Ciao Tony (Soprano)

[TravelGal]

Gosh, sad news that James Gandolfini dead today in Italy. Apparently of a heart attack. Only 51. :(

[KLang]

RIP :(

[dando]

Jeebus. One too many sausages I guess. RIP. :(

-Kevin

[nrc]

Speaking as a 51 year old man - that sucks. RIP

[Andrew Longman]

I assume this is also a reminder that no matter how successful or well off you are to get checked out regularly. Not every heart attack is avoidable but some are and wealth has little to do with it.

I also saw him last year and thought he looked a lot older than 50 and much heavier than I remembered.

Too bad. He was a great ambassador for the state and Rutgers and a caring guy.

[SteveH]

Sad news. Really sad news.

[Napoleon]

He was a great ambassador for the state . . . .

You do realize he played a NJ mobster on TV, don't you?

Sorry to say I never saw an episode of the Saprano's, but he was good in other things I saw him in (and interesting in interview).

RIP

(oh and at 5 months younger then me, yes he is way to young to go).

[SteveH]

Nappy, the Sopranos are must see for several reasons, not just for Gandolfini's character but that might be enough. I'm pretty sure I'm going to revisit the series on DVD at some point. Just need to find the time.

[Al Czervik]

Hard to believe that no one has mentioned

[dando]

Who cares what he played on screen? It's not like NJ, NYC or Chitown can hide from the past or present. It's part of the fabric of life in those areas. Just ask Jimmy Hoffa...oh, they still can't find him. :gomer: :saywhat:

Also, you can't gauge Gandolfini's work w/o watching the Soprano's, and I don't mean the edited version that airs on cable now. That show was ground breaking in many ways.

-Kevin

[Insomniac]

I was surprised he was only 51. RIP.

[Napoleon]

Awesome - at the house in NJ that they used on TV as Tony's house someone left an uncooked bag of ziti, and at the place they filmed the last scene of the series they put a reserved sign on Tony's table.

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/entertainment/gandolfini-mourned-in-njs-sopranos-towns

[dando]

Awesome - at the house in NJ that they used on TV as Tony's house someone left an uncooked bag of ziti, and at the place they filmed the last scene of the series they put a reserved sign on Tony's table.

http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/entertainment/gandolfini-mourned-in-njs-sopranos-towns

The strip club where they filmed Bada-Bing scenes also has a small shrine where Tony sat.

-Kevin

[Napoleon]

The strip club . . . also has a small shrine where Tony sat.

There is a joke in there but I will let someone like Chop make it.

[Gnam]

I remember him in Crimson Tide. At the end, when everyone has their guns drawn he's the only one smiling. Very unsettling.

[Andrew Longman]

Nap, first Jersey isn't any more ashamed of mob members than they are of crooked Wall Street bankers or its dysfunctional government. Everybody has warts. Some of us just dress better.

Second Tony Soprano wasn't just a mobster, he was also another suburban NJ dad who had to get his kid to football practice, raise a teenage daughter, fight traffic, and deal with nutty relatives. Galdofini grew up in the Jersey experience and knew how to play it.

Amazingly if you saw him Pelham123 playing NYC mayor or in Zero Dark Thirty as Panetta you saw him completely differently. He was a very gifted actor.

But he also was involved in all sorts of great causes and was never shy about being from Jersey.

[SteveH]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-james-gandolfini-20130620,0,3331908.story

An excellent tribute.


Of course, not every Meisner actor can do what Gandolfini could. Plenty of actors have rage down cold. A smaller group knows how to be lovable. Very, very few can play at the outer limits of both those extremes, allowing for a character who evokes terror in the viewer, even as she would enjoy taking him out for coffee.

Gandolfini's range was astonishingly broad and flexible; perhaps even peerlessly so among his generation of American actors. In a single episode of "The Sopranos," he could easily go from the gentle family man, puffed up with twinkly pride at his daughter's little achievements, to a cold-blooded killer with dead eyes and lips smiling at the smell of blood. How did I miss this particular trait in that preceding scene?, we all used to think every week, marveling in our living rooms at the drastic change in this hypnotic character. Well, we missed it, time and again, because Gandolfini proffered truth as the changing circumstances of life demand.

[Napoleon]

A Jersey boy's tribute (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bruce-springsteen-dedicates-born-to-run-to-james-gandolfini-onstage-20130621)