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R.I.P. JAMES GANDOLFINI (1961 - 2013)

“How could guys like us worry about a tiny thing like the sun?”

If any actor could have rested comfortably on his laurels early on, it was James Gandolfini, who passed away in Italy today at the age of 51. His work on “The Sopranos” came to define the otherwise minor character actor so quickly and wholly that he seemed destined to live out the remainder of his career being typecast—he slid so comfortably into the role of Tony Soprano, embodying the New Jersey gangster in the popular imagination, that it was hard to imagine him breaking free from that filmography-eclipsing preconception. He offered us a recognizable, relatable narrative: an actor struggles for years to make it big in Hollywood only to be embraced by television when success never pans out. It didn’t make sense for the script to change.

But much as David Chase refused a tidy ending with the series finale of “The Sopranos”, so too did Gandolfini rewrite the ending of his illustrious career in television: instead of receding into gangland obscurity, become just another second-rate Pacino primed for mafia pictures on a budget, he continued to challenge both himself and our perception of him, taking on increasingly difficult roles with fervor and audacity. Perhaps we should have anticipated it: his performance in the Coens’ wildly underrated “The Man Who Wasn’t There”, which finds him playing a sleazy businessman and enemy to Billy Bob Thorton’s hapless barber protagonist, seems in retrospect like a concerted attempt to reconfigure his public image as his TV epic was reaching the peak of its popularity. Even when it made the most sense for him to stick to what he knew, Gandolfini wanted risks. It was a tendency he would return to again and again.

OUR FAREWELL TO JAMES GANDOLFINI CONTINUES ON FILM.COM

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(Source: djisbak)