I was never a fan of The Sopranos, having watched 10 minutes of an episode and got turned off by the abundant use of the F-word as punctuation.
Nevertheless, it’s still shocking to learn of Gandolfini’s death from a heart attack. Crikey! He was only 51 years old.
Nikki Finke and Nellie Andreeva report for Dateline.com, June 19, 2013:
Actor James Gandolfini died suddenly after a suspected heart attack while on holiday in Rome to attend the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily. He was 51. Gandolfini will be forever known for his portrayal of mob boss Tony Soprano on the seminal HBO series The Sopranos, which won him three Emmy Awards. [...]
Overweight, balding, rough around the edges with a thick New Jersey accent, Gandolfini was the opposite of a marquee leading man, destined to be a character actor, and yet he proved through his masterful acting that he could make Tony Soprano sexy and smart, towering and powerful. his portrayal was one of TV’s largest-looming TV anti-heroes — the schlub we loved, the cruel monster we hated, the anxiety-ridden husband and father we wanted to hug when he bemoaned, “I’m afraid I’m going to lose my family. [...]
Born in 1961 in Westwood, New Jersey, Gandolfini’s official bio says the Rutgers graduate spent years as a Manhattan bouncer and nightclub manager. He discovered his lifelong profession in the late 1980s when a friend took him to an acting class. He and made his Broadway debut in the 1992 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire with Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange. [...]
Gandolfini’s death at 51 is a reminder to us that life is fleeting.
Use your time well, for we will be asked by our Lord what use we made of the time He’d given us. (Matthew 25:14-30)
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” – Gandalf, LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring
~Eowyn