36 Facts About James Gandolfini

James Gandolfini was best known for his portrayal of Tony Soprano, the Italian-American Mafia crime boss in HBO's television series The Sopranos.

James Gandolfini received acclaim for playing against type starring in the romantic comedy Enough Said.

James Gandolfini is known for his roles on Broadway in A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront, and God of Carnage, the latter earning him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play nomination.

In 2013, James Gandolfini died of a heart attack in Rome at the age of 51.

James John Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey, on September 18,1961.

James Gandolfini's mother, Santa, was a high school food service worker who was born in the US and raised in Naples.

James Gandolfini's parents were devout Catholics who spoke Italian at home.

James Gandolfini 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.

James Gandolfini worked as a bartender and club manager in Manhattan prior to his acting career.

James Gandolfini made his Broadway theatre debut in the production of A Streetcar Named Desire as Steve Hubbell.

James Gandolfini appeared in the 1995 Broadway production of On the Waterfront as Charley Malloy.

James Gandolfini stated that one of his major inspirations for his character was an old friend of his who was a hitman.

James Gandolfini was cast as insurance salesman and Russian mobster Ben Pinkwater in the action film Terminal Velocity.

James Gandolfini was cast as a mob enforcer with a conscience in the legal thriller film The Juror.

James 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.

James Gandolfini won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series along with the rest of the cast.

James Gandolfini was making $1million per episode during the show's final season, making him one of television's highest-paid actors.

James Gandolfini underwent knee surgery on June 2,2006, which pushed the production of the second part of the final season back by several months.

James Gandolfini was recommended for the role by co-star Brad Pitt.

James Gandolfini starred in the action drama film The Last Castle that same year.

James Gandolfini 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.

James Gandolfini told Charlie Rose that he was the first one to sign onto the project after seeing the production in London.

James Gandolfini 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.

James Gandolfini voiced Carol, one of the titular Wild Things, in the fantasy film Where the Wild Things Are.

In 2010, James Gandolfini produced another documentary with HBO, which analyzed the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder throughout American history, from 1861 to 2010.

In 2012, James 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 James Gandolfini completed before his death in June 2013 were released posthumously.

James Gandolfini 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.

James Gandolfini is credited as an executive producer on the HBO miniseries The Night Of, which premiered in 2016.

James Gandolfini 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 James Gandolfini still set to star; however, he died before filming began.

James Gandolfini married Marcy Wudarski in March 1999, and they divorced in December 2002.

James Gandolfini previously lived in New York City and owned a piece of land on the Lake Manitoba Narrows in Canada, then moved to a 34-acre property in Chester Township, New Jersey.

James Gandolfini had been planning to travel to Sicily a few days later to receive an award at the Taormina Film Fest.

In 2014, James Gandolfini was posthumously inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

In 2024, in the weeks leading up to the release of his longtime passion project Megalopolis, Francis Ford Coppola revealed to Rolling Stone that James Gandolfini gave him a lot of great suggestions for the film back when he read for the role of Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who was ultimately portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito, back when Coppola did a reading of an early draft in 2001.