However, Gandolfini, while he portrays Tony Soprano with near perfection and is rarely associated with any other role, has led a wide and varied acting career in both film and television, although most of his characters have been of the menacing nature (think crime boss, pornographer, hitman, mob leader and enforcer, stuntman, etc.), sometimes mixed with a hint of conscientiousness, honor, and attempts at reconciliation. Some of his other notable roles were in the films True Romance, Get Shorty, 8mm, and The Mexican.

Gandolfini was born on September 18, 1961, in Westwood, New Jersey, growing up in Park Ridge. He was born into an Italian American family, and his most famous character is also Italian-American. He attended New Jersey’s Rutgers University, where he graduated with a bachelor of arts in communications, and also developed an interest in acting while living in New York City.

His first major role was as Virgil, a brutal and violent mob leader who beat women, in Quentin Tarantino’s 1993 thriller True Romance, a film which showcased many big-name actors, including Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt, Christopher Walken, and Samuel L Jackson. In 1995, Gandolfini landed two prominent roles: as a lieutenant in Crimson Tide, alongside Denzel Washington, Gene Hackman, and Viggo Mortensen, and as a bodyguard, Bear, in Get Shorty, co-starring John Travolta, Hackman again, Rene Russo, and Danny DeVito. The following year he played mob-leader-with-a-conscience Eddie on The Juror, with Demi Moore and Alec Baldwin in the lead roles.

Gandolfini portrayed a character named Eddie again in 1999, in the critically acclaimed 8mm, but this time Eddie was a disturbing pornographer, the antagonist opposite Nicholas Cage’s character. Other films of Gandolfini’s include The Mexican in 2001, The Last Castle in 2001, Surviving Christmas in 2004, and All the King’s Men in 2006.

That same year in 1999, Gandolfini landed his most critically acclaimed and famous role to date, that of Mafia ringleader (as well as unfaithful husband and inconsistent father) Tony Soprano on the hit HBO mob series The Sopranos. Co-stars include and have included Edie Falco, who plays his wife Carmela; Michael Imperioli; Lorraine Bracco; Steve Van Zandt; Tony Sirico; Robert Iler; Jamie Lynn DiScala, also known by her maiden name Jamie Lynn Sigler; Dominic Chianese; and Drea de Matteo; among others.

YUDDY