10 TV Characters Nobody Expected To Survive
9. Paulie Gualtieri - The Sopranos
In fairness, The Sopranos had such a no-holds-barred approach to even its major characters - especially in that final season - that just about anybody seemed fair game to be whacked.
But as hilarious and oddly likeable as Paulie "Walnuts" Gualtieri (Tony Sirico) was, it sure seemed like he was getting teed up for a dirt nap in season four, when his loose-lipped discussions with Johnny Sack (Vincent Curatola) caused a major headache for Tony (James Gandolfini).
With the amount that Paulie talked, he showed himself to be a major potential liability for Tony, and beyond that, as funny as he might be to us, somebody like that would be supremely annoying to be around all day long.
Despite so many of Paulie's comrades dying in the show's final stretch, he somehow made it to the end in one piece, proving just slippery enough to elude a fate that seemed inevitable for most of the series' run.