James Gandolfini

James Joseph Gandolfini, Jr. (September 18, 1961 – June 19, 2013) was an American actor and producer.

Gandolfini was known for his role as Tony Soprano, an Italian American Mafia boss, in the HBO series The Sopranos. He garnered enormous praise for this performance, winning three Emmy Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and one Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series. His other notable roles included mob henchman Virgil in True Romance (1993), enforcer and stuntman Bear in Get Shorty (1995), impulsive "Wild Thing" Carol in Where the Wild Things Are (2009), and Albert in Enough Said (2013).

After finishing The Sopranos, Gandolfini produced the documentary Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq (2007), in which he interviewed injured Iraq War veterans. His second documentary, Wartorn: 1861–2010 (2010), analyzed the impact of posttraumatic stress disorder on soldiers and families throughout several wars in American history from 1861 to 2010.

Early life

Gandolfini was born in Westwood, New Jersey. His mother, Santa (née Penna), was a high school lunch lady who was born in the United States of Italian ancestry and raised in Naples. His father, James Joseph Gandolfini, Sr., was a native of Borgo Val di Taro who worked as a bricklayer and cement mason and later the head janitor at Paramus Catholic High School in New Jersey. James Sr. earned a Purple Heart in World War II. Gandolfini's parents were devout Roman Catholics and spoke Italian at home; due to the influence of his parents, he developed a strong sense of Italian American identity and visited Italy regularly. He had two sisters.