James Gandolfini

Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey.[3] His mother, Santa (née Penna), was a high school food service worker of Italian descent who was born in the United States and raised in Naples.[4][5] His Italian-born father, James Joseph Gandolfini Sr., was a native of Borgo Val di Taro, in the Northeastern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, who worked as a bricklayer and cement mason and later the head custodian at Paramus Catholic High School.[4][6][7] James Sr. earned a Purple Heart in World War II.[8] Gandolfini's parents were devout Roman Catholics who spoke Italian at home. Due to the influence of his parents, he developed a strong sense of Italian-American identity and visited Italy regularly.[6][9] He had two sisters.[10][11]

Gandolfini grew up in Park Ridge, New Jersey, and graduated from Park Ridge High School in 1979, where he played basketball, acted in school plays,[12] and was awarded the title "Class Flirt" in his senior yearbook. He earned a BA in Communications from Rutgers University in 1983, where he worked as a bouncer at an on-campus pub.[13] He also worked as a bartender and club manager in Manhattan prior to his acting career.[13] He was introduced to acting as a young man living in New York City, when he accompanied his friend Roger Bart to a Meisner technique acting class,[14] where he studied for two years under Kathryn Gately at The Gately Poole Conservatory.[15]

Gandolfini and Tony Sirico visit a member of the United States Air Force during a United Service Organizations visit to southwest Asia (March 2010)

Gandolfini with Rose McGowan in Kuwait (March 2010)

Gandolfini performed in a 1992 Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire as Steve Hubbell for 168 performances, and in a 1995 Broadway production of On the Waterfront as Charley Malloy for 24. One of his earlier film roles was that of Virgil, a brutal mob enforcer, in the romantic thriller True Romance (1993), for which he said one of his major inspirations was an old friend of his who was a hitman.[16] In the film Terminal Velocity (1994), Gandolfini played Ben Pinkwater, a seemingly mild-mannered insurance man who turns out to be a violent Russian mobster. In 1995 he was in the box office hit Crimson Tide. In that same year in Get Shorty (1995), he appeared as a bearded ex-stuntman with a Southern accent, and in The Juror (1996), he played a mob enforcer with a conscience.[4]

Gandolfini received widespread acclaim for his performance as Tony Soprano, the lead character in the HBO drama The Sopranos, a New Jersey mob boss and family man whose constant existential questioning includes regular psychiatric appointments. Gandolfini was invited to audition for the part of Tony Soprano after casting director Susan Fitzgerald saw a short clip of his performance in True Romance, ultimately receiving the role ahead of several other actors including Steven Van Zandt and Michael Rispoli.[17][18] The show debuted in 1999 and was broadcast until 2007. For his depiction of Soprano, Gandolfini won three Emmys for "Best Actor in a Drama" and Entertainment Weekly listed him as the 42nd Greatest TV Icon of All Time.[19] In addition to the awards that he won, Gandolfini received numerous nominations and two SAG Awards for being a member of the series' ensemble.[20] By the final season in 2007, Gandolfini was making one million dollars per episode.[21]

In 2007, Gandolfini produced a documentary with HBO focused on injured Iraq War veterans and their devotion to America while surveying the physical and emotional costs of war. Gandolfini interviewed ten surviving soldiers, who revealed their thoughts about the challenges they face reintegrating into society and family life. They also reflected on their memories of the day when they narrowly escaped death and what life may have been like in other circumstances.

That same year, Gandolfini returned to HBO as the executive producer of the Emmy-nominated documentary special, Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq, his first project after The Sopranos and the first production for his company Attaboy Films, which was opened in 2006 with producing partner Alexandra Ryan. He returned to the stage in 2009, appearing in Broadway's God of Carnage with Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels. He received a Tony Award nomination in the category of Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his role in the play but lost to Geoffrey Rush, who played the lead in Exit the King. He played the Mayor of New York in the 2009 remake of The Taking of Pelham 123.

In 2010 Gandolfini produced another documentary with HBO, which analyzed the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder throughout American history, from 1861 to 2010. It featured interviews with American military officials on their views of PTSD and how they are trying to help soldiers affected by it. Letters from soldiers of the American Civil War and World War I who were affected by PTSD are examined, along with interviews with soldiers affected by PTSD and their families.

Gandolfini was executive producer of the HBO film about Ernest Hemingway and his relationship with Martha Gellhorn, titled Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012).[22] Gandolfini reunited with The Sopranos creator David Chase for Not Fade Away (2012), a music-driven production set in 1960s New Jersey, and the latter's feature film debut.[23][24]

Two films which he completed before his death on June 19, 2013, were released posthumously. The first was Enough Said, a romantic comedy which he co-starred with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The film was met with positive reviews, particularly for Gandolfini's performance.[25] He received posthumous Best Supporting Actor awards from the Boston Society of Film Critics and the Chicago Film Critics Association as well as multiple nominations, including a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.

His final film performance was in The Drop, a crime drama in which he co-starred with Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace. Released September 12, 2014, the film was met with positive reviews for Gandolfini's performance.[26]

Gandolfini is credited as an executive producer on the HBO miniseries The Night Of which premiered in 2016. Gandolfini was set to star in the miniseries when it was pitched to HBO in 2013, but they ultimately decided not to go ahead with the show. HBO reversed their decision a few months later, and the show was green-lit, with Gandolfini still set to star, however, he died before filming began. Actor John Turturro assumed the role intended for Gandolfini.

