James Gandolfini (Westwood, New Jersey, USA, September18, 1961 - Rome, Italy, June 19, 2013)


American actor, most famous for his role in the TV series The Sopranos. After a brief acting experience in high school he enrolled to the Rutgers University in his home town of New Jersey and graduated in communications in 1982. He started to attend acting classes at the age of 25. He first started to act in a theatre in New York. He made his debut on Broadway in the A Streetcar Named Desire with Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin in 1992. He got his first, small film role in 1987, and a bigger opportunity came along in A Stranger Among Us (1992) directed by Sidney Lumet. Ater making two smaller films, he drew attention with the successful supporting role in True Romance (1993) by Tony Scott. After a few not very successful films, he worked with Tony Scott again on Crimson Tide (1995). He collaborated with Sidney Lumet again in Night Falls on Manhattan (1996). Some of his later roles include: Get Shorty (1995) by Barry Sonnenfeld, Perdita Durango (1997) by Álex de la Iglesia and She's So Lovely (1997) by Nick Cassavetes. In a short film by William Garcia A Whole New Day (1999), part of his omnibus Stories of Lost Souls, he played the lead role. Afterwards, he played the villain in 8MM (1999) by Joel Schumacher. This was followed by his most famous role, the one of the mob boss Tony Soprano in the TV series The Sopranos, which was broadcasted between 1999 and 2007. It brought him three Emmy Awards for Best Actor (2000, 2001 and 2003), and the Golden Globe Award for Best TV Show Actor in 2000. Simultaneously with the TV Series, he continued working on film. For the role in The Mexican (2001) by Gore Verbinski he lost fifteen kilos, but had to gain the weight back because the producers of The Sopranos didn't like the idea of a skinny Tony Soprano. He worked with the Cohen brothers on The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), starred with Robert Redford in the military thriller The Last Castle (2001) by Rod Lurie, and played the lead role opposite Susan Sarandon in Romance & Cigarettes (2005) by John Torturro. Together with John Travolta, also a friend in private life, he worked on five films, including Get Shorty, She's So Lovely, drama A Civil Action (1998) by Steven Zaillian, film noir Lonely Hearts (2006) by Todd Robinson, and The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009) by Tony Scott. When The Sopranos finished, he produced the TV documentary Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq (2007), in which he interviewed wounded Iraq war veterans. In 2009, he performed on Broadway again, in the play God of Carnage, together with Marcia Gay Harden and Jeff Daniels. His other films include: drama Welcome to the Rileys (2010) directed by Jake Scott, TV drama Cinema Verite (2011), crime drama Killing Them Softly (2012) by Andrew Dominik, and comedy Enough Said (2013) by Nicole Holofcener. He played a role in the pilot for the TV show Criminal Justice (2013), but Robert De Niro replaced him after his death. In his private life Gandolfini was completely different from Tony Soprano whom he had interpreted for many years. Closer to pacifism, describing himself as a Woody Allen with 117 kilos, shy and unused to fame, he used to talk about his work like it was any other job, often not able to understand journalists' interest in him. He died of a heart attack during a family holiday in Italy, where his parents were originally from.







Filmography:

Animal Rescue (2014)

Criminal Justice (1 episode of the never aired pilot, 2013)

Enough Said (2013)

Nicky Deuce (2013) (TV)

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013)

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Not Fade Away (2012)

Killing Them Softly (2012)

Violet & Daisy (2011)

Cinema Verite (2011) (TV)

Down the Shore (2011)

Mint Julep (2010)

Welcome to the Rileys (2010)

Where the Wild Things Are (2009) (voice)

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009)

In the Loop (2009)

Stories USA (2007) (segment "Club Soda")

The Sopranos (TV series, 86 episodes, 1999-2007)

The Sopranos: Road to Respect (2006) (VG) (voice)

Club Soda (2006)

All the King's Men (2006)

Lonely Hearts (2006)

Romance & Cigarettes (2005)

Surviving Christmas (2004)

The Last Castle (2001)

The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)

The Mexican (2001)

8MM (1999)

A Whole New Day (1999)

A Civil Action (1998)

The Mighty (1998)

Fallen (1998)

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997) (uncredited)

Perdita Durango (1997)

12 Angry Men (1997) (TV)

She's So Lovely (1997)

Gun (TV series, 1 episode, 1997)

Night Falls on Manhattan (1996)

The Juror (1996)

Get Shorty (1995)

Crimson Tide (1995)

Le nouveau monde (1995)

Terminal Velocity (1994)

Angie (1994)

Mr. Wonderful (1993)

True Romance (1993)

Money for Nothing (1993)

Italian Movie (1993)

A Stranger Among Us (1992)

The Last Boy Scout (1991) (uncredited)

Shock! Shock! Shock! (1987)