James Gandolini

There are actors whose career is marked by a memorable character, to which the viewer will inevitably associate him, by many other roles that he incorporates throughout his career. This is the case of James Gandolini, whose Tony Soprano, a contemporary gangster from New Jersey, who, apart from his dirty dealings, suffers from problems comparable to those of his contemporaries – a domineering mother, teenage children, a wife who is not comfortable with her role as mistress. home, depression and feeling of dissatisfaction…-, captivated the public.

Precisely James Gandolfini was also born, like Tony Soprano, in New Jersey, in Westwood, on September 18, 1961. Descendant of Italian emigrants, his parents were humble workers, his father was a bricklayer and sacristan of a Catholic church.

During his high school days, James played basketball and participated in plays with his classmates. He later earned a bachelor’s degree in art from Rutgers University’s School of Communication. As is typical among students, he combined his studies with various jobs, such as bartending. It would be in New York, in the company of his actor friend Roger Bart , when he attended acting classes.

His corpulent physique determined his acting career. He was not destined for leading man or hero characters, it seemed that his thing would always be secondary characters. An uncredited appearance in The Last Boy Scout (1991), minor roles in such titles as The Stranger Among Us (1992), Point Blank Love (1993), Terminal Velocity (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), How to Win Hollywood (1995 ), Night falls on Manhattan (1996). Without a doubt, Tony Scott and Sidney Lumet noticed something special in the actor to repeat with him. Even a Spaniard, Álex de la Iglesia, had the opportunity to work with Gandolfini in Perdita Durango (1997). In general, those thriller-type films, which required thugs or threatening types, counted on him, there are the judicial titles Coercion a jury (1996) and Civil action (1998), or the disturbing Murder in 8 mm (1999).

1999 is a vital year in Gandolfini’s career, as David Chase launches one of the most emblematic television series, the true bow of an entire golden age of small screen fiction. The adventures of The Sopranos are surprising for their contemporary vision of the gangster world, combining criminal issues with family problems had already been done by Francis Ford Coppola, but here the subject was given an inspired new twist. And for head of the clan an Apollonian type was not required, Gandolfini’s appearance and his acting skills, with that ironic smile, turned out to be ideal to compose Tony. His composition, in which he breathed into the character a folksy brutality not without sympathy, covered him with awards, the Golden Globe, the Emmys, the Screen Actors Guild award…

The other side of the coin of this success would be the typecasting, the impossibility of detaching himself from the type of characters that seemed to suit him best, gangsters, dubious politicians or the military. This is proven by his work in The Mexican (2001), The Man Who Was Never There (2001), The Last Fortress (2001), All the King’s Men (2006), Assault on the Pelham 123 Train (2009). Among his latest works, the darkest night (Zero Dark Thirty) and Mátalos suavemente , from 2012, but again with a secondary presence, stand out.

Gandolfini was married twice: from his first marriage he has a teenage son, who was the one who gave notice of his heart attack, and with his current partner he had a 9-month-old girl. Curiously, his death surprised him in the land of his ancestors, a few days before the homage they were going to pay him at the Taormina Festival.