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Sopranos star James Gandolfini dies suddenly at 51

Actor James Gandolfini has died suddenly at the age of 51. (AP file)

James Gandolfini, the actor famous for his role as mob boss Tony Soprano on the Groundbreaking HBO series “The Sopranos” has died in Italy at the age of 51.

Gandolfini had been expected to appear at the Taormina Film Festival on Thursday, Variety reported.

In a statement, the cable channel, and Gandolfini’s managers Mark Armstrong and Nancy Sanders, said he died Wednesday while on holiday in Rome. No cause of death was given.

“Our hearts are shattered and we will miss him deeply. He and his family were part of our family for many years and we are all grieving,” said Armstrong and Sanders.

HBO called the actor a “special man, a great talent, but more importantly a gentle and loving person who treated everyone, no matter their title or position, with equal respect.” The channel expressed sympathy for his wife and children.

Gandolfini played mob boss Tony Soprano in all 86 episodes of the groundbreaking HBO series that aired from 1999 to 2007. He won three Emmy Awards for his portrayal.

His film credits included the 2012 movie “Zero Dark Thirty,” where he portrayed CIA director Leon Panetta in Kathryn Bigelow’s critically lauded telling of efforts to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden.

He also played the mayor of New York in the 2009 remake of “The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3” and a general in that year’s “In the Loop,” a satire on the machinations behind the Iraq War. In 2006, he played political boss Tiny Duffy in the remake of “All the King’s Men,” a thinly veiled portrait of the life and times of Louisiana “Kingfish” Huey P. Long.

He shared a Broadway stage in 2009 with Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis and Marcia Gay Harden in a celebrated production of “God of Carnage,” where he earned a Tony Award nomination for best actor. He had also been in “On the Waterfront” with David Morse and was an understudy in a revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 1992 starring Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange.

Gandolfini’s performance in “The Sopranos” was indelible and career-making, but he refused to be stereotyped as the bulky mobster who was a therapy patient, family man and cold-blooded killer.

After the David Chase series concluded with its breathtaking blackout ending, Gandolfini’s varied film work also included the war film “The Last Castle” and the heartwarming drama “Welcome to the Rileys,” which costarred Kristen Stewart. He voiced the Wild Thing Carol in “Where the Wild Things Are.”

In a December 2012 interview with The Associated Press, Gandolfini said he gravitated to acting as a release, a way to get rid of anger. “I don’t know what exactly I was angry about,” he said.

“I try to avoid certain things and certain kinds of violence at this point,” he said last year. “I’m getting older, too. I don’t want to be beating people up as much. I don’t want to be beating women up and those kinds of things that much anymore.”

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