NEW YORK — In the spring, the young actor who plays the dispirited adolescent son of a mob boss on "The Sopranos" saw the scriptwriters edge his character toward the path taken by his father, Tony Soprano. Vandalism and the theft of a geometry test got him expelled from high school, and the awkward youngster, slump-shouldered and slightly overweight, began suffering from panic attacks, like his gangster father.
But early Wednesday, according to the police, the 16-year-old actor, Robert Iler, got into more trouble than even the writers and producers of the HBO series had imagined. Not far from his apartment building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Iler was among four teenagers arrested after what the police called a strong-arm robbery. Iler and his friends took $40 by force from two 16-year-olds on a York Avenue street corner, the authorities said.
When he was arrested a short while later, the police said, he had a bag of marijuana in his pocket and a small bong, or water pipe. All four teenagers were charged with robbery.
Iler pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Wednesday night and was released on $2,500 bail.