Gandolfini maintained ties with his Park Ridge, New Jersey hometown by supporting its Octoberwoman Foundation for Breast Cancer Research. He lived in New York City and owned a lot on the Lake Manitoba Narrows.[27] Gandolfini had lived on a 34-acre (14 ha) property in Chester Township, New Jersey.[28] In 2009 he purchased a home in the hills of Tewksbury Township, New Jersey.[29] GQ's Brett Martin said about Gandolfini: "In interviews, which the actor did his very best to avoid, the actor would often fall back on some version of 'I'm just a dumb, fat guy from Jersey.'"[30]

Gandolfini and his first wife, Marcy Wudarski,[31] were married in March 1999, and Gandolfini filed for divorce in March 2002.[32] It was finalized December 18, 2002.[33] Their son Michael was born in 2000.[31][32][34] On August 30, 2008, after two years of dating, Gandolfini married former model and actress Deborah Lin in her hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii.[35] Their daughter, Liliana Ruth Gandolfini, was born October 2012.[36]

Gandolfini died suddenly at the age of 51 in Rome on June 19, 2013. He was expected to travel to Sicily a few days later to receive an award at the Taormina Film Fest. After he and his family had spent the day sightseeing in the sweltering heat, his 13-year-old son Michael discovered him unconscious at around 10 p.m. local time on the bathroom floor at the Boscolo Exedra Hotel. Michael called reception, who in turn called emergency paramedics. Gandolfini arrived at the hospital at 10:40 p.m. and was pronounced dead 20 minutes later.[37] An autopsy confirmed that he had died of a heart attack.[38]

While word of his death spread, politicians such as John McCain and Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie took to the Internet to respond.[39][40][41] Christie ordered all New Jersey State buildings to fly flags at half staff on June 24 to honor Gandolfini when his body was returned to the United States.[42]

The day after Gandolfini's death, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which has long featured Sopranos co-star Steven Van Zandt on guitar, dedicated a performance of their classic album Born to Run by doing a rendition for Gandolfini.[43]

Gandolfini's body was returned to the United States on June 23. Family spokesman Michael Kobold thanked both Italian and American authorities for expediting the repatriation process, which normally takes seven days.[44] The marquee lights of Broadway theaters were dimmed on the night of June 26 in Gandolfini's honor.[45]

Gandolfini's funeral service was held on June 27, 2013, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Morningside Heights, Manhattan, New York City.[46] He was cremated, and his ashes were given to his family.[47]

TV Guide published a special tribute to Gandolfini in its July 1, 2013, issue following his death, devoting the entire back cover of that issue to his image. In it, columnist Matt Roush cited Gandolfini's work as Tony Soprano as an influence on subsequent cable TV protagonists, saying: "Without Tony, there's no Vic Mackey of The Shield, no Al Swearengen of Deadwood, no Don Draper of Mad Men (whose creator, Matthew Weiner, honed his craft as a writer on The Sopranos)." Similar testimonials were given by his co-stars and colleagues, including Edie Falco, who expressed shock and devastation at his death;[48] Sopranos creator David Chase, who praised him as a "genius";[49] Bryan Cranston, who stated that his Breaking Bad character Walter White would not have existed without Tony Soprano;[50] and Gandolfini's three-time co-star Brad Pitt, who expressed admiration for Gandolfini as a "ferocious actor, a gentle soul and a genuinely funny man".[51] TV critic, Alan Sepinwall, said of Gandolfini’s performance, “Watching it again, it was very clear to me, quickly and often, that this was the greatest dramatic performance in TV history."[52]

”...in the years since The Sopranos ended, there’s almost been this TV-actor Mount Rushmore. Bryan Cranston [Breaking Bad] is on there, and Jon Hamm [Mad Men] is on there, and Elisabeth Moss [Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale] or Claire Danes [Homeland] or somebody else is on there. But James Gandolfini gets his own mountain. With all due respect to everybody else, including Edie Falco [who played Tony Soprano’s wife, Carmela], Gandolfini is the best dramatic actor in TV history, and I don’t know that anybody else is particularly close.”

— TV critic, Alan Sepinwall, on Gandolfini’s performance as Tony Soprano.[53]

Three months after his death, it was reported that in Gandolfini's last will and testament, dated December 2012 and filed July 2013 in Manhattan Surrogate's Court, he left a substantial portion of his estimated $70 million estate to his two sisters, widow, and daughter. The will did not state any inheritance for his only son, Michael, because Gandolfini provided for him a separate trust funded by a life insurance policy.[54] In December 2013, following an online petition campaign started by Gandolfini's high school classmate, Lori Fredrics, his hometown renamed its Park Avenue to James Gandolfini Way at a public ceremony attended by several of his former Sopranos co-stars.[55]

Spike Jonze's 2013 Academy Award winning film Her is dedicated to Gandolfini. Jonze and Gandolfini had previously worked together on Where the Wild Things Are.

In 2014, Gandolfini was posthumously inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.[56]

In 2019, his son Michael was cast as the younger version of James' character Tony Soprano in The Sopranos prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.[57] Michael, having never watched the show, watched through it to prepare for the role, describing it as an intense process.[58]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Gandolfini.

• James Gandolfini on IMDb
• James Gandolfini at the TCM Movie Database
• "James Gandolfini". Find a Grave. Retrieved March 28, 2017.
• James Gandolfini at the Internet Broadway Database