When James Gandolfini died of a center attack on June 19, 2013, his sudden passing shocked and saddened the globe. That the Emmy-winning role player died while on vacation in Italian republic was beside the bespeak at the time, more a logistical and diplomatic pain than anything else, just it is even so a noteworthy detail in his biography given his heritage and greatest accomplishments.

Gandolfini grew up in New Jersey decades before condign one of its most iconic stars

For the better part of the 2000s, Gandolfini was 1 of the most decorated and love Television and picture show actors in the state. Starring as beleaguered mob boss Tony Soprano in the drama The Sopranos, Gandolfini helped usher in the era of prestige television with a nuanced performance that transformed the tired mobster archetype into an empathetic, three-dimensional figure.

He was particularly dear in his dwelling state of New Bailiwick of jersey, where The Sopranos was ready and Gandolfini helped to bring new notoriety.

Gandolfini was built-in to Italian immigrant parents in Westwood, New Bailiwick of jersey and grew up in the town of Park Ridge, both in Bergen County, just across the river from New York City. He was both an athlete and theater kid, playing basketball in high school and starring in student productions such equally Arsenic and Old Lace and Tin can-Can. When Gandolfini graduated from Park Ridge High School, he was voted 1 of 2 senior grade flirts.

After high school, he attended Rutgers University, the state university of New Jersey. He didn't frequently do interviews at the height of his fame, but during one of his conversations with a long-fourth dimension Star-Ledger reporter, the player fondly recalled beingness nervous virtually attending — and paying for — college before settling in at the school's New Brunswick campus.

"Then I got there, and I thought, jeeze, 50,000 18-year-olds in one place – what the hell was I lament most?" Gandolfini said. "This is corking. I was effectually a lot of fun people and I had a ball. I had more fun than somebody probably should have."

In New York, Gandolfini discovered his love for theater

Afterwards graduating with a degree in English language literature and communications in 1983, Gandolfini moved across the river to Manhattan, unsure of what he'd do next. He worked equally a bouncer, bartender and nightclub manager; he fifty-fifty started his own club called Private Eyes. That could have been a viable career, only at 25, he went to an acting class with a friend and found himself enthralled with performing on the phase.

Several years of intensive report came next, followed by roles in obscure off-Broadway shows made possible by working other jobs during the daytime. Gandolfini'southward big break came nearly a decade later, in 1992, when he was bandage in a Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' classic drama A Streetcar Named Desire alongside co-stars Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange. Enough of grapheme roles followed over the side by side six years, including parts in True Romance, Blood-red Tide, Get Shorty and The Juror.

Gandolfini often played tough guys and mobsters, which gear up him upwards for the role that would change his life and television receiver altogether.

The cast of "The Sopranos": (L-R) Tony Sirico, Steve Van Zandt, James Gandolfini, Michael Imperioli, Vincent Pastore

The cast of "The Sopranos": (Fifty-R) Tony Sirico, Steve Van Zandt, James Gandolfini, Michael Imperioli, Vincent Pastore; Photo: Getty Images

'The Sopranos' was an instant sensation

The Sopranos hit the airwaves in 1999 and revived a mobster drama genre that had strayed since the heights of the first two Godfather movies. Tony Soprano is a capo, or enforcer, of the DiMeo crime family unit in New Jersey. At that place is no hiding or saccharide blanket his brutal deportment — they make up the bulk of his chore — but he's likewise sincerely focused on his married woman Carmela, kids and mother, all of whom control his life in a way that mirrors the control he has out on the streets.

Gandolfini was able to humanize an instinctively trigger-happy and not infrequently depraved graphic symbol past devoting himself fully to the craft — practicing the Meisner method, he would often stay up tardily at night to deprive himself of sleep and find other ways to aggravate himself before shooting a particular scene.

Some of his most memorable interactions on the evidence were with his psychiatrist, Dr. Melfi, who helped Tony explore the anxiety, depression and damage underlying his mood swings and violence. He was, similar so many others, a working guy merely trying to make a living for his family in a complicated globe.

"I retrieve those scenes fabricated the show," he once said. "They were kind of like the ancient Greek chorus, which allowed the audience to feel what the character was experiencing. I think these scenes let you into Tony'due south head, bringing him a little closer to the audience."

The bear witness wrapped after half dozen seasons and 83 episodes, for which Gandolfini won three Emmy Awards and a number of other honors. Its 2007 finale is still one of the well-nigh hotly debated episodes of TV in history, with an ambiguous catastrophe that fit a complicated character.

"He was a genius," Sopranos creator David Hunt said in 2013. "Anyone who saw him fifty-fifty in the smallest of his performances knows that. He is one of the greatest actors of this or whatsoever time. A bang-up deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes. I remember telling him many times, 'You don't get it. You lot're like Mozart."

As Gandolfini's star grew, he earned more prominent movie roles, which he made his focus after ending his run every bit Tony Soprano. Some of his most memorable flick performances came in hits such every bit the satire In The Loop, the Oscar-winning Zilch Night Thirty, and the romantic dramedy Enough Said.

Directed by Nicole Holofcener and co-starring Emmy-winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Plenty Said showcased Gandolfini'due south comedic talents and earned him critical acclaim when it was released — three months after his passing.

James Gandolfini with his wife Deborah Lin and son, Michael, at the premiere of "IRIS - A Journey Through the World of Cinema" on September 25, 2011, in Hollywood, California

James Gandolfini with his wife Deborah Lin and son, Michael, at the premiere of "IRIS - A Journey Through the World of Cinema" on September 25, 2011, in Hollywood, California; Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images

Gandolfini was exploring his roots in Italy when he passed away

In June 2013, the actor set up off to visit Italy. Invited to the Taormina Movie Festival to receive a special honor, Gandolfini decided to set off early and reconnect with his heritage; his parents emigrated from Italy and had brought him back to visit regularly as a kid.

This time, he took his own family on the trip, and according to the director of the Taormina Film Festival, they were having a "marvelous" fourth dimension in Rome. His son, Michael, had just finished his junior high school and won a soccer title, making information technology an accommodating celebratory excursion.

On June 19, at around 10 pm, Michael found Gandolfini passed out on the floor of their room at the Hotel Exedra.

"The family had a marvelous day together, and when he returned to the hotel Jimmy [Gandolfini] went to the bathroom and that is when something happened," his assistant, Tom Richardson, told The Hollywood Reporter.

The thirteen-year-old called the reception desk-bound for help, and when workers failed to revive him, an ambulance was called. Gandolfini was alive when he was taken to the Policlinico Umberto I hospital at around ten:40, but he died before long afterwards his arrival.

An autopsy subsequently confirmed that Gandolfini had suffered a major heart attack, cutting his life short at just 51-years-quondam, robbing his family of a loving father and the earth of a major talent.

A few months later his death, in December 2013, a street in his native Park Ridge, near the diner where he used to eat with his friends and family, was renamed in Gandolfini'south honor.