Posted on 06/19/2013 7:21:08 PM PDT by Justaham
James Gandolfini, the heavyweight actor who won multiple Emmy Awards for his role as mob boss Tony Soprano in the smash HBO series, died today.
HBO confirmed his death. He was 51.
Gandolfini suffered a heart attack in Italy. He was due to appear at the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily this weekend.
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You make good points. But, how many overweight people are ‘aerobically active?” My father had a heart attack about this age, though he was a heavy smoker. He SURVIVED, FYI, but had to quit smoking per doctor’s orders. My grandfather also had a heart attack about this age. I did not think of this, but you are correct on that.
Guess I’m screwed! Though I don’t smoke.
They day every day is a a gift. Why do I keep getting sox?
Tony Soprano
He was of the left wing....not sure about his religious beliefs. RIP for him and the other approximately 150 thousand who die each day here on earth.
Yeah, but in YOUR day, people had CHILDREN, not the 1.8 per couple today. I know, because my parent’s families consisted of 19 children combined. Their graduating classes were huge!
RIP. I must enjoyed the Soprano’s early seasons before the break became excessively long. I see he leaves behind a daughter born to he and his wife just last October. Sad for her.
Gandolfini is on the left. On the right is Tony Sirico (Paulie).
Yet, Billy Jeff still lives. How is that possible? Oh, yeah. Faustian bargain.
Great advice. Except I’d add magnesium, potassium and vitamin E for proper heart health.
Re photo: Your son, the one in the middle, looks like Glenn Beck to me in that photo.
He was very left wing.
Has anyone mentioned the 4 US troops that were killed in the last few days?
I would have liked to see a story about them and their families and how they sacrificed for us.
They were not making a million dollars an episode.
God Bless Our Troops.
I’m pinging him to this thread. You’re not the only one who has noticed the resemblance but he doesn’t see it.
There were 238 in my class.
I was with my family watching the hockey game when my mom saw the news on the Drudge Report. Her gasp was such that my brother feared it was our cancer-stricken uncle that died.
RIP
Crappy ending for Mr. Gandolfini, just like it was a crappy ending to the Sopranos (oh I’m sorry I meant “brilliant” that lazy ending was “brilliant”)
His poor son found his dad barley alive.
I been watching the reruns on HBO for a few weeks now.
I saw them when it originally was made and shown 1999 to the end.
Soprano was a somewhat complex sympathetic character in the first few seasons with a conscience. But toward the end they had him losing it and he became just another no-self controlled bully as Pauli had always been.(Beating up on civilians for little reason)
By the end I wanted him shot but more-so I wanted someone to beat the living daylights out of that asswipe Pauli and when he made it untouched I was disappointed.
After the last season was over I realized that none of the main characters had any redeeming qualities.
Meadow was sweet though. The only one I would have liked to have got to know. Great looking too.
I picked up the first three seasons on DVD sets. Was watching it real time as well.
What I realized was that they were making the audience feel sympathetic towards a criminal who could order people to be murdered, who dealt in just plain nasty business.
It was actually quite skillfully done; you see the main character with the psychiatrist, pouring out his problems, etc., his “normal” family life - hey, he’s just a Jersey guy who loves his wife and kids, after all (except for the multiple affairs with his girlfriends) - who goes to work every day to provide for his family; now, the fact that that “providing” involved murder, narcotics, prostitution, etc., never mind - they made you overlook all that find a reason to like the guy.
Sort of like how in “Angels With Dirty Faces” form the 30s you liked Cagney’s character, even though he was a crook. But back then, “crime doesn’t pay” was the message - as he was going to the electric chair; you knew that’s where it would end up.
Now, in this time and era, evidently, crime DOES pay, is the message, and not does it pay, it pays well.
To Jim Gandolfini’s credit, he played the part well and OWNED it - and that is what every actor strives for.
His other movie and TV roles are what they are, but like Stallone with his Rocky/Rambo characters, Travolta with Vinnie Barbarino and Saturday Nite Fever, Jim Gandolfini will ALWAYS be Tony Soprano to folks, because that is where his on-screen impact was made on hearts and minds.
Sorry to lose him at such a young age. He appeared to be a really decent guy. Prayers out for his family.
He was a good actor, no doubt.
I don’t know if the message was crime pays. Yeah they made a lot of money, and had to always fear the cops, and rivals, and even allies. They’re constantly going to jail or getting killed. Especially when you get all the way through season 6, if you take the most common interpretation of the ending then the only survivors from Tony’s mob family are Paulie and Sil, and Sil’s in a coma not expected to recover, and Paulie had done jail time and was now in charge of the “unlucky” crew whose top guy has had a life expectancy of about a year. Really not much pay when you get down to it.
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