[smeagol]

very sad news far too young ,
steve van zandt is playing tonight with springsteen he isn't happy

[Marc]

Can't believe it

[Livia]

I was a fan of his. Loved the Sopranos, and he was great in True Romance, one of my favourite films. I knew something was up when my alarm clock was playing Alabama 3's 'Woke Up This Morning'. So sad... rest in peace.

[the truth]

He produced and played the role of interviewer in a series of documentaries about American Iraq war veterans, discussing their experiences, their injuries and ongoing treatment....He spent a lot of time visiting the troops too......Theres other stories about how he gave up tens of thousands of dollars to fellow cast members when he had a pay rise....he was more than an actor that's for sure

[Roy Mars III]

a great actor, will be greatly missed

[cassieparis]

Another talented Virgoan gone too soon.
RIP James Joesph Gandolfini jr.

[Niamh.]

awww RIP

[bbfan1991]

RIP. James Gandolfini was such a brilliant Actor. My thoughts are with his loved ones!

[the truth]

The best actor in the greatest tv show ever playing the best character
I really cannot begin to explain how awesome the sopranos was and how awesome he was in it.

In addition he made 50 movies, did several successful broadway productions... produced a few, he also made a terrific documentary called Alive day which ran for many episodes going out to meet the troops in the middle east and another series called wartorn.... I intend to catch up with all those shows
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRe29RL-wXI

Early life

Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey.[2] His mother, Santa, a high school lunch lady, was born in the USA of Italian ancestry and raised in Naples, Italy.[3] His father James Joseph Gandolfini, Sr., a native of Borgotaro, Italy, was a bricklayer and cement mason, and was later the head custodian at Paramus Catholic High School in New Jersey.[3][4][5][dead link] James, Sr. earned a Purple Heart in World War II.[6] Gandolfini's parents were devout Roman Catholics and spoke Italian at home. Due to the influence of his parents, Gandolfini developed a strong sense of being Italian and regularly visited Italy.[4][7]

Gandolfini grew up in Park Ridge and graduated from Park Ridge High School in 1979, where he played basketball, acted in school plays,[8] and was awarded the title "Class Flirt" in his senior yearbook. He attained a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication studies from Rutgers University, where he worked as a bouncer at an on-campus pub.[9] Gandolfini also worked as a bartender and club manager prior to his acting career.[9] Gandolfini was introduced to acting as a young man living in New York City, when he accompanied friend Roger Bart to a Meisner technique acting class.[10


I watched pretty much every tribute to him in the past 24 hours and the general picture was a genius actor, a very intelligent man, with a big heart and huge work ethic. He was generally considered kind, considerate, emotional, modest and self effacing. Hardly the attributes of the often attention seeking celebrities. In his work he was obsessed with making things real and authentic, in one interview he spent 10 minutes explaining why a mob boss had told him off once for wearing shorts at a barbecue.....that would never be allowed to happen.

He seems to have come from the same acting school of thought of other legendary Italian American movie - makers, such as the scorseses, de palmas,bertoluccis, brandos, deniros, coppola, pacinos etc.....and in many ways sopranos was an extension of the awesome Goodfellas movie. But Chase and gandolfini took it and made their own masterpiece.

He was an emotional man, is said to have had his demons, he could be pretty temperamental at times....But all great actors have that.....
david chase who created this masterpiece said in one interview about the show....."all the brilliant weird bits Hollywood producers want to cut out, those were all the bits I had to fight to keep in....."Anyone who saw James even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes. I remember telling him many times, 'You don't get it. You're like Mozart.
"There would be silence at the other end of the phone," Chase recalled. "For [wife] Deborah and [son] Michael and [daughter] Liliana this is crushing. And it's bad for the rest of the world. He wasn't easy sometimes. But he was my partner, he was my brother in ways I can't explain and never will be able to explain."

Gandolfini won three Emmy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Golden Globe for playing mob boss Tony Soprano in Chase's game-changing HBO series.

Lorraine Bracco, who played Tony's long-suffering psychiatrist Dr. Jennifer Melfi, said, "We lost a giant today. I am utterly heartbroken."

Rocker Steven Van Zandt, aka Soprano Family consigliere Silvio Dante, told E! News from Scotland: "I have lost a brother and a best friend. The world has lost one of the greatest actors of all time. [His wife] Maureen and I send our deepest sympathy and love to Deborah, Michael, Lily, and all of Jimmy's family."

Every Wednesday night any self respecting sopranos fan watches a rerun of the show on e4.....As a mark of respect I didn't watch it last night, it didn't feel right....But it is such an epic show, it wasnt easy to turn away from just 1 episode, that's just how great it was. Frankly all other drama shows just fade into oblivion.

The show is the prototype of how great tv shows can be , a yardstick for future generations and his work will always be watched admired and respected.

[GiRTh]

Youtube video

RIP

[Shaun]

I loved that so many of the cast turned up