{"id":29004,"date":"2013-06-19T21:12:57","date_gmt":"2013-06-20T01:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=29004"},"modified":"2013-06-19T21:31:48","modified_gmt":"2013-06-20T01:31:48","slug":"james-gandolfini-51","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2013\/06\/19\/james-gandolfini-51\/","title":{"rendered":"James Gandolfini, 51"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"james_gandolfini2\"<\/a> While he might have received international acclaim for his role as Tony Soprano in the HBO television series, The Sopranos<\/strong>, James Gandolfini had an over twenty-year career on stage and on screens both big and small. The actor died today while on vacation in Italy of an apparent heart attack.<\/p>\n

Gandolfini was born in Westwood, NJ to an Italian immigrant father and an Italian- American mother. He was working as a bouncer and a bar manager in New York City when he decided to pursue acting. The first work that got him notice on the Broadway stage was a supporting role in 1992’s A Streetcar Named Desire,<\/strong> which also starred Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange. He would recreate Rod Steiger’s role of Charley in\u00a0<\/strong>1995’s short-lived Broadway adaptation of On The Waterfront. <\/strong>He would return to the Broadway stage post-Sopranos\u00a0<\/strong>in 2009, originating the role of Michael in God of Carnage, <\/strong>a role that would be played by John C. Reilly in Roman Polanski’s 2011 film adaptation of the play,\u00a0Carnage.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

During his early career, Gandolfini would also play a number of supporting roles in feature films, usually as a corrupt cop, hired thug, hitman or mob enforcer in such films as True Romance, The Juror, <\/strong>and Get Shorty<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In 1999, David Chase promoted Gandolfini to crime boss in The Sopranos<\/strong>. Under Gandolfini, Tony Soprano became one of the most iconic characters in television history, a mob boss who seeks therapy to deal with his dysfunctional families at home and at work. The Sopranos <\/strong>would run for six season over eight years and garner the actor three Emmy Awards and one Golden Globe for his work on the series.<\/p>\n

Gandolfini parlayed his Sopranos <\/strong>fame into higher profile film work in movies such as The Mexican<\/strong>, The Last Castle<\/strong>, The Man Who Wasn’t There<\/strong>, and All the Kings Men<\/strong>. In his film work post-Sopranos<\/strong>, he was able to begin to move away from his typical gangster roles in films, playing such characters as\u00a0 a father of a aspiring rock star for his reunion with David Chase, 2012’s Not Fade Away<\/strong>, playing Leon Panetta in the Oscar-nominated Zero Dark Thirty<\/strong>, and, most recently, playing a casino owner in this year’s The Incredible Burt Wonderstone<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Gandolfini has two completed films set to be released in the near future: an as yet untitled film from Friends With Money<\/strong>‘s writer\/director Nicole Holofcener and the crime-drama Animal Rescue, <\/strong>which in post-production for a 2014 release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sopranos’ star dies of an apparent heart attack while vacationing in Italy.<\/div>\n

[click for more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[84,133],"tags":[1708,59],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-29004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-news","7":"category-obituary-news","8":"tag-james-gandolfini","9":"tag-obituary"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t