James Gandolfini Biography Published in Mr. Showbiz, October 2001 "I am still constantly surprised they didn't pick someone with a little more, I guess, marquee value." — James Gandolfini Before he landed the role of his career, as the conflicted, shrink-going, mother-hating New Jersey capo Tony Soprano on HBO's landmark series The Sopranos, James Gandolfini paid his showbiz dues as a series of thuggish lowlifes, rapists, and — but of course — gangsters. Sure, there were standouts in his pre-Sopranos oeuvre — such as his sadistic hit man Virgil in True Romance, who has a bloody one-on-one session with tougher-than-she-looks Patricia Arquette — but these roles barely distinguished him from such other stereotypically sadistic actors as Reservoir Dogs' Michael Madsen or Strange Days' Tom Sizemore. All that changed when The Sopranos debuted on HBO in 1999, and the balding, overweight Gandolfini found himself an unlikely sex symbol at the age of 38. "Usually, I'm raping women, not, you know, having them talk nicely about me," the sheepish actor told Entertainment Weekly. "It's not that Jim couldn't also be funny. But overall, he was just so powerful. He could be very menacing," Chris Albrecht, President of Original Programming for HBO, said of why the network and series creator David Chase chose Gandolfini as their leading man. Perhaps not since screen heavy Raymond Burr found fame as good-guy attorney Perry Mason in the 1960s has a TV role so rescued and revived an actor's career. Audiences, already weaned on the epic chronicles of Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather series, couldn't get enough of the show, or of Gandolfini. Every detail on the show became a cause for pop culture fetishism, especially the copious amounts of Italian food that were consumed and lines like "What? No f---in' ziti?" The first awards of his career started to come his way, with a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild award, and, after an initial snub, an Emmy. While critics hailed the show with declarations such as "it's the greatest work of art of the last quarter-century," Emmy voters were slower to respond to the edgy, violent show, which more than earned its "TV-MA" rating every week. When Gandolfini finally won the Emmy in 2000, he humbly said, in deference to frequent Emmy winner and rival nominee Dennis Franz, "I can't really explain this, except that I think the Academy has an affinity for slightly overweight, bald men ? excuse me, Mr. Franz." Of his upbringing in New Jersey, Gandolfini, the son of Italian immigrants, said to the London Times, "I was a bit wild, but hey, I didn't stab anyone." He graduated from Rutgers and went on to work as a bouncer and nightclub manager. After a friend invited him to attend an acting class in the late '80s, Gandolfini caught the acting bug and began studying at the Actors Studio in New York. He gained steady stage experience in a number of small venues, finally making his Broadway debut in a revival of A Streetcar Named Desire starring Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin. Gandolfini played Steve Hubbell, the Kowalski's upstairs neighbor, and also understudied the role of Blanche du Bois' suitor, Mitch. That same year, he made his film debut in director Sidney Lumet's A Stranger Among Us, which featured the unlikely premise of Melanie Griffith investigating a murder in a Hasidic community of Brooklyn. Typecasting quickly ensued for the bulky, intimidating actor, with roles as a hit man (True Romance), a mobster (Get Shorty), a drunken rapist (She's So Lovely), and — perhaps a career-low in sadism — his creepy pornographer in Joel Schumacher's 8MM. Occasionally, the actor got to showcase his softer side, as when he played Geena Davis' boyfriend in 1994's Angie, or in his role as a concerned father who begs lawyer John Travolta to represent him and his sick child against the corporation that polluted their water in 1998's A Civil Action. And — trivia alert — he played a cop in 1997's Night Falls on Manhattan, which also featured the future "Uncle Junior," Dominic Chianese, as a no-nonsense judge. After The Sopranos made him a wanted man, Gandolfini found himself working with such A-listers as Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt in the 2001 release The Mexican. The role subtly tweaked his now larger-than-life gangster persona, and, according to many a critic, he stole the film from his higher-paid, more photogenic stars. Later that year, he co-starred with screen icon Robert Redford in The Last Castle, as a cruel military prison commander who comes up against a formidable opponent in Redford's imprisoned general. "He's done some of my favorite movies of all time. I've always wanted to work with him," an intimidated Gandolfini told EW, pointing out that Redford, who has a shirtless scene in the film, is "in great shape, isn't he? And here I am, 20 years younger, and I look like a jelly donut in a camouflage outfit." In 2001, Gandolfini also top-lined the Coen brother's black-and-white ode to film noir, The Man Who Wasn't There as a department store manager trysting with the married Frances McDormand. The actor's busy schedule forced him to drop out of another high-profile project, Catch Me If You Can, which will star Leonardo DiCaprio, and be directed by Steven Spielberg. After Spielberg came on board the project, the role once earmarked for Gandolfini, that of an FBI agent on the trail of Leo's teenage con man, was reassigned to Tom Hanks. Although he is committed to The Sopranos through a planned fifth season, Gandolfini is reportedly tiring of his small-screen alter ego's violent ways. "I don't think I will do a Mafia character again," he was quoted as telling the London Telegraph in May of 2001. "I want to get away from the violence a little bit, because it is starting to bother me personally." — Sharon Knolle Copyright ©2001 Mr. Showbiz