LI's Alec Baldwin wanted to be the guy to whack Tony Soprano

Emmy Award winner Alec Baldwin says he suggested himself for a pivotal role on the acclaimed organized crime drama "The Sopranos."

Speaking Monday on the podcast "Talking Sopranos," hosted by former cast members Michael Imperioli and Steve Schirripa, the Amityville-born and Massapequa-raised Baldwin, 63, said he had wanted to play the assassin of capo Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini).

"I called up whoever it was, I forget, and I said, 'Tell them when it's time to kill Jimmy — this is early, before you get to the end [of the series, in which an abrupt blackout in the final scene might have indicated Tony Soprano's murder] — and I said, 'There's only one man in this business who should come in, whack Jimmy and ride off with Edie [Falco, who played Tony's wife, Carmela Soprano], and I am that man. … I am the guy who needs to blow Jimmy away and take Edie, who I'm madly in love with, away.

"And," Baldwin continued, "they were, like, 'Ah. Sure. Great. We'll add your name to the list of all the Irish actors who think that they should be on 'The Sopranos'!"

Baldwin earlier had noted that the 1999-2007 HBO series, which won 21 Emmy Awards and was hailed as groundbreaking for its delving into the family life and inner dynamics of a villainous character, had become "one of those shows which is, like — you guys both know — where there's jobs in this business that become like a club you want to get into," and that this was "one of those shows where," he joked, "you're, like, 'Who do I gotta sleep with to get a part on 'The Sopranos'?"