James John Gandolfini (; September 18, 1961June 19, 2013) was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Tony Soprano, the Italian-American mafia crime boss in HBO's television series The Sopranos (1999–2007). For this role, he won three Primetime Emmy Awards, five Actor Awards, and one Golden Globe Award. His role as Tony Soprano is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential performances in television history.
Gandolfini was featured in numerous films including True Romance (1993), Crimson Tide (1995), Get Shorty (1995), A Civil Action (1998), The Last Castle (2001), Romance & Cigarettes (2005), All the King's Men (2006), In the Loop (2009), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009), Not Fade Away (2012), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and The Drop (2014). He received acclaim for playing against type while starring in the romantic comedy Enough Said (2013). For the role, he earned numerous critics' awards including an Actor Award nomination.
Gandolfini is also known for his roles on Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire (1992), On the Waterfront (1995), and God of Carnage (2009), the latter earning him a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. He also produced the war documentaries Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq (2007) and Wartorn: 1861–2010 (2011) as well as the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012), which earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries or Movie.
Early life and education James John Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey, on September 18, 1961. His mother, Santa (), was a high school food service worker who was born in the U.S. and raised in Naples. His father, James Joseph Gandolfini Sr. (born Giacomo Giuseppe Gandolfini), was an Italian immigrant from Borgo Val di Taro, Parma, Emilia-Romagna who came to the United States as a toddler, worked as a bricklayer and cement mason, and later became the head custodian at Paramus Catholic High School. James Sr. was awarded a Purple Heart in World War II, and would often purchase car tires from a shop owned by Salvatore Travolta, the father of actor John Travolta; their sons consequently became friends and would later co-star in five films. Gandolfini's parents were devout Catholics who spoke Italian at home. Due to the influence of his parents, he developed a strong identity and regularly visited Italy. He had two sisters, Johanna and Leta, thirteen and ten years his senior.
Gandolfini grew up in Park Ridge, New Jersey. He graduated in 1979 from Park Ridge High School, where he played basketball, acted in school plays, and was named the "Class Flirt" in his senior yearbook. In 1983, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Rutgers University–New Brunswick, where he worked as a bouncer at an on-campus pub. He also worked as a bartender and club manager in Manhattan prior to his acting career. While living in Manhattan, he was introduced to acting when he accompanied his friend Roger Bart to a Meisner technique class. He studied for two years under Kathryn Gately at the Gately/Poole Conservatory.
Career 1983–1999: Early roles and Broadway debut After graduating from Rutgers and acting school, Gandolfini worked various jobs in Manhattan while acting in low-budget films. He made his Broadway theatre debut in the production of A Streetcar Named Desire as Steve Hubbell. He also appeared in the 1995 Broadway production of On the Waterfront as Charley Malloy. His first film role was in a 1989 New York University student film titled Eddy. One of his earlier major film roles was that of Virgil, a brutal mob enforcer, in the romantic thriller True Romance (1993). Gandolfini stated that one of his major inspirations for his character was an old friend of his who was a hitman. Despite disappointing box office numbers, Gandolfini's performance received critical praise.
Gandolfini was subsequently cast as insurance salesman and Russian mobster Ben Pinkwater in the action film Terminal Velocity (1994). In 1995, he played United States Navy Lieutenant Bobby Dougherty in the submarine film Crimson Tide. In that same year he played Bear, a bearded ex-stuntman with a Southern accent, in Get Shorty (1995). The film, which was based on the book of the same name and directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, received positive critical reception. The cast received an Actor Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. He was cast as a mob enforcer with a conscience in the legal thriller film The Juror (1996). Despite the film receiving negative critical response, Gandolfini's role was positively received.The Juror reviews
1999–2007: The Sopranos and stardom
In 1995, television writer and producer David Chase pitched the original idea for The Sopranos to networks such as Fox and CBS before HBO picked it up. The series revolves around Tony Soprano, a New Jersey–based Italian-American mobster, who tries to balance his family life with his role as boss of his crime family. 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. In a 2013 interview with The Guardian, Chase revealed that Gandolfini stopped and left in the middle of his audition before finishing it in his garage later that night. According to Chase, Gandolfini felt that he "didn't prepare right" for the audition.
