James Joseph Gandolfini Jr. started his acting career with small film roles and Broadway’s ‘A Streetcar Named Desire.’
Gandolfini’s role as a contract-killer in the romantic-thriller ‘True Romance’ fetched him a lot of attention. His subsequent roles in ‘Terminal Velocity’ (1994), ‘Crimson Tide’ (1995), ‘Get Shorty’ (1995), ‘The Juror’ (1996), ‘She is So Lovely’ (1997), and the TV-film ‘12 Angry Men’ (1997) brought appreciation.
Gandolfini’s portrayal of mobster ‘Tony Soprano’ in the crime-drama series ‘The Sopranos’ (1999-2007) won him huge acclaim and awards. His portrayal of the gay-killer in ‘The Mexican’ (2001) earned awards. He next appeared in ‘The Man Who Wasn’t There’ (2001), ‘The Last Castle’ (2001), and ‘Romance & Cigarettes’ (2006).
Documentary ‘Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq’ (2007), which Gandolfini produced along with a TV-channel, fetched nominations. After earning a nomination for Broadway’s ‘The God Of Carnage’ (2009), he featured in ‘The Taking of Pelham 123’ (2009), ‘Welcome to the Rileys’ (2010), and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ (2012).
Gandolfini’s 2010 documentary ‘Wartorn: 1861-2010,’ and ‘Hemingway & Gellhorn’ (2012) (as executive producer) received good reviews, with nominations for the latter.
His performances in romantic-comedy ‘Enough Said’ (2013), and crime-film ‘The Drop’ (2014), which were released posthumously, earned acclaim and also, awards for the first one.