Last month in one of my
Tuesday Timeline entries, I talked about the series finale of the
sitcom “Newhart”, in which many people believe was one of the
best show endings of all time. And, it got me thinking about how
other series concluded their runs. In most cases, the show endings
ranged from satisfactory to brilliant.
On “Full House”, the
show ended after Michelle fell off a horse and lost her memory (which
granted, wasn't that big as she was like only seven or eight). But
don't worry...she got it back. “Roseanne” kind of spoofed the
Newhart “it was all a dream” ending by having the entire last
season be part of a manuscript that Roseanne was writing as a
fictional story. And, the “Dallas” finale ended on a cliffhanger
that was not resolved for at least six or seven years after the final
episode aired! How ironic that a television series that perfected
the cliffhanger would end on the mother of all cliffhangers, huh?
And, I'm also reminded of
the series finale of the television show “The Sopranos”.
Anyone who has watched
that episode knows that the series finale ended on a peculiar note.
It showed Tony Soprano, his wife Carmela, and his son AJ sitting down
and sharing a family moment as some man watches them talking. As the
man leaves to enter the restroom, the song “Don't Stop Believin'”
by Journey begins to play, and Tony's daughter, Meadow Soprano enters
the diner. Tony looks up...
...and that's where the
show ends. The screen goes dark, there's a ten-second silence with a
black screen, and then the closing credits begin to scroll.
The finale was purposely
shot so that the audience would be able to come up with their own
conclusions about what happened to the Soprano family. Maybe Tony
and his family were gunned down. Maybe Tony and his family were
blown up. Maybe Meadow was going to stab her father in the back by
literally stabbing him in the back. Or, maybe...just maybe, the
Sopranos would hold hands and sing Kumbaya to each other while they
were sitting in the diner.
(Well, okay, maybe that
last idea seemed a little too farfetched.)
The point is that the
final episode of “The Sopranos” was one that ended abruptly.
Sadly, the star of the show suffered a similar fate on June 19, 2013,
as it was on this day that a heart attack would end his life abruptly
at the age of 51.
Today, we are paying
tribute to the late James Gandolfini, who passed away on Wednesday
while vacationing with his family in Italy. He is survived by his
second wife, Deborah, his thirteen year old son, Michael, and his
eight month old daughter, Liliana.
Gandolfini's death sent
shock waves throughout Hollywood as well as the entire world. Stars
such as Edie Falco, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, John Travolta, and Brad Pitt
all expressed their heartfelt condolences within hours of his
passing, and logging onto Facebook yesterday, at least half of my
news feed was clogged with articles about his death, as well as
tribute pieces.
(The latter was what
inspired me to do my blog on the life and times of James Gandolfini.)
Now, James Gandolfini was
obviously most well known for his role as Tony Soprano, the New
Jersey mob boss who has at least seven deaths linked to him
throughout the series, who struggled to maintain his status within
the criminal mob while being the devoted husband and father that he
wanted to be. No wonder he was seeing a shrink during the whole
series! But he was more than that in his real life.
James Joseph Gandolfini
Jr. was born on September 18, 1961 in Westwood, New Jersey to a lunch
lady mother and a bricklayer father, both of whom had Italian
ancestry in their blood. James' father even served in World War II
and earned a Purple Heart for his services in the war. Because of
his parents Italian background, as well as their belief in the Roman
Catholic faith, James Gandolfini also embraced his Italian heritage,
and would visit Italy as often as he could.
It seems almost fitting
that Italy would be the place in which he would take his final
breath.
After graduating as part
of the Class of 1979 from Park Ridge High School (where his
classmates awarded him the high school superlative of “Class
Flirt”, Gandolfini earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in
communications from Rutgers University. His large frame at the time
helped him win a job as a bouncer at a campus pub, and worked as a
bartender and club manager before pursuing the career that would make
him a household name for the better part of a decade.
When Gandolfini was a
young man, he befriended a man named Roger Bart (who was most
recently in the ABC comedy-drama “Desperate Housewives”), and it
was Bart who encouraged Gandolfini to try his hand at acting by
enrolling in an acting class. It wasn't too long after that class
that Gandolfini would land his very first acting role in the 1987
film “Shock! Shock! Shock!”
(Well, okay, so his role
as “Orderly” was not a huge role where he said a whole lot...but
like every single professional out there, they all had to start at
the bottom and take whatever roles they could get, right?)
