39 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.

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

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

James Gandolfini's mother, Santa, was a high school food service worker of Italian descent who was born in the United States and raised in Naples.

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

James Gandolfini grew up in Park Ridge, New Jersey, and graduated from Park Ridge High School in 1979, where he played basketball, acted in school plays, and was awarded the title "Class Flirt" in his senior yearbook.

James Gandolfini earned a BA in Communications from Rutgers University-New Brunswick in 1983, where he worked as a bouncer at an on-campus pub.

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

James Gandolfini was introduced to acting while living in New York City, when he accompanied his friend Roger Bart to a Meisner technique acting class.

James Gandolfini studied for two years under Kathryn Gately at The Gately Poole Conservatory.

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.

Chase, in a 2013 interview with The Guardian, stated James Gandolfini stopped and left in the middle of his audition before finishing it in his garage later that night.

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, appearing in Broadway's God of Carnage with Marcia Gay Harden, Hope Davis, and Jeff Daniels.

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.

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 lived in New York City and owned a piece of land on the Lake Manitoba Narrows.

James Gandolfini lived on a 34-acre property in Chester Township, New Jersey.

James Gandolfini died suddenly at the age of 51 in Rome on June 19,2013.

James Gandolfini was expected to travel to Sicily a few days later to receive an award at the Taormina Film Fest.

The day after James Gandolfini's death, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which has long featured Sopranos co-star Steven Van Zandt on guitar, dedicated a performance of their classic album Born to Run by doing a rendition for James Gandolfini.

James Gandolfini was cremated, with his ashes given to his family.

Jonze and James Gandolfini had previously worked together on Where the Wild Things Are.

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