Three-time Emmy award-winner James Gandolfini was born on September 18, 1961. The Italian-American actor is known for portraying sinister, unforgettable roles on the big screen. Before his famous role in the hit HBO drama series The Sopranos, he played !$#!#grapher Eddie Poole in the move 8mm, and Virgil the mob enforcer in True Romance. His more recent screen credits include All the King’s Men alongside Sean Penn and Jude Law with director Steve Zaillian, Lonely Hearts with John Travolta and Salma Hayek; and Romance and Cigarettes with Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet.
The son of a school nutritionist and a building maintenance chief, both Italian immigrants Gandolfini grew up in Park Ridge, New Jersey. He graduated from park Ridge High School in 1979, where he played basketball and acted. He went on to get a degree in communications from Rutgers University, where he worked as a bouncer at an on-campus pub. He was introduced to the world of acting when he accompanied a friend to an acting class in New York City.
Gandolfini made his Broadway debut with the 1992 revival of A Streetcar Named Desire with Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange. This was followed by one of his more famous roles in the 1997 romantic thriller True romance as a brutal mob enforcer. He then played a two-faced insurance man in Terminal Velocity in 1997, a mob enforcer with a conscience in The Juror, and an ex-stuntman in Get Shorty. Despite the slew of mob roles, he considers himself a pacifist and in fact has reservations over these portrayals. He supports the Octoberwoman Foundation for Brest Cancer Research in his home town of Park Ridge. He married Marcy Wudarski but the two divorced in December 2002 after rearing one child. He then married former model Deborah Lin on August 2008 in her hometown of Honolulu, Hawaii.