Besides, in the case of
Gandolfini, his rise to stardom was slow, but very steady. He
dabbled a little bit in Broadway when he took on a six-week role in
“On The Waterfront” in 1992, and the following year, he landed
the role of Virgil in 1993's “True Romance”. Virgil could be
best described as a “brutal, woman-beating mob enforcer”, and
James claimed that the inspiration behind personifying Virgil was a
friend of his who also happened to be a hitman.
(Suddenly, the
characterization of Tony Soprano makes a lot more sense now.)
Anyway, James Gandolfini
landed several film roles during the 1990s. He starred as Russian
mobster disguised as timid insurance salesman Ben Pinkwater in 1994's
“Terminal Velocity”, landed a key role in 1995's “Get Shorty”,
and in 1996, he once again played a mob enforcer in “The Juror”.
Now, there was a part of
me that wondered if Gandolfini ever got frustrated with being
typecast, as in almost every single role he took on, he played
someone who either lead a mob, or someone who was a huge part of a
mob. But, I think that James took it in stride. After all, he
wouldn't have accepted the role of Tony Soprano if he had felt this
way.
And, besides...it wasn't
as though he played a mob boss in every movie he starred in. He
played Lt. Bobby Doughtery in 1995's “Crimson Tide”, appeared in
the romantic-comedy “Angie” in 1994 (where unfortunately, his
character is kicked to the curb by Geena Davis), and in 2001, his
comedic role in “The Mexican” earned Gandolfini the L.A. Outfest
Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role!
But again, his most
associated role was that of Tony Soprano. I'm not sure if Gandolfini
knew that “The Sopranos” would do so well when it debuted on HBO
on January 10, 1999, but it took off in a huge way, running for
eighty-six episodes until the controversial series finale aired on
June 10, 2007.
The concept of the show
was more or less based on the life of show creator David Chase, and
believe it or not, it was originally intended to be made into a
feature film. But by the mid-1990s, while “The Sopranos” was
still in its planning stages, the decision was made instead to turn
it into a television series. And, for Chase, the challenge was to
incorporate his own experiences of growing up in an Italian-American
family in the heart of New Jersey into a mobster family. For
example, his own relationship with his mother was very similar to the
one that Tony shared with his mother, Livia (who was played by the
late Nancy Marchand). And, the character of Dr. Jennifer Melfi
(Lorraine Bracco) was based on the psychiatrist that Chase visited
during his youth.
And, I think that part of
the reason why “The Sopranos” did so well was because people
could actually relate to it in ways that nobody thought possible.
Okay, so maybe most of us haven't actually committed any crimes, or
have shot a dozen people and secretly buried their bodies where
nobody could find them. But, I am sure that most of us have had to
deal with having overbearing parents who simply don't know how to let
their children go. I'm sure quite a few of us have had to deal with
the troubles of teenagers during their rebellious periods. In some
cases, people have had affairs behind their spouses backs (just as
Tony had done during his marriage to Carmela). And, yes, some people
have gone to seek out advice from psychiatrists in order to decide
what steps they need to take to move ahead in life.
The end result was a show
that became the most financially successful cable television show to
air, perhaps of all time. Many people today consider the show to be
the best television series ever created. The show has earned a total
of twenty-one Emmy Awards (of which Gandolfini won the award for
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series three times in 2000, 2001,
and 2003), and several pieces of merchandise were released alongside
the DVD collection sets, including books, a video game, and several
successful soundtrack albums.
And, in 2013, the Writer's
Guild of America declared the show to be one of the best-written
television series of all time! What an honour!
Now, truth be told, I
didn't really get into The Sopranos until the show's fourth season.
And, even then, I was sort of a casual viewer at best. But, you know
what, I have to give props to every single cast and crew member who
worked on that series, as they made a show that was not only
believable, but filled with heart and soul. And, I do believe that
as the main character of the series, Gandolfini was literally the
glue that held everything together, as his performance was nothing
short of near perfection.
And, even after the series
wrapped up in 2007, Gandolfini continued to work hard. He served as
producer for two documentaries (“Alive Day: Home from Iraq and
Wartorn: 1861-2010), and he continued to act in a variety of films
such as “The Taking of Pelham 123”, “Where The Wild Things
Are”, and “Zero Dark Thirty”. And, his work continued to be
highly praised (well, save for the 2004 bomb “Surviving Christmas”)
and he continued to be rewarded and honoured for his great work.
And, that was why he and
his family were on vacation in Italy in June 2013. He and his family
were to do some sightseeing in Rome before heading down to Sicily to
receive an award at the Taormina Film Fest on June 22, 2013. Sadly,
he would not make it to Sicily, as he died of a massive heart attack
the evening of June 19.
May he rest in peace.
James
Gandolfini
1961-2013
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