The show debuted in 1999 and was broadcast until 2007 with Gandolfini playing Tony Soprano throughout all six seasons. His portrayal of Tony Soprano was met with widespread fan and critical acclaim.Tony Soprano critical reviews and influence:
Deadline Hollywood said Tony Soprano helped "usher in the era of the antihero" for television. As methods to focus anger into his performances, Gandolfini had said he would deliberately hit himself on the head, stay up all night to evoke the desired reaction, drink several cups of coffee, or walk around with a rock in his shoe. For his depiction of Soprano, Gandolfini won three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Drama. He also won an Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series along with the rest of the cast. In 2017, Entertainment Weekly listed him as the 42nd Greatest TV Icon of All Time. Gandolfini was making $1million per episode during the show's final season, making him one of television's highest-paid actors. Gandolfini underwent knee surgery on June 2, 2006, which pushed the production of the second part of the final season back by several months. Following Gandolfini's death in 2013, David Chase in a Fresh Air interview said that, "without Jim Gandolfini, there is no Sopranos. There is no Tony Soprano."
While working on The Sopranos, Gandolfini appeared in more films. In 2001, he played Winston Baldry, a gay hitman, in the adventure comedy film The Mexican. Gandolfini was recommended for the role by co-star Brad Pitt. For his performance, he won the Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role at the 2002 Outfest Outie Awards in Los Angeles, California. Gandolfini also starred in the action drama film The Last Castle that same year. In 2006, he starred in the musical romance comedy film Romance & Cigarettes. Director and friend John Turturro stated that he wanted Gandolfini to star in the film; however, he had to wait until The Sopranos stopped filming. He also appeared in a 2002 episode of Sesame Street, and a 2004 episode of Saturday Night Live (which, while called "New Jersey Resident", was a take on Tony Soprano) commenting on the Jim McGreevey sex scandal.
2007–2013: Return to Broadway and later work
After the finale of The Sopranos, Gandolfini, along with Paramount Pictures executive Alex Ryan, founded production company Attaboy Films. The production company signed a deal with HBO in 2006 to develop original programming for the channel. In 2007, Gandolfini and HBO produced Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq, a documentary focused on injured Iraq War veterans. The documentary was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, ultimately losing to Autism: The Musical.
He returned to the stage in 2009, starring in Yasmina Reza's play God of Carnage on Broadway acting alongside Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels. Gandolfini told Charlie Rose that he was the first one to sign onto the project after seeing the production in London. Ben Brantley of The New York Times praised the cast writing, "They're a marvelously giving, balanced ensemble. And each has bits of inspired invention that you tuck away into your memory file of classic stage moments". 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. The same year, he played the Mayor of New York in the remake of action thriller film The Taking of Pelham 123. Gandolfini voiced Carol, one of the titular Wild Things, in the fantasy film Where the Wild Things Are. The film, which was based on Maurice Sendak's picture book of the same title, was directed by Spike Jonze.
In 2010, Gandolfini produced another documentary with HBO, which analyzed the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder throughout American history, from 1861 to 2010. The film, titled Wartorn: 1861–2010, featured interviews with American military officials on their views of PTSD and how they are trying to help soldiers affected by it. The documentary, which had its premiere at The Pentagon, received favorable reviews. Gandolfini was also executive producer of the HBO film about Ernest Hemingway and his relationship with Martha Gellhorn, titled Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012). The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival to mixed reviews. Despite the reviews, the film was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries or Movie. In 2012, Gandolfini reunited with The Sopranos creator David Chase for Not Fade Away, a music-driven production set in 1960s New Jersey, and the latter's feature film debut.
Two films which Gandolfini completed before his death in June 2013 were released posthumously. The first was Enough Said, a romantic comedy in which he co-starred with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The film was met with positive reviews, particularly for Gandolfini's performance. 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 Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.Enough Said awards & nominations
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 critical reviews.
Gandolfini is credited as an executive producer on the HBO miniseries The Night Of, which premiered in 2016. He was set to star in the miniseries when it was pitched to HBO in 2013, but the network ultimately decided not to go ahead with the show. HBO reversed its 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 him.
Personal life