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Chris Knipp
06-22-2013, 10:33 AM
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He died too young. He was a celebrated, very talented actor; his New Jersey accent and blend of joviality and menace unique. And he was a very good guy, as it turns out.

James Gandolfini, the celebrated actor best known for his role as mob boss Tony Soprano on the hit TV series, "The Sopranos," died Wednesday on vacation with his family in Rome at the age of 51. While coverage of his death has focused mainly on his acting career, little has been mentioned about the more political side of his work. In New York City, he was a beloved figure not only because of his acting on the stage and screen, but also because of his major support for community media and producing documentaries critical of war. In 2010, he produced the HBO film "Wartorn: 1861-2010" about post-traumatic stress disorder from the Civil War to Iraq and Afghanistan. He also conducted a series of in-depth interviews with U.S. soldiers wounded in the Iraq War for a 2007 HBO film, "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq." We speak to the films’ co-directors, Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill.

--Democracy Now! (June 21, 2013) See the segment online here.

NY Times obit (http://www.democracynow.org/2013/6/21/the_other_james_gandolfini_sopranos_actor) here (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/arts/television/james-gandolfini-sopranos-star-dies-at-51.html?ref=global-home&_r=0).

Some of his most notable screen or TV roles (from IMDb):


2012 Zero Dark Thirty
C.I.A. Director
2012 Not Fade Away
Pat
2012 Killing Them Softly
Mickey
2009 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Mayor
2009 In the Loop
Lt. Gen. George Miller
1999-2007 The Sopranos (TV series)
Tony Soprano
2006 All the King's Men
Tiny Duffy
2006 Lonely Hearts
Det. Charles Hilderbrandt
2005 Romance & Cigarettes
Nick Murder
2001 The Mexican
Winston Baldry
1998 A Civil Action
Al Love
1995 Get Shorty
Bear
1993 True Romance
Virgil

Broadway stage credits (which the Wikipedia biography (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gandolfini) currently omits) most notably included one of the four roles in Yasmina Reza's international hit, God of Carnage:

God of Carnage [Broadway]
Original Broadway Production, 2009
Michael
On the Waterfront [Broadway]
1995
Charley Malloy
A Streetcar Named Desire [Broadway]
Broadway Revival, 1992
Steve Hubbell

Johann
06-22-2013, 01:41 PM
He cared about the troops too.
BIG Loss.
He's an Icon.

His last film is scheduled for release next year.