JAMES GANDOLFINI DIES IN ITALY
Since we dedicate a portion of this site to pop culture, this is something we have to make a comment on. James Gandolfini – who became a household name playing a semi sensitive, ruthless mobster with issues, Tony Soprano died this afternoon in Italy. The actor was there for the annual Taormina Film Festival in Sicily and was scheduled to participate in a few events there this weekend.
The cause of death was a heart attack. Gandolfini was 51.
Prior to “The Sopranos” the actor played roles in “Get Shorty”, “True Romance”, “The Mexican” and as of late, “Zero Dark Thirty”. The Sopranos only had a run of 86 episodes. Gandolfini played a complex character who had problems inside and outside of his two families. The mythical organized crime one that operaed out of Jersey and the family he was related to by blood.
Gandolfini won three Emmy’s during the program’s limited HBO schedule. The show later returned on reruns on Cable. Many people felt that after playing Tony Soprano, Gandolfini would be typecast. He was too good an actor for that.
This untimely death leaves us with the cruel irony that the show’s ending had people guessing whether its main character Tony Soprano died in the end. When the show ended in 2007, who would have dreamed that the actor who played him would be gone in less than a decade.