James Gandolfini

Multiple Emmy winner James Gandolfini labored for years as a character actor before becoming a leading man in 1999 when he landed the role of the patriarch of the supremely dysfunctional Soprano family in HBO's hit TV series.

Born Sept. 18, 1961, in Westwood, N.J., Gandolfini set out for New York City in 1983 to study at the Actors Studio. After working nearly a decade as a bartender, Gandolfini got his big break in 1992 when he appeared opposite Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange in a Broadway production of "A Streetcar Named Desire" and made his big-screen debut in A Stranger Among Us. Roles in films such as Terminal Velocity (1994), Crimson Tide (1995) and Get Shorty (1995) followed.

During his run on "The Sopranos," Gandolfini has continued to appear in movies, including 2001's The Mexican, The Man Who Wasn't There (2001), The Last Castle (2001) and Lonely Hearts (2006).

Filmography