Hesh Rabkin

Hesh is one of Tony's oldest friends and advisors, a music-industry veteran left wealthy by a past in R&B production, some of it built on artists he never quite paid fairly. He's shrewd, dry, and comfortable enough to speak plainly to Tony when others wouldn't dare, offering counsel that's part friendship, part self-interest.

Jerry Adler plays him with an unhurried, patrician calm that makes him instantly credible as someone who's outlasted several eras of the business without raising his voice. The writing uses him as a rare peer to Tony — Jewish, older, outside the crew's chain of command — which lets the show air uncomfortable truths about money, race, and loyalty that no made man could say aloud.