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That's a heartbreaker. I've often thought of 2009 as the year of Gandolfini because of his dynamic work in The Taking of Pelham 123, In the Loop, Where the Wild Things Are, and as part of the Broadway cast of God of Carnage (I've never seen anyone command the stage quite like him).

Damn, that's a tough one since not only was he such a good actor, but a very personable one.I wish we had had at least another decade of him.

Wow, that's a huge bummer. RIP.

Damn, it's been a while since we've had a shocker like this. Hope it's a long while til the next one too

This is beyond devastating - cannot recall the last death of a stranger that shook me up like this. I had been revisiting Sopranos lately, and in fact just the other day was thinking how Gandolfini there is probably my favorite performance by any actor, ever.

And only 51. With a one year old girl. Just sad all around.

As great as he was on the show, there are a lot of his performances in films of his that I'd put on that same level personally. He was utterly charming (and ultimately heartbreaking) in Night Falls On Manhattan. And of course his turn in True Romance, which played a big part in getting him the role that ultimately defined his work.

Really sad to hear about Gandolfini. Really talented actor that will be truly missed.

Should mention the good work he did producing the PTSD documentary on HBO he did a few years ago. Opened my eyes to how ravaging it can be to not just the person suffering it but the people around them as well.

38 years to the day after Sam Giancana was whacked.

Rufus T. Firefly wrote:38 years to the day after Sam Giancana was whacked.

Your point being?

He really sounds like a genuinely good man - everyone I know on FB who's met or worked with him has attested to that, not to mention all the remembrances online (check out NYMag, for starters).

The A.V. Club has a great look back at his career, and this was a nice tribute from the ice cream parlor where they filmed the very last scene of The Sopranos:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/savi ... Tx8ZMtn1nL" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Although The Sopranos pushed him to wider acclaim Gandolfini had some great character roles early on as flyonthewall points out. The Geena Davis-starring Angie is almost the ultimate cliché Italian-American New York love-triangle romance film with Gandolfini excellent as Davis's cuckolded husband (a character that I don't think the film really intends to come across as sympathetic as Gandolfini plays it. It makes an interesting comparison to the later Romance and Cigarettes). Naturally given the setting a number of actors later in The Sopranos turn up in Angie as well, in particular Aida Turturro and Michael Rispoli.

The Denzel Washington evil-spirit-jumping-from-body-to-body horror film Fallen features both Gandolfini and John Goodman amongst the Washington's cop entourage, and he was also part of the vibrant supporting cast in Alex de la Iglesia's deranged Perdita Durango/Dance With The Devil (strange how he shifted from generally being called on to play troubled cops to troubled criminals after The Sopranos!)

His turn in Killing Them Softly as the dissipated hitman is sublime. What a talent. RIP

I always felt that most of the parts Gandolfini did between Sopranos seasons were awkward and unsuccessful -- from the outside in -- pretty textbook efforts of an actor to get outside a role he was living in and stretch himself, and not quite getting it. I'm thinking of The Mexican, The Last Castle, All the King's Men. Then again, it doesn't help that all of those movies are crummy -- he's great in The Man Who Wasn't There.

But his pre- and post-Sopranos films are always a treat, and I wish there were more of them. Haven't seen any of his three big 2012 films yet, and I may line them up in a marathon.

Bryan Cranston and Michael Chiklis both stated on Twitter yesterday were it not for Tony Soprano, each of their defining television characters would never have existed. Legacy-wise, you can't get any better than that for tributes.

Further to that, if The Sopranos hadn't been such a phenomenon, our current television landscape would look completely different, and I suspect none of the great dramas of the last ten years would have existed in that form. And The Sopranos wouldn't have been the success it was without Gandolfini there to sell its antihero.

Certainly makes this Monday stormy.

Bobby Bland, great post-war blues singer, longtime BB King pal, famous for his smooth vocals punctuated by "the squawk."

Some completely classic Bland tunes everyone should know: Cry Cry Cry; Call on Me; Farther Up The Road (with a great bad-ass intro); I Pity The Fool.

There's also some good stuff when he modernized his sound in the early mid-70's. I'm quite partial to Yolanda and Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City.

Damn today can't get any worse.

Wow, I had no idea he was still around. He played a huge part in my childhood, what a talent!

Lau Kar-leung (in Chinese, haven't seen any English sources yet)

Edit: A brief English obit at Twitch