James Gandolfini Dies At Age 51

Actor James Gandolfini has died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 51.



Gandolfini was on holiday in Rome, said Mara Mikialian, HBO’s vice president for program publicity. The actor was scheduled to make an appearance at the Taormina Film Fest in Sicily this week, according to the festival. Gandolfini won three Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Tony Soprano, the angst-ridden mob boss who visited a therapist and took Prozac while knocking off people. “The Sopranos” aired from 1999 to 2007. He got his start on Broadway, with a role in the 1992 revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire” with Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin. Gandolfini’s big screen debut came in the role of a heavy in the bloody “True Romance” in 1993. His breakthrough came on the small screen in 1999 with the role of Tony Soprano. “He was a genius. Anyone who saw him even in the smallest of his performances knows that,” David Chase, who developed “The Sopranos,” said in a statement. “…A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes.”