James Gandolfini, the most important actor in the most influential television series of the last decade and a half, died suddenly Wednesday, in Italy. He was only 51, and though he been a busy working actor -- in film and onstage as well as on TV -- for two decades, and had (with writer David Chase) created a character for the ages, he was also at what, especially in light of an early death, felt like the beginning of his career.
Even though he spent the years of "The Sopranos" and afterward taking parts that told the world there was more to him than a New Jersey mob boss -- that is to say, waste management consultant -- its length and depth, its cultural mass, guarantee that Tony Soprano is the role for which he'll be most remembered. Tony was more than a character, of course; he was the fulcrum of a shared experience, the instrument of a new age of television.
Even though he spent the years of "The Sopranos" and afterward taking parts that told the world there was more to him than a New Jersey mob boss -- that is to say, waste management consultant -- its length and depth, its cultural mass, guarantee that Tony Soprano is the role for which he'll be most remembered. Tony was more than a character, of course; he was the fulcrum of a shared experience, the instrument of a new age of television.