It's been a long time since I posted on the BB, but this news was shocking to me, as I'm sure it was for everyone. I've always felt Tony Soprano was the best of the fictional gangsters, no disrespect to Pacino and DeNiro. I just thought Tony Soprano was the best. Too young too die... wow.

R.I.P. James, a true icon

R.I.P.James Joseph Gandolfini ,you was a great actor,you did very good movies, you were also very funny in Romance and Cigarettes.
You'll miss to you,Tony

By brother sent me a text about this last night. I couldn't believe it. Why couldn't it be some no talent hack instead of Tony friggin' Soprano?

gandolfini was also in crimson tide with denzel washington.

“There's an old Italian saying: you f--k up once, you lose two teeth.”

always makes me smile

Great actor...even away from Tony

really sad.... especially for his children

CNN had a segment this morning on Gandolfini. The ice cream shop that was the diner in which the last scene of the last episode was filmed, was packed last night. The owners of that diner put a "reserved" sign on the booth in which Tony/Carmela were sitting. Plus, HBO announced as a tribute to Gandolfini, they will re-run the Sopranos, though I don't know when.

Btw, didn't realize JG played Leon Panetti in Zero Dark Thirty.



TIS

A sad day and a great loss. The Sopranos literally re-invented television, and without Gandolfini there would have been no Sopranos. He was way too young to die. RIP.

An article with some messages from costars - http://www.today.com/entertainment/sopra...ctor-6C10387812

WOW something on which everyone agrees!

i just realized that if one removes some of the letters from gandolfinis's name it spells gandalf another great character who has been in both the lord of the rings and the hobbit.
it is sad when actor's pass away young. i don't know if there are any babylon 5 fans here but michael o'hare who played commander sinclair also passed away from a heart attack. on a final note i lost my mom to cancer this february.

i did hear last night that gandolfini was going to be working on another hbo series before his death.

R.I.P. Jimmy we will miss you

Sorry to hear about your mum bro that's brutal. Just pointing out you would need an extra a to spell Gandalf lol. I'm not a Babylon 5 fan but another actor who died of a heart attack was John Spencer who played Leo in The West Wing who was one of my favourite characters i think he was only late 50s.

Shaun Mader/PatrickMcMullan.com
James Gandolfini on June 10, just 10 days before the "Sopranos" star suffered a fatal heart attack in Italy.
Doctors in Italy battled for 40 minutes to save the life of James Gandolfini, the burly actor best known for his Emmy-winning role as a mob boss in the TV series "The Sopranos," before pronouncing him dead on Wednesday at age 51.
Gandolfini, whose performance as Tony Soprano made him a household name and ushered in a new era of American television drama, was vacationing in Rome and had been scheduled to attend the closing of the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily on Saturday.

Shocking and sad for his family and closest friends. Such a young man.

I can't help but think of the many hours spent here reading over The Sopranos boards when the show was in its first run. Alot of predictions, great insight, and fun

DMF

Very sad to hear. RIP

Very sad to hear. RIP

James Gandolfini: As Important As Brando in the Firmament of Fictional Mafia Bosses
Howard Barbanel
June 20, 2013


We now know how The Sopranos really ends -- Tony is taken out by the big capo di tutti capi in the sky. The series finale was left ambiguous but the boss of bosses up above doesn't go for unresolved endings, so ascending to heaven is New Jersey native James Gandolfini, who at 51 definitely went way before his time.

Gandolfini generally played heavies in film and television not because he was a big guy but because he was a heavyweight actor. The hugeness of his screen presence was most significantly manifested in his eight-year portrayal of Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano. The Sopranos created a new paradigm for dramatic television and made HBO must-see TV. Gandolfini's work was recognized by his peers by repeatedly winning the prime-time Emmy award for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series along with similar honors from the Screen Actors Guild. He also took home awards from the Golden Globes and the American Film Institute, and was nominated just about every year that he didn't win.

The Sopranos, and Gandolfini's role as Tony, was every bit as important to the oeuvre of American mafia celluloid fiction as were Marlon Brando's Don Corleone and Al Pacino as Michael in The Godfather. Aside from that Coppola epic, The Sopranos probably had the most impact on American popular culture as it relates to Italian-American gangsters. Gandolfini was brilliant as Tony Soprano precisely because he seemed to embody and then channel his New Jersey Italian ethnicity thoroughly and completely.

Millions would tune in on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. to learn sage advice on how to run a complex business organization, how to manage recalcitrant personnel, how to fend-off federal regulators (in the form of law enforcement) and how to deal with high levels of stress. It was the quintessential primer on executive management tips for the new millennium. On the home front, Tony faced all the same frustrations and temptations as most middle-aged, upper-middle class men with the caveat that he acted upon the deeply repressed impulses of so many guys living lives of quiet desperation and in so doing served as a vicarious release for male frustration and aggression no less important than that offered by professional football earlier on any given Sunday. That Tony got away with most of it was part of the allure of his character. Gandolfini brought infinite layers of complexity and nuance to a role that is most often either played overly simplistically or for laughs.

Gandolfini's untimely departure is like that of John Lennon or Jim Morrison. There would never be a Beatles reunion after December 1980 or any real performances by The Doors after July 1971 and so The Sopranos can never rise again without the anchoring presence of the Sopranos' paterfamilias.

For those of us born between 1957 and 1963, Gandolfini's tragic early death is a loud knock on our late-40s and early-50-something doors. It is a signal that our lives, no matter how accomplished, are not infinite and our youth fleeting. To Gandolfini's family, friends and colleagues, a big-hearted guy will now leave a gaping hole by his disappearance.

