Friends, fans and contemporaries in the entertainment world mourned the loss of James Gandolfini Wednesday, June 19. The man who will forever be identified with the lead role on “The Sopranos,” which revolutionized television during its six-season run, reportedly died of a heart attack in Italy. He was said to be vacationing and planned to visit the 59th Taormina Film Festival.
A wide cross section of entertainers, creators, film legends, TV personalities and even politicians took to Twitter to express their grief just after the news broke. The long list includes senator and former presidential candidate John McCain, Olivia Wilde, Will Arnett, Ewan McGregor, Jermaine Dupri, Rob Lowe, Russell Simmons, Alyssa Milano, Rainn Wilson, Damon Lindelof, Kevin Smith, Mia Farrow, Lance Bass, Jimmy Kimmel, Rose McGowan, Kristin Chenoweth, Nia Vardalos and many more.
Steve Carrell, who co-starred with the late actor in this year’s “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone,” wrote, “Unbelievably sad news. A fine man.”
Jonah Hill tweeted that he was “heartbroken” over the tragic loss, declaring Gandolfini one of his “all time favorite actors.”
That such a wide range of people from different backgrounds and careers were affected by his death speaks volumes of Gandolfini’s life, his talent and charisma. It certainly says something about the impact of his most famous role. Tony Soprano is a cultural reference point, a ubiquitous character everyone knows, even at a time when options for entertainment have expanded and gone further into deeper niches. The show was about a mob boss who decides to see a therapist, but in large part because of Gandolfini’s iconic performance, it grew to become so much more than that.
Gandolfini rightly won three Emmys in the role, which was the center of an extraordinarily talented ensemble. When somebody mentions Tony Soprano, it often has as much to do with Gandolfini’s complex and nuanced portrayal as it does the character’s Mafia don status. A search for “Tony Soprano” on RapGenius brings up multiple examples of rappers dropping his name, including Gucci Mane, Future, E-40, Xzibit, Rick Ross, Chris Webby, Rakim, Cassidy and, most famously, Jay-Z.
When we saw Tony strangle that snitch to death while on a college tour with his daughter, we knew “The Sopranos” was unlike anything we had ever seen before on television. Its mix of the mundane and the psychopathic predated “Dexter,” for starters. “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner worked on “The Sopranos.” Thanks to series honcho David Chase, we now hear about “showrunners” like Dan Harmon (“Community”) and Julie Plec (“The Vampire Diaries”) nearly as often as a show’s stars. Gandolfini had the chance to reunite with Chase in last year’s “Not Fade Away,” a love letter of sorts to rock music of the 1960s. The movie’s music was put together by Little Steven Van Zandt, who of course played Tony Soprano’s right-hand man, Silvio Dante.
The heavy breathing, the sweat-filled fever dreaming, that gaze, the playful courtships and the terrifying menace, the tough decisions, the selfish moves — nobody could have handled those as adeptly as Gandolfini. At times it felt so real that it was hard to determine where the character ended and the actor began. Gandolfini admitted as much when speaking about his co-star Edie Falco in the exhaustive oral history of “The Sopranos” published in Vanity Fair.
“Of course, I love my wife, but I’m in love with Edie,” he confessed. “I don’t know if I’m in love with Carmela or Edie or both.”
Falco felt similarly. “Even years later, I remember when I saw Jim in ‘God of Carnage’ on Broadway, and he was Marcia Gay Harden’s husband, and I had this ‘How come I have to be OK with this?’ kind of feeling.”
Whether or not Tony Soprano died, as the final episode of the series abruptly cut to black, was the subject of furious debate for a long time afterward. Even as iTunes sales of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” spiked, many fans were outraged by the ambiguity. Five years after the show ended, Gandolfini shared his thoughts about the ending in that 2012 Vanity Fair article.
“When I first saw the ending, I said, ‘What the f—?’ ” he admitted, echoing many fans’ sentiments. “I mean, after all I went through, all this death, and then it’s over like that? But after sleeping on it, I just sat there and said: ‘That’s perfect.’ “
Already a theater veteran, he hit Broadway in 1992 in “A Streetcar Named Desire” with Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange. Gandolfini’s breakout movie role was as the hitman Virgil in “True Romance” in 1993. This writer came to love him thanks to his performance as a low-level enforcer in “Get Shorty” who stole the show in just about every scene he appeared in.
I still remember my dad giving me a copy of the first few episodes of “The Sopranos” on a VHS tape. My roommate and I became hooked. We couldn’t afford HBO back then, so I would rely on my father and stepmother to hand over VHS recordings. “The Sopranos” stayed with me as I moved on through life, across the country, into new jobs, and as the show moved to DVD and digital. I remained mesmerized by the show’s mix of pathos, comedy, darkness, depression and existential angst.
During the show’s run, Gandolfini took roles in feature films like “The Mexican” (with Brad Pitt), “The Man Who Wasn’t There” and the box-office bomb “Surviving Christmas,” with Ben Affleck. After the show ended, Gandolfini worked hard to shake Tony Soprano off of him in the public eye. He was great in “In the Loop.” He was part of the remake of “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3,” as well as “Welcome to the Rileys,” with Kristen Stewart. His unmistakable voice boomed in “Where the Wild Things Are.” He was instantly believable as the C.I.A. director in “Zero Dark Thirty” and even tried comedy in “The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.”
Gandolfini had hooked back up with his partners at HBO, producing the TV movie “Hemingway & Gellhorn.” More recently, he was working to launch a new HBO miniseries called “Criminal Justice,” which he was also going to star in.
“We’re all in shock and feeling immeasurable sadness at the loss of a beloved member of our family,” said HBO in a statement. “He was a special man, a great talent, but more importantly a gentle and loving person who treated everyone no matter their title or position with equal respect. He touched so many of us over the years with his humor, his warmth and his humility. Our hearts go out to his wife and children during this terrible time. He will be deeply missed by all of us.”
Gandolfini is survived by his wife, Deborah Lin; their daughter, Liliana, born in October of last year; and his 13-year-old son, Michael, from his first marriage, to Marcy Wudarski. Gandolfini was 51 years old.
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