James Gandolfini

James Gandolfini (born September 18, 1961, Westwood, New Jersey, U.S.—died June 19, 2013, Rome, Italy) was an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Mafia boss and family man Tony Soprano in the HBO drama series The Sopranos (1999–2007).

Gandolfini was the son of Italian immigrants. In 1983 he graduated from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, with a degree in communications. After working in New York City nightclubs as a bouncer, bartender, and manager, Gandolfini was persuaded by a friend to attend an acting class at the famed Actors Studio. Intrigued, he decided to study acting while supporting himself as a deliveryman.

Before establishing a career in film, Gandolfini appeared on Broadway, first gaining notice on the stage in a 1992 production of A Streetcar Named Desire that also starred Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange. That same year he began appearing in small roles on the big screen. In 1993 Gandolfini was cast as the woman-beating mob enforcer Virgil in Quentin Tarantino’s True Romance. He continued to be cast as dangerous tough guys in films that included Terminal Velocity (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), and Get Shorty (1995).

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Britannica Quiz

Pop Culture Quiz

1 of 2

2 of 2

Although respected for his work in these films and others, such as Night Falls on Manhattan (1996) and A Civil Action (1998), Gandolfini became an icon in his role-of-a-lifetime on The Sopranos, which debuted on HBO in 1999. The series was as much the story of a dysfunctional family as it was of the crime syndicate as endangered species, and at the centre of both was Tony, the gangster as upper-middle-class everyman, whose sessions with his psychiatrist illuminated his deeply conflicted nature. By turns volcanic and brooding, honourable and devious, tender and cruel, a loving father and a husband given to serial infidelity, Tony was one of the most complex characters in television history, and Gandolfini’s performance was profoundly nuanced. He won three Emmy Awards as outstanding lead actor in a dramatic series for his role. After six seasons The Sopranos—which also featured Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, and Lorraine Bracco, among others—ended in 2007.

While starring in The Sopranos, Gandolfini continued to appear in feature films. He demonstrated his range in very different roles in three movies released in 2001: as a gay hit man in The Mexican, as an uptight military prison warden in The Last Castle, and as a victim of blackmail in The Man Who Wasn’t There. Subsequent works include the musical Romance & Cigarettes (2005); The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (2009), a remake of the 1974 crime thriller about a subway train hijacking; the political satire In the Loop (2009); and Where the Wild Things Are (2009), an adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s children’s book.

In the film drama Welcome to the Rileys (2010), Gandolfini starred as a grieving father who finds a connection with a wayward teenage girl. He portrayed the real-life producer of a 1970s television documentary series in the HBO movie Cinema Verite (2011) before returning to the big screen with supporting roles in the darkly comic crime films Violet & Daisy (2011) and Killing Them Softly (2012). Gandolfini later appeared in Not Fade Away (2012), the story of a teenage rock band in 1960s New Jersey that was directed by The Sopranos creator David Chase, and as Leon Panetta in Zero Dark Thirty (2012), about the U.S. military operation to kill Osama bin Laden. In The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (2013), a comedy about Las Vegas magicians, he had a role as a casino owner.

Gandolfini had returned to Broadway in 2009, earning critical acclaim in God of Carnage, a satiric comedy written by Yasmina Reza that centres on two couples who meet following a fight between their young sons.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

While vacationing in Rome in June 2013, Gandolfini died of a heart attack. The comedy Enough Said (2013), in which he played a divorced father embarking on a new relationship, and the crime drama The Drop (2014), in which he played a corrupt bar owner, were released posthumously.