Even in reruns, The Sopranos is one of the best shows on TV. It always seems fresh and vibrant even if you've seen that particular episode a half dozen times. That's partly a testament to James Gandofini who gave a performance for the ages on a par with Brando. Thanks, Mr. Gandofini, for making many a Sunday night so meaningful. We wish you Godspeed and a great seat in heaven's Bada-Bing.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/howard-barbanel/james-gandolfini-as-impor_b_3469635.html

RIP, he was a great actor.

“He was a genius. Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time. A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes. I remember telling him many times, ‘You don’t get it. You’re like Mozart.” There would be silence at the other end of the phone. For Deborah Lin, Michael and Liliana this is crushing. And it’s bad for the rest of the world. He wasn’t easy sometimes. But he was my partner, he was my brother in ways I can’t explain and never will be able to explain.”

- David Chase (Creator)


"I am shocked and devastated by Jim's passing. He was a man of tremendous depth and sensitivity, with a kindness and generosity beyond words. I consider myself very lucky to have spent 10 years as his close colleague. My heart goes out to his family as those of us in his pretend one hold on to the memories of our intense and beautiful time together. The love between Tony and Carmela was one of the greatest I've ever known.

- Edie Falco (Carmela)


"I had the greatest sparring partner in the world, I had Muhammad Ali," ... "He cares what he does, and does it extremely well. ‘We lost a giant today. I am utterly heartbroken."

- Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Melfi)


"Jimmy treated us all like family with a generosity, loyalty and compassion that is rare in this world. Working with him was a pleasure and a privilege. I will be forever grateful having had a friend the likes of Jimmy.

- Michael Imperioli (Chris)


"Fughedabout losing one of the best actors of our time... we lost so much more. Anyone from the Soprano family will tell you he was one of the most generous, real and humble human beings ever...with a presence that could shatter planets when he walked into a room. A King through n through. So very sorry for his family."

- Drea de Matteo (Adriana)


"The only image I had was standing and watching him, like watching the water flow. He was that easy, that focused, that real," ... "It wasn't like we were acting."

- Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior)


"I've not only lost a great friend, but a true brother, on screen and off. James was the most generous actor to work with, but more so, a man with a heart of gold."

- Aida Turturro (Janice)


"Jimmy was one of my closest friends in life. He helped me with my career as well as my personal life," ... "We visited troops together in Iraq and became very close. He will be missed and I love him."

- Tony Sirico (Paulie)


"This is the loss of a glowing light, an instinctive actor and the type of person who you never got tired of talking to. Since 1998, my work with him grew into a second skin. The words in our scenes together would change but the mutual respect would never change."

- Vincent Curatola (Johnny Sac)


"We were enemies on screen, but pretty good friends off screen. Jim was a loving guy who just enjoyed life. It’s a sad and tragic thing that’s happened. I feel bad for his family. He always had something to say — you know how the guys are. It was a men’s club and everybody had a good time all the time. Jimmy was the perfect choice for Tony Soprano."

- Frank Vincent (Phil Leotardo)


"I have lost a brother and a best friend. The world has lost one of the greatest actors of all time. Maureen and I send our deepest sympathy and love to Deborah, Michael, Lily, and all of Jimmy's family."

- Steven Van Zandt (Silvio)


"He will now become even bigger in death than he was in life."

- Vincent Pastore (Big Pussy)


"I had to get up and leave. It was like being told a brother had died. Jimmy Gandolfini was as great a friend as he was an actor and a human being."

- Steve Schirripa (Bobby)


"I couldn’t have asked for any better actor or better gentleman to work with. His generosity was unmatched. He was always right there for me during the show. It was a head-spinning . . . experience for everyone, yet he always found the time for me and everyone on the cast."

- David Proval (Richie)


"Jimmy was very private. He didn’t like publicity, you know that. I loved him. We’re in shock."

- Joe Pantoliano (Ralph)


"James Gandolfini was one of the greatest actors of our time.... He was a really well-nuanced actor."

- Federico Castelluccio (Furio)


"Jimmy and I were not the closest of friends, but I am forever indebted to him. He came with his son and spoke at my wedding, came to my restaurant to meet fans sick as a dog in the rain and stayed for hours. He also said he would go in and talk to David Chase with me if I didn’t want to play my role on the show. Just a humble and gifted actor and person."

- Joseph Gannascoli (Vito)


"My heart is broken and my heart goes out to his family and his children. He was one of the most generous and supportive people I've ever known."

- John Ventimiglia (Artie)


"The news has left me heartbroken," ... "I can only imagine the pain his family feels at this time, and my heart goes out to them, especially Deborah, Michael, and Lilliana."

- Jamie Lynn Sigler (Meadow)


"I haven't cried in years and now I can't stop ... Please tell me this is all a bad dream ... I love you so much james and always will."

- Robert Iler (AJ)

Fans Gandolfini 'Put New Jersey on the Map'

Still shocked he's dead. Doesn't seem real

my friend Mario remarked to me that the great James Gandolfini, died while are giving on Italian television late in the evening, the sixth series in which Tony was struggling between life and death. I replied to him''Mario,ora sapim cà à vita è prop infam" (Mario, now we have the proof that life is really infamous).

i heard on the news that his son found him unconscious and he was given medical treatment but pronounced dead at the hospital. sad news.

The piece-of-shit rag, New York Post, has reported that Gandolfini had gone on a drinking and eating binge shortly before his death.

Damn shame. Far to young....

RIP

Nothing they print surprises me anymore.

Agreed the Post is a shit rag. Let the man die with some dignity. What the hell did he ever to to the Post?