Matthew Bevilaqua

Matthew Bevilacqua
Bevilaqua on left
First appearance	"Guy Walks Into a Psychiatrist's Office..." (episode 2.01)
Last appearance	"From Where to Eternity" (episode 2.09) (death) "Bust Out" (episode 2.10) (flashback)
Created by	David Chase
Portrayed by	Lillo Brancato Jr.
Information
Aliases	"Matt Drinkwater" "Bevilacqua kid"
Gender	Male
Title	Associate of the Soprano crew in the DiMeo crime family
Relatives	Evil Bevilacqua (uncle)

Matthew Bevilacqua, played by Lillo Brancato Jr., is a fictional character on the HBO TV series The Sopranos.

Background

Matthew Bevilacqua, a.k.a. Matt Drinkwater, was Sean Gismonte's partner-in-crime and an associate in the Soprano Crime Family. Matt and Sean were from West Orange, New Jersey. Matt wanted to move up in the ranks along with his best friend, Sean. He first sold shares in Webistics through a stock brokerage operated by Christopher Moltisanti. The Webistics scam was a typical pump and dump exercise. They got into trouble with Chris for stealing cars and beating up a broker who recommended the purchase of other stocks. Matt and Sean helped the Sopranos at the Massarone Construction site. Matt worked at the executive card game along with Sean. Matt finally did some burglary jobs with Chris and Sean. While collecting money, Furio together with an associate, took extra money from them when they came to pick up Tony's cut from the burglaries. Because of their lower status, Matt and Sean could not refuse them. They wanted to move up rapidly in the ranks of the family, so they planned a hit on Chris in order to get recognized by Richie Aprile, who disliked Christopher Moltisanti for hitting his niece, Adriana. Before attempting the hit on Christopher, Matthew once mentioned that he went to Pace College and is the holder of a stockbroker license.

Matt and Sean attempted a drive-by hit on Chris which resulted in Chris shooting Sean to death in self defense. Chris was seriously wounded in the attack. Matt ran away from the scene and went to Richie seeking help. Richie refused because he knew Tony would kill anyone involved in the attack. Richie chased Matt away with a baseball bat and Matt went into hiding. Eventually, Pussy learned of Matt's whereabouts. Pussy and Tony dragged a beaten Matt to a locked refreshment shack and after interrogating him to make sure that he and Sean were acting on their own, and not for someone else, shot him 21 times in the chest, stomach and head. He was killed on April 29, 2000.

After death

Cops later found Matt's body and a witness told officials about the murder, which according to a transcript was on the night of April 29, 2000, at about 9 PM. The witness identified Tony from a picture without knowing that he was a mob boss. When the witness learned that the murder was mafia-related, he then refused to cooperate. The feds continued to try to pin the murder on Tony, but remained unsuccessful. Tony repeatedly worried about being implicated in the murder. In the second season finale, Tony asks Pussy if he may have tipped off the FBI about the Bevilaqua hit. Pussy denies this accusation, although Tony executes him regardless.

In the fifth season finale, after Adriana is murdered, Tony asks Christopher if Adriana may have mentioned anything about Ralph or the "Bevilacqua kid" as he was taking precautions, making sure she hadn't said anything to the FBI to implicate them in relation to the murders.

Appearances

• Played by: Lillo Brancato Jr.
• Appears in: "Guy Walks into a Psychiatrist's Office...", "Do Not Resuscitate", "The Happy Wanderer", "Full Leather Jacket", "From Where to Eternity", and "Bust Out"
• Mentioned in: "Funhouse," and "All Due Respect"