilkay Altintas (B.S. 1999, M.S. 2001) Computer engineering - Chief Data Science Officer of San Diego Supercomputer Center
 * Javaid Laghari (M.S. EE 1975) – Ph.D. SUNY Buffalo 1980, former senator in Pakistan Senate, former president and project director SZABIST, chairperson Higher Education Commission (HEC)(YOK), Pakistan, coordinator general COMSTECH, commissioner higher education, Ministry of Education, UAE
 * Kürşad Tüzmen (B.S. 1981) – M.Sc. in international relations at University of Illinois and former Minister of International Trade and Customs (Turkey)
 * Mehmet Ali Talat (M.Sc. 1977) – President of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
 * Mehrafza Mirzazad Barijugh (B.S. 2009) – Industrial designer Red Dot Design: Design Concept Best of the Best award 2010
 * Nabi Avci (B.S. 1986) – board member of Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey chairman of the Turkey National Committee of UNESCO, minister of Ministry of National Education (Turkey)
 * Müge Fermen (B.S. 1986) – First female aeronautical engineering graduate. MS in aerospace engineering and PhD in mechanical engineering from University of Dayton, Ohio, US. Award-winning program manager in R&D.
 * Salih Neftçi (B.S.) – economist, financial expert, author of the book An Introduction to Mathematics of Financial Derivatives
 * Serhan Poçan (B.S.) – Mountaineer, summiter of Mount Everest
 * Svante Cornell (B.S.) – International relations, founder of Institute for Security and Development Policy, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University – SAIS and associate professor (part-time) at Uppsala University.
 * Rita Orji (MS.C, 2009) – Computer Science Professor, Canada Research Chair, Top 150 Canadian Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Member, Royal Society of Canada, Global Young Academy, Top 100 Canada's Most Powerful Women
 * Şebnem Ferah (B.S.) – famous rock singer and songwriter
 * Süreyya Serdengeçti (B.S. 1979) – economist, former governor of the Central Bank of Turkey
 * Taner Akçam (B.S. 1976) – Historian, sociologist and author
 * Tülay Adali (B.S. 1987) – electrical engineer, M.Sc. and Phd at North Carolina State University and distinguished university professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
 * Tugce Aktas (B.S.) – PhD at EMBL, Max Planck Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics.
 * Tunç Hamarat (B.S.) – chess player – grandmaster and International Correspondence Chess Federation World Champion in 2004
 * Turgay Uzer (B.S.) – Theoretical physicist, PhD in Harvard University Regent's professor at Georgia Institute of Technology
 * Umran Inan (B.Sc. and M.Sc.) electrical engineering – Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University and president of Koç University and Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA group achievement award in 1983, 1998 and 2004.
 * Yasemin Dalkılıç (B.S.) – Mathematics – Holder of world records in free diving
 * Abzal Saparbekuly (B.S.) – Ambassador of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Turkey
 * M. Tamer Özsu (B.S. 1974, M.S. 1978) – PhD at Ohio State University; University Professor at University of Waterloo Cheriton School of Computer Science; Fellow of Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of Association for Computing Machinery, Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
 * Bilal Akin (B.S. and M.Sc.) – electrical engineer – faculty member of The University of Texas at Dallas, recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and fellow of the IEEE.

title: Middle East Technical University