Sad news this morning with the news that James Gandolfini has died aged 51. He’s most famous for his lead role as Tony Sopranos in The Sopranos TV series. It’s a credit to Gandolfini’s acting skills to make a gang boss who runs a crime and murder ring into a lovable and affable character we all somehow could relate too. In fact his character has been listed in Entertainment Weekly as the 42nd greatest TV Icon of all time making The Sopranos DVD Box Set a ‘forvever’ seller. Not only was his character one of the most popular TV characters of the 21st century, he also won 3 Emmy awards for his performance as Tony Soprano. To this day The Sopranos is still one of the most popular TV Series On DVD.

Jim was born in New Jersey, hence the Jersey accent, in 1961. He started his journey to fame in 1992 in On The Waterfront’s Broadway production followed the following year in the romantic thriller True Romance. His biggest box office result came in 1994 in Terminal Velocity. We then got a taste of Tony Soprano when Jim starred as a Russian mobster in Get Shorty. If you’d like to hear him with a southern American accent check out the 1996 movie The Juror.

His final work is set to be the upcoming crime drama movie Animal Rescue that’s currently in post-production. There’s no set release date as yet but given today’s news it’ll probably be fast tracked for release this year.

Today (or 19 June in USA/Europe) Jim died suddenly while on holiday in Rome reportedly from a Heart Attack. It’s always sad to hear someone go too early and age 51 is obviously way too early but for such a talented iconic actor it’s even more sad. At least his work, particularly in The Sopranos will live on forever on DVD Box Sets and TV re-runs. RIP James Gandolfini 1961-2013