'Sopranos' Bad Guy Makes Good in 'Daredevil'

Feb. 14 -- He lost his head to Tony Soprano. He's dropped his pants on Broadway. Now, as a New York Post reporter in Daredevil, the only thing Joe Pantoliano is trying to shake is his bad-guy image.

"I wanted to play a good guy after playing a lunatic on The Sopranos for two years," says Pantoliano, 52, who played the loathsome Ralphie, a whack-happy gangster who pushed the Bada Bing! boys a little too far when he rubbed out Tony's prize race horse just for the insurance money.

Tony gave Ralphie a lesson in animal rights only PETA could appreciate, and Ralphie's remains were chopped to bits, head and all, in one of the most brutal episodes of the gangster drama.

Will Daredevil Save Joey … For a Sequel?

One perk in his Daredevil role: "I didn't get killed off," says Pantoliano, who plays Ben Urich, a dogged tabloid reporter on the trail of a mysterious vigilante crime fighter. Urich is such a good guy that he passes up the news story of a lifetime to keep Daredevil's identity a secret — all for the good of New York.

The movie, opening Friday, is the latest adaptation of a Marvel comic book. Ben Affleck stars as Matt Murdock — lawyer by day, vigilante-superhero by night.

Splashed with hazardous material as a boy, Murdock is blinded but endowed with superhuman senses, including radar-like hearing. He is also a karate fighter and skilled leaper of buildings — sporting a hooded suit that fits with a snugness even Superman might envy.

Jennifer Garner co-stars as Affleck's girlfriend, the sword-fighting heiress Elektra. Together they take on the hulking criminal mastermind Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) and his dart-wielding assassin, Bullseye (Colin Farrell).

"They own [me] for a sequel," Pantoliano says. "I can just see it now. The Kingpin's got me trapped and they're beating me up … Then [Daredevil] comes crashing through the window and saves me. And I become his Lois Lane."

What a change for Pantoliano. Before making his bones in TV gangland, "Joey Pants," as he's sometimes called, was best known as the mole who sold out Keanu Reeves in The Matrix.